It would be a little strange if my parents hadn’t enjoyed music as much as they did in their youth. They came of age in the ‘60s and were as marketed to as possible in their teen years. My mom prefers The BEATLES, my dad, The STONES. Without Mick and Keith’s influence, I may not even exist—the first time my dad spoke to my mom was when he walked up to her at the jukebox at a bar in Lawrence, Kansas, and said “Play The STONES.” The woman who would later become my mother told her friends that night that she met the man she was going to marry.
Appropriately, then, when I, the youngest of three siblings, came along, my mom had Chicago’s V103 on the car radio nonstop. The “Oldies & Dusties” formed my initial understandings of what music could mean. I wasn’t even five years old, but being in the car with Mom or Dad when that station was on had a deep impact on me. My favorite song of all time is “My Girl” by The TEMPTATIONS, likely as a result of those trips. A very close second is the a-side of this BILLY STEWART single. It is a perfect song.
Of course, as a kid, I had no idea who BILLY STEWART was, or that he had died in an awful car accident in 1970. I just knew I loved the song where the vocal went “sitting in the park / waiting for you” and “But nevertheless, I said / you got me waiting.” All these years later and I still love hearing the way he delivers nevertheless in that line. Its four syllables blend right into I said and that string of sounds delights.
The lyrics caught my attention for their sounds as much as their meaning. Nothing much happens in the song. He’s sitting in the park, he’s waiting, and then he’s gotta go. Yet, Stewart’s vocals make this three-act play sound like the most important series of events that have ever happened to anyone. I hang on to every word, especially the three-part rhyme of bench and fence and sense. Part of what makes the song so accessible and so memorable is that it is made of such everyday terms as these. As much as I appreciate lyrical imagery or clever phrasings, I see the value of simplicity as well. The instruments are uncluttered and give his vocals room to glow. The refrain of “sha-la-la-la” in the background throughout the verses and choruses occupies a space between the instruments and the vocals that helps to structure the song. It’s within the verse, after the chorus, and ends the bridge. Through it all, the focus on the all-to-human need to wait, to be patient, remains. This song will be there for you even if Billy’s girl won’t.
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