July 5, 2023 (Song #2013): “Are You Happy Now” (1992) by Richard Shindell.  LYRICS & CHORDS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY  T-29 brings us to the year 1994. After we left Alta, we went on a final visit to Moab to say a teary goodbye to Cassie, Marcus, Sam and Wilson, then took the southern route back to Connecticut, which included a visit to Lubbock, Texas to see Peter’s cousin (and buy cowboy boots that I still have), a stop in Oklahoma to see my mom’s good friend Nancy Margiotta, a visit to Memphis, a stop in Alpharetta, Georgia to see Lisa & Chris Strausser and then, finally, back to Westport. Richard Shindell’s “Sparrow’s Point” album was one of the new cassettes we’d bought to replenish our ravaged collection and included another one of our favorite songs: “Kenworth Of My Dreams” in addition to today’s SOTD, which still gives me brain joy.

We lived at Sherman’s Way for a while, then moved to the first floor of a house on Strawberry Hill Ave in Norwalk.  Somehow I got a job at “Green Linnet Records” in Danbury (it may have had something to do with our family friends, the Margolises, being cousins with the owner, Wendy Newton?), but then I was offered a job in New Product Development at Columbia House Record Club (remember: 10 CDs for a penny?) in New York City.

Every day, during staff meetings and lunches and fire drills, one of my colleagues, a recent NYU grad named Chris Wilcha would carry a camera and videotape us.  Sometimes he’d ask us to act out scenes: “When I come into your office, will you ask me to return my keys to you as if I’ve gotten fired?”.  I laughed and said “sure”.  I thought Chris was sweet and quirky; I didn’t think twice about what he was doing.

Ten years after I left Columbia House, Peter read that Chris Wilcha had made a documentary called “The Target Shoots First” (click here to read a review) and it was premiering at a theater in New York City; “You should go!” he said. And so I did.  

Since I’d never heard from Chris about rights or permissions, I assumed I wasn’t in the movie. But then, in the restroom before the premiere, a woman pointed to me and said: “You’re in the movie!”; I said, “I can’t be!”, she said “Were you pregnant at the time?” I said: “Yes”.  She said “Oh, you’re in it, alright. And you’ve got a big part!”  I watched the movie with a pit in my throat.

Sure enough, there I was on the big screen.  There was me working in the office, asking Chris to give me his keys and me standing in a staircase during an emergency drill and, most discomfiting, there was an ultrasound image of our daughter Rose with my name and birthday right up there on the screen (hello, privacy issues).  Even weirder, the “me” in Chris’ narrative was not the “me” in real life; Chris only used my image to illustrate a story about one of his bosses who’d gone on maternity leave. It was so discombobulating and weirdly insulting; I thought Chris and I had been friends, but he had just disregarded the real me altogether.

Watching the end credits rolling with all of my work friends’ names, I felt the heat rise in my body; I was angry and embarrassed; he had gone to the effort to ask our colleagues for permission, but not me.  

When I came out of the theater, I saw Chris chatting with fans, friends and family, but I couldn’t get his attention. What was I going to say anyway? The story of his pregnant boss was only a small part of the whole movie; he could take every image of me out and it wouldn’t change the premise. So, maybe it wasn’t that big of a deal, but 20 years later, it still hurts a little bit; I hope Chris is happy, though, and wish him the best. 

July 3, 2023 (Song #2011): “How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You” by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland and sung by James Taylor.  T-31* brings me to 1992 and the year Peter and I got married. As I wrote yesterday:  Peter and I heard James Taylor’s version of this song in a grocery store on the Upper West Side and realized that it was perfect song for our first dance. 

If you got all the way to the P.S. yesterday, then you understand when I say that yesterday’s post wiped me out, so, today, let me just say: I’m forever grateful to James Taylor for his beautiful voice, intricate guitar playing, awe-inspiring songwriting and his fun, entertaining live shows – of which I’ve seen at least 20.  I am a humongous fan. THANK YOU, JAMES TAYLOR. I could have posted 60 songs of just James Taylor leading up to my 60th birthday and that wouldn’t have been enough days to cover all the happiness his music has brought to me.

