Thursday, August 09, 2007

ELEVEN 'Tears On My Pillow"


Some of the best songs are the simple ones. Or so it seems.
"You don't remember me. But I remember you."
"Tears on my pillow. Pain in my heart caused by you."
The subtle questions asked in the song: a) is the singer going to do something more than cry about it? ("You don't remember me..." suggests a stalker, doesn't it?)
And b) is the singer straight or gay?
Richard Barrett, who was trying to get "Little Anthony" Gourdine signed to a deal in 1958, recalls: "I had some time trying to convince (producer) George Goldner that the public would go for Anthony's high-pitched voice. What George thought was a lisp was in fact intentional vocal styling by Anthony."
Yes, Anthony intended to sound like...a childlike male hurt for the first time, a woman hurt for the umpteenth time, a simpering gay, a feisty lesbian or whatever a listener on the radio wanted the singer to be!
Is it that surprising that the other big hit version was the cover by Timi Yuro? The woman with the gender-bender name had a range between alto and alternative lifestyles. The next big cover version was from gay icon Kylie Minogue.
The song is musically androgynous, too. It's pop, it's rock, it's R&B and it's C&W. Unlike "96 Tears," there's no number of "Tears on My Pillow," and if you want to be rude, the "tears" could be symbolic of some other form of wetness, and there's nothing more humiliating than a soggy one-night stand and a dry-cleaning bill.

You get 9 versions here, plus two bonus tracks: two more songs titled "Tears on My Pillow" that use that phrase for entirely different lyrics and melodies.
ELEVEN TEARS ON MY PILLOW Tears Galore

Also this link TEARS ON MY PILLOW In case the other link's hinky

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