Musical interlude
A couple weeks back I heard this beautiful song by Tommy Edwards called "The Morning Side of the Mountain." Here are the opening lyrics:
There was a girl, there was a boy
If they had met they might have found a world of joy
But she lived on the morning side of the mountain
And he lived on the twilight side of the hill
They never met, they never kissed
And they will never know what happiness they missed
For she lived on the morning side of the mountain
And he lived on the twilight side of the hill
This was a minor, B-side hit for Edwards in 1959. It's never heard on the radio because it's always going to be crowded out by Edwards' #1 hit "It's All in the Game." I only found it because it was on the Fifties station on XM Radio a fortnight ago. But then, today, I heard the Donny & Marie Osmond cover version which peaked at #8 on the Billboard chart (way above Edwards' #27 top spot). Any-hoo, it's a great song which I'll be plucking from ITunes this weekend.
4 comments:
Eric,
That is a great song. Back when I was a wedding DJ (amongst other things like club and radio) I used to pull that out from time to time. In Philly, they really appreciate rare oldies like that. It made my night to think about the song, as I haven't heard it for years. I pulled it out a few minutes ago and listened. Thanks for writing about it.
P.s. trivia question for you: Who wrote "It's All in the Game?"
U.S. vice president Charles Dawes??? (Looked it up in my Billboard chart book).
I also found it interesting that "All in the game" and "Mountain" were released in 1951-1952 and then re-released by Edwards in 1958-1959 to climb the Billboard charts. This is one of my favorite musical oddities: songs that are released, go nowhere, and then hit when re-released.
See also: the Proclaimers "500 Miles" and the Verve Pipe's "The Freshmen."
Chucky Dawes isn't the only U.S. Vice President to co-write a hit song. Dick Cheney's was "Hey Man, Nice Shot." Al Gore had "I'll Stop the World and Melt with You." And Dan Quayle gave us "Mashed Potatoe Time."
You got it Eric.
Some other songs that hit well after being released:
"At This Moment" by Billy Vera and the Beaters was released 3 years before it was featured on Family Ties about three or 4 years later. It then went #1.
And, "When I'm With You" by Sheriff was released in 1983, and some DJ picked it up to play it in 1989 and it caught on and went to #1.
I could go on and on with music trivia. Thanks for bringing this up.
Also, I got a good laugh at Schuyler's comments. "Hey Man Nice Shot" was written about a Pennsylvania politician named Budd Dwyer, who shot himself on live TV, circa 1987. You can see the video on YouTube.
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