Happy birthday to Amybeth Cohen & Elizabeth Repa Shea. xoxo  LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

July 4, 2023 (Song #2012):  “Top of The Rollercoaster” by David Wilcox. No Lyric Video, today; just listen a bunch of times and you’ll catch on, especially if you click here to read the lyrics: LYRICS  APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY T-30* brings me to 1993 when Peter and I took off on a year-long honeymoon, traveling for two months** before ending up in Alta to work at the Alta Lodge for the 1992-93 Ski Season. This song (and the whole album) was a joyful staple for us, until we were robbed in Albuquerque; our car was broken into and the thieves took all of our carefully-curated cassettes, our camera and candy; they only stole things that started with the letter “c”, which is why they left our guitars, lucky us. 

**OUR TRIP: Gedney Farm to Nantucket (4 days on Children’s Beach) back to Westport (to hug Ruthie & Larry goodbye) to Albany (to hug Richard & Vera goodbye) to Gambier, Ohio (to see Kenyon and  Julie Owen) to the Upper Peninsula, Michigan (for ice cream), to Sturgeon Bay in Door County, Wisconsin (to see Sears Carpenter and his family on their farm), to Blue Mound State Park in Minnesota, to Badlands in South Dakota (where we found a mail drop to send a care package with clean socks for Caroline, Alex, Russell and Bones on their cross-country bike trip) to Bozeman, Montana to Glacier National Park (where we did a gruelling 18-mile hike without enough water, but plenty of singing to keep the bears away) to Whitefish to Calispell to Calgary (where we ate peaches as big as our heads), to Hotel Lake Louise in Banff (where the “honeymoon” suite looked onto the parking lot), to Jasper Park Lodge (where I got the white hotel slippers that I still wear today), to  Muncho Lake in British Columbia (so many bugs!), to Haines, Alaska (via an 11-hour drive), to the ferry that took us to Prince Rupert (sleeping on the deck and brushing our teeth with 100 other travellers), to Vancouver Island in Victoria to Seattle to Portland to Weed, California (to see my dad’s cousin Karen and her husband and her mom, my Aunt Sally and their goats) to San Francisco (to see Lee, Lori, Amy, Uncle Donny, Aunt Maggie and other friends) to Big Sur to San Simeon (where we slept on the side of the road and woke up to noxious smells coming from the seals surrounding our car; seals are smelly mammals, folks) to Los Angeles (to see Melissa & Adam and Cindy and Auntie Dee & Uncle Sam and Peter’s aunts & uncles & cousins), then to Albuquerque, (where our car was broken into) to Las Vegas, New Mexico (where we stayed and hiked and rode horses with Lauren Addario and her husband and sisters, Lisa, Lesley & Lynsey and her mom Camille and MY mom, Ruthie, who was also visiting – while the car door was fixed) then to Moab and finally, to Alta for the 1992-93 ski season (Peter worked at the front desk and skied for 100 days and I worked upstairs in reservations with Mimi Muray).

Like everyone’s lives, our trip and our first year together had many ups & downs, but I wouldn’t change anything – not the bugs on Muncho Lake, not the 18-mile hike without enough water, not the robbery in Albuquerque, not the quarrels and sad days (my papa died in November of that year).  It was (and has continued to be) a sturdy, surprising, stimulating, safe, sweet rollercoaster and a beautiful ride (#callback).

July 2, 2023 (Song #2010): “You Are The New Day” written by John David, arranged by Peter Knight and sung by The King’s Singers. LYRICS & SONGFACTS  APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY 

Happy Birthday to Tyra Fullam & Amy Granoff! xoxo

Here is a video of a portion** of the song
sung by Rich Pickett, Alan Strick, Bob Connelly, Greg White, Bob Austrian, Eric Seidman and Alex Sherman at our wedding at Gedney Farm.

**The videographer missed the beginning, but the middle and end are beautiful. Special thanks to Greg & Alan (whom we miss so much) for learning the song especially for us (Rich, Bob, Boz, Eric & Alex all sang it in the Colgate 13, which is where I first heard and fell in love with it.)

TMI-32* brings me to 1991, the year that Peter and I finally started dating.  I’d played this song for many first dates:  the date’s reaction to this song was the gateway to a 2nd date. Peter liked it.

“How did Peter and you meet?,” I hear you asking…

Feel free to skip today’s entry if you are not a blood relative; no one needs to read all of this except for, maybe, our future-grandchildren (no pressure, kids).

Our mutual friend, Steve Ochs, had been trying to get Peter and I to date for a while.  I knew Steve from Colgate (he was my first college boyfriend’s roommate) and Peter was Steve’s high school friend’s roommate at Kenyon; Steve and Peter were roommates on Sullivan Street.

