Save the Last Dance for Me
Save the Last Dance for Me is an American pop song and evergreen written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman . The piece became a number one hit in the United States in 1960 with the Drifters . In 1961 Ivo Robić took the cover version. At 17, life is only beginning in Germany .
History of origin
While cleaning up, Doc Pomus found an old wedding card that reminded him of the wedding with his wife and the wedding dance. He then wrote a lyric one with long lines of text just to meter fitted. The love song is about a man's jealousy towards his dance partner. He allows her to dance with other men, but reminds her that the last dance is reserved for him and that he will bring her home afterwards.
The Drifters was recorded on May 19, 1960 at Bell Sound Recording Studios in New York City with the cast of Ben E. King (lead singer / baritone ), Charlie Thomas ( tenor ), Doc Green Jr. (Baritone) and Elsbeary Hobbs ( bass ). While King vocal penetrates beyond his baritone vocal range , the other Drifters act as an accompanying choir. The successful writing team Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller were engaged as music producers . There was already a melody written by Mort Shuman that received a calypso-oriented violin arrangement from Stan Applebaum. His arrangement contributed enormously to the hit's eventual success, but he complained that arrangers were not getting the recognition they deserved. The B-side Nobody But Me was also penned by Pomus / Shuman.
Publication and Success
Save the Last Dance for Me / Nobody But Me was released by Atlantic Records in August 1960 , and on September 5, 1960, the Drifters entered the US pop hit parade . To promote record sales, they appeared on September 8, 1960 in American Bandstand with the new hit. From September 19, 1960, the single occupied the top of the charts for three weeks; it remained her only number one hit. Save the Last Dance for Me sold two million copies worldwide. The Drifters' most successful single only appeared on the album of the same name in February 1962.
The Drifters were also successful internationally with the song. In Canada , Australia and New Zealand they were also number one in the charts. In the UK, they were in the charts for 18 weeks, reaching second place. In non-English-speaking Europe, Save the Last Dance for Me was the most successful in the Netherlands with second place. In Germany, where the title was also published by Atlantic, the previously little known Drifters came 14th in the specialist magazine Musikmarkt . In October 1960, Damita Jo released an answer song I'll Save the Last Dance For You with the same melody, which reached number 22 on the US Hot 100.
Cover versions
There are at least 108 cover versions . These include Rikki Henderson (October 1960), the String-A-Longs (January 1961), Jerry Lee Lewis (September 1961), Buck Owens (May 1962), Paul Anka (September 1963), Swinging Blue Jeans (October 1964) , Cliff Richard (April 1967), Ike & Tina Turner (September 1967), Billy Joe Royal (November 1967), The Cats (July 1977), Emmylou Harris (April 1979), Dolly Parton (November 1983) or Neil Diamond (October 1993).
The German record company Polydor decided in November 1960 to release a German version of Save the Last Dance for Me . Kurt Schwabach provided the text for this . While the English original is about the last dance of the evening, Schwabach explains love in general to the 17-year-olds (“Because you don't yet know what love is because your life has only just begun”). For the song titled At 17, life is just beginning was Yugoslav singer Ivo Robić selected already in autumn 1959 with the morning had achieved considerable success in Germany.
The title was produced on November 22nd, 1960 in the Hamburg Music Hall under the direction of Bert Kaempfert , who also did the background music. The single with the B-side title On the Sunny Side of the World was released in December 1960. Already on December 17, 1960, At 17, life only begins in the top 50 of the music market and on March 18, 1961, it had reached the top position. There he was able to assert himself for two weeks and was represented in the top 50 for a total of 32 weeks. In the annual charts of the music market, the title was placed fifth. Radio Luxemburg awarded him the Silver Lion . Robić also translated the German version into Serbo-Croatian 17 ti je godina tek . On the budget labels Akkord and Baccarola , life only begins at 17 with the interpreters Betty Anderson and Helmut Schmidt. In France, Dalida followed in January 1961 with the French version Gardez-moi la dernière danse .
Save the Last Dance for Me in the version of Canadian jazz singer Michael Bublé experienced a later new success in February 2005. His single recording reached number five on the AC charts in the United States and number 99 on the Hot 100. It was in 2006 in Canada honored with the MuchMoreMusic Award.
literature
- Fred Bronson: The Billboard Book of Number One Hits , Billboard Publications New York 1988, p. 77, ISBN 0-8230-7545-1 .
- Günter Ehnert: German Chart Singles 1956-1980 . Taurus Press Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-922542-24-7 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Alex Halberstadt, The Unlikely Life and Times of Doc Pomus , 2007, p. 94 f.
- ↑ Billboard Magazine, January 16, 1961, Stan Applebaum Says Arrangers Not Getting Their Due Recognition , p. 19
- ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 141