With the help of a sax as cheeky as himself, Tillotson gives a trifling song the big sell, and I buy it. How does it work? The teasy intro and chipper tune; Tillotson’s piping voice and the way he sings “mo-shun!”; the way he balances a little lust with a lot of real fondness and an aw-shucks glee at the female form.
Score: 6
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RIP John Michael Osbourne, aged 76.
There's a 2005 VW campervan on my street with Lyla written on the side. 60s nostalgia made unfussy and functional…
Yeah but. It was of it’s time, we loved it at the time, and perhaps most key of all, they’ve…
I am appalled to admit that the G4 cover was the first time 11 year old me had heard a…
Strange how "landmark" events are so often a disappointment. Don't forget the 500th No.1 - "A little peace" by Nicole…
Thankfully one of the quite-a-few records of 20+ years ago that I have yet to hear on any of the…
I thought I'd posted, previously, one thought. Seems not, so.. even though it's a bit late. This song seems to…
I doubt Noel was stockpiling the "best" songs for his solo career, the last two albums had a record low…
This makes me think of ‘Back To The Future’, as it’s the kind of thing that would be performed by the loser band before Marty turns up and invents Chuck Berry. Awful.
A “tease” in 1961… a ho-hum today….good for a nostalgic moral benchmark.
In reference to the version of the song on youTube at http://youtube.com/watch?v=PPM5khluZWE – I like the sax and I also feel that the piano keys in the background (don’t know what that kind of piano work in the background is called) which I think does a lot for the song.
It reminds me of Robert Herrick!
Next, when I cast mine eyes and see
That brave vibration each way free
O how that glittering taketh me!
Light Entertainment watch: Just one UK TV performance listed for Johnny, and it doesn’t survive;
THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS: with Brian Matthew, Johnny Tillotson, Freddy Cannon, The Karl Denver Trio, The Eric Delaney Band, The Mudlarks, Don Charles, Julie Grant, Keith Fordyce (1962)
DESERT ISLAND DISCS WATCH:
Bevis Hillier, Historian, writer (1975).
I like this a lot. Yeah it’s a bit aww-shucks (“she’s much too nice to rearrange” indeed) but appropriately its got a lot of forward momentum. Cute little piece of early 60s teen pop.
I gave this 6 on the recent poll – the various instruments clip along very economically allowing the vocals to stretch and contract over the top. The background vocalist sounds like a theremin at one point or like the shrill keyboard on ‘Runaway’, a precursor of Brian Wilson’s instrumental dynamics on ‘Good Vibrations’.
Just barely works for me. Been a while since I heard it, but I recall thinking that it sounds like he’s grinning like a fool with every line.
I would agree with Tom’s 6/10 here.
I don’t know if anybody is still reading these comments as Popular seems to be moribund if not quite dead, but Poetry came to a standstill on 1 April 2025 when we lost Johnny Tillotson. One of the first I can actually remember being Number One.
Since this is almost certainly my final contribution to Popular, I would also like to note in passing the death of Clodagh Rodgers, whose best chart effort was admittedly only #4 with her 1970 Eurovision song Jack in the Box. If there is an afterlife Clodagh will no doubt have been warmly greeted by the late and much-missed John Somers, aka Waldo, aka Jimmy the Swede, one-time prolific commenter here, whose “Clodagh Rodgers Moments” were the stuff of Popular legend.
As someone who only just figured out that you were the same Rosie, and responded over on the “Snap! The Power” entry, that would be a shame.
I’m still reading these comments, Rosie, and it’d be a shame if – as you suggest – you’re leaving us for good. Hope everything is ok with you, Will