The first time I saw Peter, I was sitting in his Sullivan Street kitchen with Steve.  Peter walked in the kitchen with his dark, curly hair, strong and sweet looking, with a cool black suede jacket and jeans (sort of a cross between Mark Ruffalo and Paul Rudd) and I thought: “That’s exactly my kind of guy,” but then, right behind him, came his girlfriend and she sort of looked like me: short, curly dark hair, pale skin (y’know, that Irish – Jewish look);  I thought: “Bummer, he’s already met a me”. 

Peter and I then met several more times, always with Steve, but one of us was always dating someone else:

• We hung out at a Columbia-Colgate football game in the fall of 1986 and even have a photograph of us sitting next to one another but looking in opposite directions. 
• We met at “The Hunt” horse race in New Jersey (I was with Jeanie, Ann & Donald and Peter was with Steve, Jeff and Joe.  
• Steve and I went to hear Peter’s band play (maybe at CBGB-OMFUG?)
• We all went dancing at the Limelight after watching Jeanie in a very sad play which Peter dubbed “The Exotic Adventures of Pinocchio” (actually “The Return of Pinocchio” starring Rob Morrow).  
• After I started working at GRP, we met for lunch to discuss the music business and Peter drew a map of Kenyon on a napkin.  I later sent the napkin back to him with some GRP CDs.  He said: “I didn’t think you liked me because you returned the napkin.” I said, “Of course, I liked you…I kept the napkin in the first place!”  

Finally, in the spring of 1991, Peter and I were both single at the same time. Steve called us both and said “Now! You’re both single! Go!”
“Is he Jewish?”, I asked, “I just think it will be easier if I marry someone Jewish; we’ll have one less thing to work out”. 
“YES!,” Steve said, “he’s more Jewish than you are!” 
“What does that mean??”, I was weirdly insulted by that. “Yeesh.”
Then I asked: “Is he a nice guy? I just want a nice guy.” 
Steve sighed: “Peter Propp has the biggest heart of anyone I know.”
“Oh.” I said.  
That seemed as good an endorsement as any, but, then, I said, childishly, “Well, if he wants to call me, he can.”
Steve huffed (rightfully so) but, fortunately, he was willing and able to persuade Peter to call me.
Our first date, we went to see The Doors movie and then to a restaurant near our upper west side apartments called “Positively 104” (named after the Bob Dylan song “Positively 4th Street”, a fact I didn’t know but Peter – a music history buff – did).  
At the end of the night, we kissed under the scaffolding of my apartment building (275 West 96th St where I lived with my roommates Mark Goodman – son of George, host of “Adam Smith’s Money World” – and Andrew Stuart – son of Mel Stuart, the producer of “Charlie & The Chocolate Factory” ; I was star-struck by my roommates).
I said: “What are you doing tomorrow night?”
He said, surprised: “Oh…I’m having dinner with my friends Lauren Chattman & Jack Bishop and they’re amazing cooks.  Would you like to come?”
I said: “Oh, no! I have a study group tomorrow night” (I was in my first year at Columbia Business School)
He said: “How about the next night?”
I said: “I can’t… I have blah-blah-blah” (I don’t remember EVERYthing, people.)
He tried again: “How about the next night?”
I said, hands to face: “Oh, gosh, “I can’t do it the next night!”
He said: “Then why’d you ask me???”
I said, bereft: “I don’t know!” 
I was clearly smitten and desperate to see him again, but I was not going to blurt that out.
The next night, he did go to dinner at Lauren and Jack’s, but then came over and we listened to all of Joni Mitchell’s Blue album in my tiny bedroom.

Our next date was on May 1st and we met for dinner. I raised my glass and said: “Here’s to May!” Peter paused and said: “Okay…here’s to you!” I should have known then and there that I’d fallen in love with a chacham (Yiddish for “wise guy”).

Another date, we went to visit his friends Jill & Michael.  Jill’s parents Lisa & Tom were one of Peter’s parent’s Vera & Richard’s closest friends.  The whole night, I was chatting away with my typical hyper energy and Peter kept whispering “chill” as he sat next to me on the couch.  When we left and got into the elevator, I turned to him and said: “If you ever tell me to chill out in public again, that’s it. We’re done.”  He paused and looked at me and said: “Jill.  Her name is Jill.”  I’d been calling Jill her mother’s name –  “Lisa” – all night.  Cue Suzanne, head in hands, falling to the floor in the corner of the elevator in utter shame and embarrassment.

