"Is your name Larry?"
I was startled by this and did a double take.
"Larry???" I gasped back. My response, in turn, took her aback. "I'm sorry do I look like I'm over fifty years old to you?" (You'd be forgiven for making such an assumption now but this happened at least twenty years ago)
She didn't seem to know what to say but given that I was doing her a favour she didn't yell at me or anything. I handed the ticket over to her, she thanked me and we each went our separate ways but I never forgot this encounter. How on earth could she have confused me for a Larry?
~~~~~
At some point or other, Larry became a funny name. Since I can't think of any other reason perhaps it was down to the number of knucklehead characters with that name on sitcoms back in the eighties. There was Jack Tripper's goofball, playboy neighbour Larry Dallas on Three's Company, Cousin Larry on Perfect Stangers and local simpleton Larry ("This is my brother Darryl and this is my other brother Darryl") on Newhart. Need a total schmuck for your TV show or movie? Larry's your man!
(The comedic potential of 'Larry' recently came to mind when I watched an episode of Todd in the Shadows' excellent One Hit Wonderland series on YouTube. Discussing the Butthole Surfers, he mentions their 1996 album Electric Larryland and comments on what a funny name it is. While a it is a good title, it remains only the second best pun on Jimi Hendrix's famous 1968 release Electric Ladyland since nothing could possibly top Kirsty MacColl's Electric Landlady. Not to belabour this parenthetical paragraph but I dare someone to come up with a third punning title. For example, a Swedish group could name their next album Electric Lappland; not great, I know, but I'm just spitballing here)
I doubt there was much the same connotation with the name Larry back in the sixties, which is a shame since it actually plays well into the plot of Del Shannon's "Hats Off to Larry": if a total doofus like old Lare can toy with a girl's heart then maybe there's hope for all guys out there too! Del — speaking of men's names that have completely fallen out of use — Shannon found his inspiration from a most unlikely source.
So, the title is funny but what about the actual song? I've seen comments on YouTube channels claiming it's little more than a blatant re-write of "Runaway" but I think that's mainly down to the use of Max Crook's Musitron on both. The compositions themselves aren't that much alike. That said, there's no question which of the two is stronger. While its predecessor seems to reveal more and more of itself with each subsequent listen, "Hats Off to Larry" does not have nearly the same sort of depth to it. You could listen to it a hundred times and come away with the same unmoved enjoyment. On the other hand, I must be a sucker for Shannon's voice and that damn Musitron since I'm still not sick of what is ultimately a pretty routine number.
Sadly, Del Shannon will not be coming up again in this blog. While he would go on to record a number of exceptional records over the course of the sixties and beyond, the hits began to dry up as the British Invasion neared. (As if embracing the winds of change, he even recorded a cover of The Beatles' "From Me to You" which isn't one of his better moments but it isn't anything to be ashamed of either) Perhaps he was just too ahead of the game to make a lasting impression. His early experiments with the Musitron even anticipate the musical adventurism which dominated five years after his great period. Plus, Shannon had humour that was missing in the work of many of his contemporaries. Little did he know how funny the name Larry would eventually become.
Score: 7
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