At the time those songs played on the radio, they weren’t “sappy” at all to some of us.
We changed. Got more cynical, grew tougher skins or something, but a lot of those songs mentioned here might have been someone’s favorite song at one time.
I’d like to add one more, if I may?
My friends know that I am a huge John Wayne fan. (I know, I know … but I am anyway, okay?:)) and my favorite Duke movie is The Green Berets. The song from that film (The Ballad of The Green Berets) was one of my favorites back then, and I still like it today.
And yeah, I guess it can be considered sappy, but it is one of the tunes I liked and still do.
well, yes, I’ll confess to loving Seasons in the Sun, but I was (I think) 9 years old. Who were the ADULTS or TEENS who made that song #1? Young kids like bubble gum and schmaltz, but what’s the excuse for the older people? Someone should take the fall for this. Off with their heads, say I!
According to TV’s Craig Fergusson, he knows the person who wrote “Mandy.” It’s actually about a drug called mandralone, to which the songwriter was addicted at the time.
“Tell Laura I Love Her,” by Ray Peterson, at least deserves mention. Not quite as high on the sapmeter as “Honey,” but it’s about as overwrought a performance as one can find. Outside of C&W anyway.
dawson, I’m female. I grew up, basically, without a dad (my first stepdad worked shifts, so he was never around). “Butterfly Kisses” to me was about a dad who was always around, who helped his daughter grow up, who took care of his daughter, etc. The idealized father in the song was the daddy I never knew. There might be other female dopers who feel the same way.
Anyway, whenever I see a music box or plaque or something else with the words to the song, I send one to my daughter.
I hear that song, and I want to start killing people. When it was popular, I almost went insane because of hearing that song on the radio all the time. It might actually have been that song that finally made me decide to stop listening to the radio altogether.
And whoever’s bad mouthing Total Eclipse of the Heart, that song totally isn’t sappy. It’s AMAZING. If you’ve never been drunk off your ass, lying on the floor and screaming that song along with the stereo with 40 other people at four in the morning and being interrupted by noise control, well… You’ve never really been to a proper party then have you
This reminded me–I once rewrote the lyrics to that song, which I then imagined as being sung by a pre-Fuhrer Adolf Hitler as “Sometimes when we putsch…” which took virtually all the sentimental air out of those overinflated tires.
Knock Three Times and Tie a Yellow Ribbon and Paint the Front Door Blue and Plant a Rosebush Facing North and Hang a Flag Out The Window and Be There or Be Square any thing by Tony Orlando and that effing Dawn.
This song is the reason I stand before you today, Ellen Cherry and not Laura Cherry. My mother loved the name Laura but this song put my dad off the name forever. So Ellen I am!
In the sappy love song category, I’d have to nominate “When I Need You” by Leo Sayer. I listen to accuradio.com Love Songs channel and this one just played…I’m recovering.
I love your humor!