When Peter first came to Sherman’s Way, my father and he were in the basement and, for some reason, were folding up cardboard boxes.  Peter quickly and efficiently folded a box and my dad said, admiringly: “Wow!  That was great! You can marry my daughter!” I was mortified; my dad’s criteria for his future son-in-law was efficient box folding??

About a month into our courtship, while on a business trip to Florida on which Peter invited me to join him (he was working for Hill & Knowlton on the Florida Department of Citrus account), chef Pierre Franey took us out to dinner and, after chatting with us for a while, said, with his charmingly thick French accent: “How come you two aren’t married??”  We couldn’t look at each other for the rest of the dinner, but, that night, on a midnight swim in the ocean, we said: “Should we discuss what Pierre Franey just said to us??”

At the end of the summer of 1991, we moved in together to a gorgeous walk-up, also on West 96th, but closer to Amsterdam (thanks to Peter’s roommate Giovanni Soro for helping us look for a new place). Peter proposed on November 4th, 1991 at “One If By Land, Two If By Sea” and we were married on June 27, 1992.  I’m still so grateful to Steve; we showed our gratitude for his stick-to-it-iveness and foresight by asking him to be the best man at our wedding. 🙂 

P.S. Our first dance was “How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You” by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland; we heard James Taylor’s version in a grocery store on the upper west side and realized that it was perfect.

June 28, 2023 (Song #2006): “I’m Lucky” by Joan Armatrading (1981).  No lyric video today; instead click on “more” below the video to see the lyrics and sing along. T-36* brings me to the 1986-1987 year and a summer visit to Moab, Utah, where Cassie & Marcus & I went hiking and I couldn’t stop singing this song; it’s definitely my theme song. 

Very soon after coming home from Utah, I tried to get a job at Columbia Records, but, since I couldn’t type, I never made it past the introductory interview (but thanks to Colgate graduate Paul MacCowatt, Tom’s dad, for trying to help me out).  Soon thereafter, I went to a music business head-hunter (she was a blonde version of Susie Meyerson on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” complete with cigarettes and pigeons on the windowsill); she asked me if I would take a job as a receptionist at a jazz label in Hell’s Kitchen.  I said yes and went outside to call my parents from a payphone to tell them that, if I didn’t come home, they might find me somewhere around 11th ave and 57th street.  When I got to the interview at GRP Records (555 West 57th Street), Mark Wexler gave me a cassette of Dave Grusin’s album with “Mountain Dance” on it; my heart practically stopped on the Metro North train back to Westport when I heard the song: Curtis Beller, one of the kitchen guys at the Alta Lodge, had used it as the background in his end-of-the-year Emp slideshow.  I took it as a sign and took the job; it was an amazing experience. Lucky, indeed.  LYRICS INTERVIEW WITH JOAN ARMATRADING APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

June 27, 2023 (Song #2005): “Cracking” (1985) by Suzanne Vega.  T-37* brings me to 1986 when I lived in Alta, Utah for almost a full year (August-May).  I became obsessed with this record and, in between working at the front desk of the Alta Lodge, driving downtown to purchase and arrange the flowers for the dining room, playing guitar and singing in the Sitzmark, hanging out with my roommate Julie and friends Cassie & Marcus and recording with John and skiing as much as possible, I listened to this record (in Tom’s cool room – was it called “the laundry”?? – on his record player). Five years later I started dating Peter Propp (Mr. Sing Daily to you) and then married him on this day in 1992 – Happy Anniversary, honey – ) and did it all again (this time with him at the front desk and me up in the reservations office with the iconic Mimi Muray Levitt, trying to use what I’d learned at Columbia Business School to help computerize their systems – I was passionate about Merge Letters and Spreadsheets.) LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

July 1, 2023 (Song #2009): “Ain’t Life A Brook” (1980) by Ferron. LYRICS & CHORDS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

T-33* Instead of focusing on 1990 (the year Caroline left New York to go to Kellogg and I applied and got into Columbia Business School) I’m going back to the 1970s (you’re welcome, Russell) when the Shermans and the Addarios joined forces in friendship, fun and our mutual love and devotion for family.  Sundays at the Addario house on North Ridge Road were filled with inlaws and outlaws and swimming and running and laughing and eating and singing (and drawing on the walls);  it was a magical time and they are magical people (I’m still wearing the necklace that they gave me for my Bat Mitzvah in 1977).  To get a sense of this wonderful family with whom we shared a big chunk of our childhood, listen to this: SIBLING REVELRY with Kate Hudson & Oliver Hudson featuring Lynsey & Lisa Addario. Oh, and the connection to this amazing song?  Lisa Addario taught me this one and it still gives me “brain joy” (Lori Hashizume: thanks for this phrase. 🙂  Happy Birthday to Catherine Lewis, my equally beautiful and magical sister-in-law. Xoxoxo

