“Stupid Cupid” on the other hand deploys its gimmicks with confidence and humour. That –tzoinng!– guitar sound; the sassy handclaps; the cute voicebreaks – but these things wouldn’t work if the song itself wasn’t so fun. “Stupid Cupid” is a song I recognise at once as my pop, modern pop – self-aware, as sexy as it can get away with, built on the most up-to-date chassis in the shop, immediately adorable. The song stops after a couple of seconds for Connie to sashay in: it’s a great, calculated moment and also a fine example of how ably pop producers were exploiting the sound and excitement of rock and roll, adding craft and money to play little symphonies on its audience’s hormones and hopes.
(The lead track, “Carolina Moon”, is less arresting but awfully dreamy, a country lullaby which lets Francis shimmy and swoon up and down her vocal range as she wonders if a boy’s wondering too.)
Score: 7
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This is one of my favorite 50s singles, and so overplayed in my mp3 library that it’s hard for me to remember a time when I didn’t know all its moves by heart. The hiccuping squeal on the chorus and the twanging bow would each be enough of a hook for the period, but this has them both, the intro, and the really endearing dudes going “stupid cupid!” in the background. They don’t seem to share Connie’s personal investment in the situation, but they’re not above it either…it’s a relationship between caller and responder imported directly from rock and roll, which I think epitomizes where this record stands in history. As you say, adding craft and money…
Stupid Cupid was written, or possibly co-written, by Neil Sedaka, a man who is shamefully unrepresented otherwise in Popular. This is a great pity.
DESERT ISLAND DISC WATCH:
Derek Randall, Cricketer (1977). FOR CAROLINE MOON.
Yet again, I would concur with Tom’s 7/10 for Stupid Cupid.