Robin Luke: "Susie Darlin'"

September 15, 1958 (2 weeks)

Well, what can be said about this number one hit from September of 1958? I have a few thoughts but they don't really come together in a unified review so I figured I'd jot them all down in point form this time.

— I've twice been to Hawaii. More precisely, my wife and I went to Oahu at the start of 2019 and we returned just over a year ago as a creative stopover on the way back to Canada. We loved everything about it except for how prohibitively expensive everything is. I heard an awful lot of ukuleles when I was there. Not, mind you, being played by buskers on shabby Honolulu streets but in well-appointed shopping centres. As you might expect, they've turned the instrument into a sanitized part of the local culture. I like that they are keen to build up the legacy of Israel "Bruddah Iz" Kamakawiwo'ole but not so much when it comes to sanitizing traditional Hawaiian culture. In any case, it would be kind of nice to hear "Susie Darlin'" when I'm visiting Oahu as well. Robin Luke is no Bruddah Iz but I'll take him over bloody Don Ho any day.

— So, I'm beginning to think that many of the things music enthusiasts say about The Beatles are bullshit. Actually, I've long suspected this. They didn't invent the pop video, the double album nor the concept of a rock group. Plus, they didn't really invent the concept of writing your own songs either. (If anything, they and Bob Dylan pioneered the idea that one must compose the bulk of their material) You've got to think that writing songs just comes naturally to many young musicians, especially those growing up in a time when the amount of music made available to them was in limited supply. It's easy to imagine a teenager like Robin Luke owning half-a-dozen scratchy 45's while his pals at school have similar sized collections. You've only got so many songs to listen to so you might as well create some of your own.

— I really must stop bringing up The Beatles so much on here. I'll be blogging about many of their own Canadian number ones and I really ought to save the majority of my observations on them for when we get to 1964 and beyond. I don't see myself cutting them out completely but I could do with trimming the Fab Four references down somewhat.

— If you're going to be a one-hit wonder you might as well make it count. (Wait, by definition that's what a one-hit wonder is, right?) Okay, not much of an observation. Let's see...All right, I've got something. It must be nice to come from an era in which a recording artist has just one hit single and they're not dunked on for the rest their life for it. Since Americans have to make everything about themselves, they seem to delight in giggling over the likes of Dexys Midnight Runners and Soft Cell and Madness and Thomas Dolby for "only" having one giant hit. This ignores the fact that they had several successful singles in the UK or elsewhere. Not as much seems to be said about Americans who only managed a single hit. For what it's worth, Robin Luke has claimed that he never dreamed of having a professional singing career. He would go on to become an academic. Respect to him for the life he has had in and out of music. Also, stop crapping on one-hit wonders!

— A lot of the recent Canadian number ones covered here have been songs that have grown on me but "Susie Darlin'" isn't one of them. I'm not quite sick of it but I've heard it enough, thank you very much. Catchy and cute it certainly is but it doesn't go anywhere. Hey, as I would also say about the teen songwriter Sharon Sheeley, his work may have been trite but I couldn't have written anything close to as good as "Susie Darlin'" or any of his far less successful follow-ups (and songwriting was my strong suit when I was in a hopeless junior high group). It isn't anything all that special but it certainly holds up next to your typical lousy high school poem about the "mind's eye". Is that the best that I can say for it? I'm afraid so.

Score: 4