June 30, 2023 (Song #2008): “Once In A Very Blue Moon” (1984) sung by Nanci Griffith (written by Pat Alger)

KARAOKE! Listen to Nancy singing it on “Austin City Limits” in 1985.  APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

T-34* (today we should call it: TMI-34*) brings me to 1989, my 3rd year at GRP Records.  Three years before, while singing in the Sitzmark Bar at the Alta Lodge, a man told me that I sounded “just like Nanci Griffith; have you heard of her?” “No, “I said, “Well, I tell ya,  you sound just like her.”  So, I immediately picked up my phone and found Nanci Griffith on Spotify (HAHAHA! This is almost 40 years ago, people!. Scratch that.)  Rather, I drove the thirty miles down Little Cottonwood Canyon in the lodge van (which they let me use because I was buying and arranging the flowers for the dining room) and found a record store in Salt Lake City (I’m thinking it must have been a “Sam Goody’s” or “Tower”?) so I could buy a Nanci Griffith CD. 

The minute I got back to the Lodge and put it on, my world stopped spinning: Nanci Griffith’s voice was nothing like mine, but it was also like nothing I’d ever heard before and I wasn’t completely sure I liked it.

I was confused; the song lyrics, melodies, harmonies and instrumentation were compelling but her voice was high and wobbly (did that guy in the Sitzmark think my voice was high and wobbly?). Still, there was something about her songs and her voice that made me listen to the CD 25 times that first week.  I quickly learned “Once In A Very Blue Moon” and played it constantly; the chord progression became so much a part of me that I still play it every time I sit down at a piano (I may have borrowed it and put it into at least one of my own songs).

At one point in 1986, Nanci Griffith performed in Salt Lake City and, since my brother Russell was visiting, we went to the concert together.  I noticed him looking at me during the concert and I said: “What?” and he said: “Watching you watching her is way more entertaining than watching her….” Yep.

Now, back to T-34* and 1989: I was still working at GRP Records and one day my boss said to me and Alison: “You should take these tickets to this CD Release Party, no one else wants to go.” “Who is performing?” I asked and when he said “Nanci Griffith”, Alison King and I ran out of work and headed to some bar in the middle of Manhattan and down the stairs to a tiny cocktail party where no one was paying any attention at all to the music.  We sat down at a table right in front of her and grinned and basked in her incredible talent while she played the songs from her new “Storms” album just for us.

Later that year, I began to get frustrated by the work/paycheck ratio of my job.  I’d been hired as a receptionist and was quickly promoted when they needed someone to learn “Lotus 1-2-3” in an effort to computerize all of their written production schedules. After learning the program and transferring all the written documents to computerized spreadsheets, my boss, Dotty Kenul, quit (I’ve always felt sad about that.)  They gave me her title (“Production Coordinator”) and soon added “Director of International Distribution” (since I came in to the office at 9am, and, thus, was the only person in the office who could communicate with the foreign distributors when they were at work), and I got raises – which, industry standard dictated, was 10%.

But, when I stepped back and thought of how much work I was putting in (I almost always stayed at work until the art department – who came to work at noon – was ready to go home, usually at about 8pm) and how little I was being paid, I asked my boss to reconsider my salary.  He said no, but they offered to print my name in the CD credits (if you have any old GRP CDs, check it out).  When I asked for more money again a few months later, they changed my job title to “Director of Production”, but still, no money.

I thanked them for the gesture and started looking for another job.  

Around this time, I had been listening to a CD sampler that I loved called “Here It Is: The Music” put out by Rykodisc, which had three songs on it that blew me away: The Red Clay Ramblers’ “Home Is Where The Heart Is”, Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin’s “Henry & James” and, of course, Nanci Griffith’s “Once In A Very Blue Moon”. 

Somehow I got an interview with Don Rose at Rykodisc and they offered me a job with a generous salary and an allowance for moving to Salem (I remember visiting their offices at Pickering Wharf). Though I would be sad to leave my sister, Alison and NYC, I was ready to be fairly compensated. 

