A peculiar thing has been happening over the past few days in the lead up to writing this review: I keep getting the words wrong. Correction: I keep getting the title wrong. "Never My Love" just doesn't quite hit right and I find myself resorting to "Forever My Love" instead. An easy mistake to make.
So apparently "Forever Never My Love" was the second most played song on American radio and TV in the United States over the entire twentieth century. The people at Broadcast Music, Inc (BMI) must have some idea what they're doing but I can't help myself: I call bullshit. I realize it has been covered a lot (it was also Top 10 hit on Canada's RPM hit parade for both The 5th Dimension and Blue Swede) and you can always count on the masses to fall for the slushiest of ballads but it seems too hard to believe that every song but The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" registered fewer plays over the radio (and TV). The Beatles' "Yesterday" came in third in this 1999 survey. What about The Stones' "Satisfaction"? Elton John's "Your Song"? Carole King's "It's Too Late"? What about hits by Elvis, the Bee Gees, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross? Or Frank Sinatra or Bing Crosby, who both had the advantage of coming along during the thirties and forties? They — and, indeed, many, many other hits of note — couldn't match this???
That's not to say I hate it. If anything though, my indifference towards it only makes me even more baffled as to how it managed to get played so often. Granted, radio has been there to provide people with music to tune out just as much they might tune in. I've been to the dentist several times in my life so of course there's a place for "Forev...Never My Love" to be piped in. I just never thought it would have been such a staple of youngsters waiting with marshmallow-flavoured floride in their mouthpieces.
While "Windy" had been a pleasant surprise, "Forever My Love" (I'm just going to go with it at this point) is a return to the schlock of "Cherish". Not exactly dreadful but not something to seek out either. The sort of thing that DJs from all over North America could play at an apparently alarming rate but which was scarcely noticed by listeners. (Perhaps it being the second most played song of the last century isn't as crazy as it seems, it's just that hardly anyone was paying attention to it). Not me though: I've had its melody stuck in my head over the past three days even as I still can't get the title right.
Score: 4
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