It’s pretty much impossible to pick just one song so I’ve zeroed in on the very first song that moved me: All I Have To Do is Dream by the Everly Brothers. When the song was released in 1958, I was 11 years old. I wouldn’t have the pleasure of my first kiss for another five years, but judging by my obsession with this song, you’d think I knew what they were singing about.
I remember a family road trip down to Rosarita Beach in Mexico that summer. I had a crush on Bobby — or was it Kenny? — and was thinking about him non-stop. Every time this song came on the radio — which was frequently since it was #1 on the charts for weeks — in the back seat of our Ford station wagon, I would groan and go into spasms of preadolescent angst while my brothers rolled their eyes.
Hearing the song today takes me right back to those tween-age feelings of longing, and a wide, wide world of possibility.
Dream, dream, dream, dream
Dream, dream, dream, dream
When I want you in my arms
When I want you and all your charms
Whenever I want you, all I have to do is
Dream, dream, dream, dreamWhen I feel blue in the night
And I need you to hold me tight
Whenever I want you, all I have to do is
DreamI can make you mine, taste your lips of wine
Anytime night or day
Only trouble is, gee whiz
I’m dreamin’ my life awayI need you so that I could die
I love you so and that is why
Whenever I want you, all I have to do is
Dream, dream, dream, dream
DreamI can make you mine, taste your lips of wine
Anytime night or day
Only trouble is, gee whiz
I’m dreamin’ my life awayI need you so that I could die
I love you so and that is why
Whenever I want you, all I have to do is
Dream, dream, dream, dream
Dream, dream, dream, dream
Barbara BucklesArtist, writer, storyteller, spy. Okay, not a spy…I was just going for the rhythm.
I call myself “an inveterate dabbler.” (And my husband calls me “an invertebrate babbler.”) I just love to create one way or another. My latest passion is telling true stories live, on stage. Because it scares the hell out of me.
As a memoirist, I focus on the undercurrents. Drawing from memory, diaries, notes, letters and photographs, I never ever lie, but I do claim creative license when fleshing out actual events in order to enhance the literary quality, i.e., what I might have been wearing, what might have been on the table, what season it might have been. By virtue of its genre, memoir also adds a patina of introspection and insight that most probably did not exist in real time.
Yes, I can understand how this song defined pre-teen love and angst for you, Barb. The brother’s lovely, close harmonies and sweet, simple lyrics helped define music for an upcoming generation of musicians and the girls who dreamed of love. Weren’t we all dreamers?
Dreaming is a prerequisite for growing up! ❤️
Lovely recollection of that time—I had a couple of songs that I obsessed over as a teen and have never forgotten (Go to Pieces, She’s Not There, Love Potion #9, Summer Song). You might recall a funny Seinfeld skit with Elaine and a boyfriend who had a favourite song (Desperado)—she wanted to appropriate Witchy Woman.
LOL. I might try to find that Seinfeld episode. My high school boyfriend chose “Since I Fell for You” as “our” song which sounds romantic but really wasn’t. The lyric goes “You made me leave my happy home, and now you’re gone.” Go figure.
Barb, I love the Everly Brothers too, and not just because they sang Wake Up Little Susie, lol. This was a perfect song for those of us dreaming of having someone, even if it might be many years in the future. I remember singing along with it, and probably feeling the same preadolescent angst you describe (although not in 1958, since I was only 7 then – but the song was on the radio for years!). Thanks for a great story!
Thanks, Suzy. I’m wondering if one or both of your sisters might have been listening to it and you might have picked up on how they were feeling, too.
Sweet song, and perfect for a tween’s dreaming, Barb. While I didn’t write a story for this prompt because it was impossible for me to come up with a single song, the Beach Boys were a favorite when I was an early teen. Hadn’t yet gotten to California–maybe a subconscious dream or longing.
I also loved that song but my parents only played “their music” in the car, which did not include the Everly Brothers. I must have listened to it on the transistor, or maybe my older brother and I had the 45.
Tell the truth Bebe, are still carrying that torch for Bobby – or was it Kenny?
I rarely fall out of love, Dee, even though I move on. 😘
Me too Bebe!
When we have out Retro reunion – hopefully one of these days! – we can compare old loves!
OK, I’ll just have to weigh in with my favorite Everly Brothers song: “Let It Be Me”: Now and forever, let it be me. So pleased to see that Don and Phil Everly touched so many young hearts! Thanks for continuing the E Brothers thread.
Oh, yes…right up there near the top of my list of all time faves!!
Beautiful choice, and as w/Susan Bennet, the Everly Brothers hit all of us lucky enough to be the right age when hit after hit rolled out of the two brothers. As far as your deep pain, while trapped in the back of the family wagon with the wagon with your (yuck) brothers, I wrote this to Suzy about her love of “Moon River,” — I think adolescent romance is vastly underrated and should be taken more seriously. Just because grownups don’t know how to handle romance doesn’t mean that kids don’t know either. Of course, I’m not talking about sexual love, just that deep, heart-rending longing that you intimated in your post.
I feel for you, Barbara, stuck in that wagon! But weren’t we lucky!
Yes, Charles…I for one miss that “deep, heart-rending longing” that made us feel so exquisitely alive. There’s really nothing like it! Not that we’d want to be in that state forever, just that, as you say, we were lucky to have experienced it!