The Platters ~ Only You
Sitting here trying to write this entry about a song that no longer means anything to me... with the song itself playing on repeat. I feel like it's 1955 and I am sitting in a small rose coloured room contemplating moving into the bomb shelter because I didn't get invited to the prom.
I'll try to write this without getting snarky and without getting sappy. I'll just stick to the cold bare assed facts.
My ex-best friend (previously mentioned as "Supposed Friend/Flatmate" if you care to journey back into the archives in November... though I'm sure you know full well who I'm talking about...) bought her first car with the inheritance money she earned (sorry, did I say I wouldn't get snarky?) based on the sub-par CD player. A cruddy car with a stereo... yep. That's worth it. Hilariously and ironically enough the car stereo was soon stolen from said rust-bucket and she had to actually go out and spend the insurance money on a new one. Poor girl.
Well sir, until she did buy a new stereo, driving around in this car was a silent and dark affair. Not that we couldn't talk and be content enough... but the fact was, the stereo was the only good part of the car and without it driving around lacked a certain something. A certain quality. Music.
One night driving through Tawa we decided that in order to fill the silence we'd have to sing ourselves. For whatever reason (probably that it was on an ad at the time) she started warbling "Only You" by the Platters. The only problem was, after the first verse and the crank up of "OH AH ONLY YOOOOOOOOOOU" neither of us knew how the song went. So we started again. And again. Each time getting louder and progressively worse.
This became a regular occurrence until she got the new stereo. Then when she lost that stereo's face plate, rendering the thing useless, Only You was rolled out again.
It became our unofficial "friendship" anthem (using the term lightly here) and when I saw a best of album in Real Groovy for 8 bucks I shrieked in delight. I was planning on buying her the single but that was a fruitless search. So, an entire album of sexy sassy songs was better. But instead, I kept it and put Only You on a CD for her. Finally we could get past that pesky lyrical hurdle and warble the ENTIRE song. And warble we did.
Of course this provided much amusement for us in the car, especially if we were in the presence of someone else. Unfortunately without the other around, people who we tried to share this song with were NOT very receptive (a certain ex boyfriend of mine actually SKIPPED the song as I was telling him the significance!) and as time has worn on and things have hit the fan and all that jazz the song has become just another novel "old tyme" song to file away in the Ratpony vault, in the back section covered in cobwebs. It sits in the cobwebs because unlike the others, I don't still love it with a passion and I don't get shivers hearing it and I don't particularly feel nostalgic hearing it.
So there you have it eh? The final hoorah.