Classic Rant #513 (May 26, 2011): Nothing But Promises, Promises

Did you ever have a song that you can’t get out of your head?

A song that you don’t necessarily like, but it sticks in your brain like peanut butter sticks to bread?

I have been going through this the past few weeks with a song from my childhood that I had pretty much forgotten about, until hearing it on the radio a few weeks ago.

And since hearing it, I can't get it out of my head.

The song is “Promises, Promises” from the 1968 Broadway show of the same name, a production which was written by Neil Simon. It’s from the only Broadway show that Burt Bacharach and Hal David ever wrote the score for. Although I never saw the show, it is supposedly based on the 1960 film “The Apartment,”

The song’s most popular version was by Dionne Warwick, who had a top 20 hit with it when the show was on Broadway. It has also been sung by many others, including Jerry Orbach, in the original Broadway show, Tony Roberts, in the London cast, and most recently, Sean Hayes in the 2010 Broadway revival.

Anyway, I just can’t get this tune out of my noggin, and I don’t know why.

I kind of like the Bacharach/David compositions of this period. They are light, frothy, and have the 1960s mentality written all over them, or at least the pop mentality.

Warwick was their muse, having numerous hits generated by the songwriting duo, including “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” (also from the show) and “Do You Know the Way to San Jose.”

As I said, light and frothy. No psychedelics in these songs.

I have never been much of a fan of Warwick, but in “Promises, Promises,” she puts her voice to good use, using her range well. The song doesn’t seem that hard to sing, but it has its moods and changes.

But that doesn’t explain, why do I have this song in my head like I do?

I have never seen the play in any incarnation. But, my parents did, way back when, and my mother was the type that after she saw a show she liked, she would head to the record store to buy the recording.

I still have that recording in my record collection, with Orbach warbling the tune.

Well, whoever sings it, I have it in my head—but again, it wasn’t there before I heard the tune on the radio a few weeks back.

I figure that it must be stirring up some memory that I just can’t pinpoint right now.

Or maybe somewhere in my memory, I just remember my mother playing the LP on our Hi Fi, and the memory was released when I heard the song again.

But whatever it is, it is driving me nuts. I often find myself either humming the song or singing some of the lyrics when I am walking the dog, and let me tell you, I am no Dionne Warwick, and I am not even near Jerry Orbach, either.

Maybe I need to look into my inner soul to find out what is going on in my brain.

I promise myself to do this … there I go again with this “promises” thing again.

I must be losing it …