Yesterday it rained in Tennessee, I heard it also rained in Tallahassee, but not a drop fell on little old me, 'cause...I'm (only four days!) late again....
My introduction to this week's tune is twofold. I originally heard it as a cover version by Charlie Rich (I featured another song of his in Vol. CCCXLV) on an album that my Mom had (and loved). Fast forward about ten years, and it was featured prominently in a movie I particularly loved (perhaps because my Mom was a recovering alcoholic like many of the characters in the movie), Clean and Sober. Only in the movie, it was the original version, and if I recall correctly, just a day or two after hearing it in the film I picked up the cassette single from the oldies section we had for many years at Camelot Music. A long time ago in a land far away, one supposes....
Lenny Welch was born in New York City in 1938 and got his musical start at the ripe old age of sixteen in a local doo wop group. In 1960 he signed his first recording contract, and three years later had the biggest hit of his career. Welch would release singles and albums through 1977, at which time his recording career came to a pause. He drove a cab and put himself through school, first earning his GED, then a bachelor's degree. In 1990 he joined The Royal All Stars (later The Doo Wop All Stars), a troupe of singers from bands of an earlier time. He left them in 1992 to pursue an acting career (never panned out) but was able to spend the next twenty-eight years touring as a solo artist before quitting when the COVID pandemic struck in 2020. For his career, he released five studio albums, one compilation, and thirty-six singles (eight of which charted on the Billboard Hot 100). Sadly, Welch died just last year at the age of eighty-six.
Fun Fact: Welch spent the bulk of his youth in Asbury Park, New Jersey, making him the second Friday Night Jukebox honoree to have spent his formative years there. I'll let you guess the other....
"Since I Fell for You" was released in 1963, from his debut album, the rather imaginatively entitled Since I Fell for You (and yet again no Wikipedia entry...). The single hit #4 (with a bullet!), while the album peaked at #73.
For some odd ass reason, until I did my half-assed research this week, I thought that "Since I Fell for You" was a wonderful piece of blue-eyed soul, when in actuality it's a wonderful piece of soul brother soul (Welch is black)--which is kind of funny in a way (it's not like I've ever seen him performing the song on some musically related TV show--I was all of four when it originally was released). No matter in the end. Enveloped in strings, Welch weaves the tale of a man who gave up his happy home for a love that didn't last and is lamenting the fact that he can't stop loving her. I'm not familiar with any of Welch's other hits, but I'm guessing this is one of those musical moments in which kismet was ever present in the studio. Welch's vocals are other worldly--he captures all the man's heartbreak--and ever-present desire--with every single note he sings and carries that sorrow on his back like it's his own cross to bear. It's one of those songs where an artist creates their moment of perfection--and hangs that perfection around his neck like a golden amulet for the rest of his days. Welch put the torch in this torch song on this one, and it sounds as good or better with each and every listen. A gem of a gem if ever a gem there was....
Lyric Sheet: "Love/Brings such misery and pain/I guess I'll never be the same/Since I fell for you..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump
Peace,
emaycee