When I told my boss, he told the co-president of the company, Larry Rosen, that I was leaving; Larry quickly ushered me into his office: “What is going on???” I told him “I’ve been asking for a raise for months.” and he said: “I did not know that. I’ll give you whatever you want to stay.” He then proceeded to match the Rykodisc offer and then some.   It truly felt like a “Once In a Blue Moon” moment and I always felt that, somehow, I had Nanci Griffith and that song to thank for that raise.

June 29, 2023 (Song #2007): “Summer Fly” (1987) by Cheryl Wheeler.  Happy Birthday to Marcus Dippo & Meghan Murray! LYRICS & SONG HISTORY APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY 

T-35* brings me to 1988.  I remember working at GRP when Craig Sussman, from Cypress Records/A&M, came to visit the office and put this CD on my desk (Half-A-Book).  I took it home to the apartment I lived in (301 East 69th St) with Caroline (who’d just started an amazing job in M&A at Goldman Sachs – hence the fancy apartment address) and Alison King (who was getting her master’s at the NYU School of Journalism), and we listened to it over and over again. We loved Cheryl’s voice and songs; I couldn’t get her music (especially this song) out of my head. I remember asking Craig, on a subsequent visit: “How come she’s not famous???” He gave several reasons that it hadn’t worked out for her and it changed my perspective on the connection between talent and fame: I’d thought that if a person was talented enough, s/he could automatically become famous.  I’d never considered the politics and fickleness of fame.

A small part of me had wanted to be a performing singer/songwriter and I’d signed up to play at a few open mics in the city; I remember not telling anyone I was performing since I’d only ever performed for welcoming audiences of friends & family and I wanted to see what it was like to perform for strangers.  The performances went well enough, but they weren’t all that much fun (and, to be honest, no one ever invited me back). When Craig told me about Cheryl Wheeler’s career, I realized that being a good singer/songwriter isn’t enough; real magic has to happen on so many levels for a person to be “famous”.  At some point I realized that true success for me is satisfaction and contentment and that being “famous” in the grand scheme isn’t going to make me happy.  I don’t know how Cheryl Wheeler feels about not being Taylor Swift-level famous, but I hope she knows that she impacted at least one life (mine) in a beautiful way. (P.S. It turns out that being a music teacher in my hometown has given me a comfortable amount of attention and a tiny taste of “fame”; being recognized by my students in our local grocery store sparks a lot of joy in my life, even if it drives some of my friends and family crazy.)

P.S. Peter, Rose, Bennett and I used to listen to a lot of Cheryl Wheeler on our roadtrips.  Our favorites  Cheryl Wheeler songs are “When Fall Comes To New England”, “POTATO” and “Estate Sale”.  Please check ‘em out.

June 26, 2023 (Song #2004): “Only You” Sung by The Flying Pickets, written by Vince Clarke of Yaz (known as Yazoo in Europe) (Here’s the YAZ version: Only You by Yaz) SONG HISTORY APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY

T-38* brings me to 1985, the year I graduated from Colgate.  I learned this song while in London on a semester abroad in the spring of 1984, then it was my solo in the Swinging ‘Gates on an arrangement that was done (or brought to the group?) by Betsy Morris.  Betsy is just one of the many friends I made in the ‘Gates but she stands out for many reasons (she had the most beautifully striking voice – and face – and she was an incredible musician); it crushed us all to pieces when she died a few years ago, but I have amazing memories of her (she took me to my first Bonnie Raitt concert in Boston and she and I and Emily Mikesell sang a beautiful Sarah McLaughlin song – “I Choose You” at Jen Dowd & Artie Spangel’s wedding.) (I could write an entire blog post on Emily Mikesell and Jen Dowd; stay tuned?!)

1985 is also the inaugural year of the “Celibacy Retreat”, which kicked off with a trip to Delaware during Colgate’s “Senior Week”.  There are 16 of us – Amy, Elizabeth, Jeannie, Jenny, Jenny, Judy, Kathy, Leslie, Liz, Meg, Megan, Sandy, Sonya, Storey, Susie & me – and we’re still friends (we had our most recent reunion a few weeks ago in Westbrook, CT at Liz’s and my belly still hurts from laughing.) Today’s SOTD was a huge favorite for most of us and was sung at at least one of our weddings. 

And, speaking of weddings: today is my parent’s 63rd anniversary and I am SO glad they got married. 🙂  SONG HISTORY APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY