A landmark of sorts – the first song on the list that I own, on 7″ vinyl, the first song that I know as an object. When I was going through a bad patch several years ago I would put it on before going to sleep at night; it was my own lullaby. Listening to it now it still makes me feel that things are going to be, not great necessarily, but alright, especially when the choir slip quietly in – “there’s such a lot of world to see”.
I got very excited when I heard Morrissey had done a version of it – one of my favourite singers, a song I loved, what could go wrong? Quite a lot. After hearing it I formulated a ‘test’ for singers tackling the tune – if they let the word “huckleberry” beat them, they weren’t up to it. Some people – Morrissey among them – try and replace it, or ignore it, or mumble it. Others just get it over with, making a kind of pledge to the listener that they won’t worry what it means if you won’t. Danny Williams, though, caresses it. He knows that it’s the key to the thing – one perfect word that, even if you don’t know what it means, can sum up everything in the song, all the friendship, the hope, the gentleness, comfort and love, if you only sing it right. So he does.
Score: 9
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