"Met my friends down at the pub, for a beer,
Got real drunk and began to cry, shed a tear,
Missing you from all the silhouettes we made
While we were getting laid..."
Maybe it's for the best that songwriters Bob Crewe and Frank Slay cut this proposed opening stanza from their hit single "Silhouettes". Or it would be if it hadn't been so obviously made up on the spot by a humble blogger nearly seventy years after it was composed. For a lyric with a giant red flag, I thought a bit of context to this creepy tale of jealousy, stalking, voyeurism and miraculous reconciliation was in order. Though the song doesn't say so, there's no way the guy in this story didn't wander the streets that night completely shit-faced, right?
Like a lot of men from my generation, I always thought that I was above petty jealousy. And to an extent, I am. Toxic masculine bullshit that justifies cheating on a spouse while going ballistic if they do likewise is something that I have no patience for. You don't want someone fooling around then don't do it yourself! (Amazing that something like this even needs stating) Yet, when I was a lot younger I could get jealous. I was so lacking in self-confidence that I expected the girls I was interested in were wishing they could be with others. It would eat away at me. But then I grew out of it. Becoming an adult isn't without its benefits.
It would be easy to dismiss "Silhouettes" as irredeemable crap but for the fact that it's a pretty good record, one that would result in a handful of notable cover versions (see below for one that even attempted to compete with The Rays' original). Weirdly, a cutesy bubblegum pop group would have a big hit with it a decade later (which we'll get to in due course) and ultra-Christian Cliff Richard would record a live rendition which would go Top 10 in his native UK in 1990. A chilled R&B group, a milquetoast Canadian doo-wop combo, a teen pin-up and a Bible thumper: not exactly the people I would've expected to embody toxic masculinity. A key to The Rays is that they treat the material with just enough sensitivity to pull it off. It's up to us as listeners to decide if the narrator of this song is a paranoid loser, we don't need The Rays to do it for us.
Which brings us to John Lennon, who was a compulsive cheater, admitted to hitting women and would write a pretty notorious song called "Run for Your Life" which he would eventually repudiate. Lennon acknowledged that "No Reply", the opening song on The Beatles fourth album Beatles for Sale, had been inspired by The Rays' "Silhouettes". The tunes aren't all that similar but the thematic approach of stalking and confronting the young women in question certainly was. "No Reply" has its merits but it sadly lacks the comedic payoff of its predecessor which is something you wouldn't normally expect from the witty Lennon.
With several covers and at least one song of note inspired by it, there's a question that arises: just what did they all see in it? Well, in addition to The Rays' very sturdy performance, it can't be avoided that it puts a happy face on being a creepy stalker. See? It was all a misunderstanding! I got the wrong house! It's all good! I was convinced those silhouettes on the shade were you and some other guy. But the people I confronted were good sports about it and you should be too! It'll never happen again! So problematic even if the simple act of listening to it isn't.
Till we meet again, "Silhouettes". I just hope that the next group to take you to number one is able to be as tasteful as The Rays.
Score: 7
~~~~~
Con Can
The Canadian Content feature has been on delay due to there being very little on the CHUM charts to choose from but I thought I devote this post to a cover by Toronto's The Diamonds. According to Wikipedia, segregation caused a demand for a white doo-wop group to act like great big creeps, though not enough of one to give them much of a hit to piggyback on The Rays. Though it did get some radio play Stateside, few in Canada cared. I'd be proud of my compatriots embracing a group of African-Americans rather than a homegrown act and their rather bland cover but Canadians weren't always so progressive in their music tastes. As we'll see when we get to the sixties, they didn't seem quite as keen on Motown as listeners down south. I hope at least that the people of Windsor were open to it: Detroit was just across the river after-all.
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