It was 1958 and popular that year was To Know Him Is to Love Him, by the Teddy Bears. I bring this subject on this Sunday because my freshman college roommate said: This is all about God.
While that option was only a remote possibility to me at that time, I re-thought this potential when I woke up to view on Music Choice this song. So what are the alternatives?
- Your father.
- A pet.
- God.
- A dog.
- Someone you like.
So I went to
Wikipedia, and saw that the song was written by Phil Spector...
THE infamous Phil Spector (
left, also bottom left in above photo and playing guitar in the You Tube song), who I'll delve into a bit later. He said the words were on his father's tombstone:
To have known him was to have loved him. Well, I guess that answers the question. Then again, maybe not.
The Teddy Bears were classmates at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, and were mostly conformed of Spector (
his only singing group), Marshall Leib and lead singer Annette Kleinbard. In 1958 at the cost of $75 they recorded and release the song in 1958, becoming a global hit, nationally occupying #1 for three weeks. Thus, at the age of 19, Spector had written, arranged, played, sung and produced the best-selling record in the country.
Kleinbard became songwriter Carol Connors, and among one of her hits was the
Rocky theme,
Gonna Fly Now. Leib joined the Hollywood Argyles, which had a 1960 hit
Alley Oop, about a really cool dina-sawa.
Phil Spector had a tortured life. He created The
Wall of Sound, worked with the Beatles, had two wives and five children, was convicted of murder and died in prison last year of COVID-19.
So returning to
To Know Him is to Love Him, Spector named the group the Teddy Bears after an Elvis song. Took them 20 minutes on two takes to make the record. Said he, learned a lot about the industry from this song:
- $3000.
- The importance of payola.
- A lot about the Mafia.
In 1987 Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, in a music video of
To Know Him is to Love Him, directed by George Lucas (
creator of Star Wars, who was at time dating Ronstadt) reached #1 on the Country chart. They won a Grammy for that song in 1988. This song (
although it does have dog in the video) further confirmed that the popular meaning was not about God or a pet or your father, but a lover.
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Remember Hurricane Agatha last week as the strongest May ocean storm ever in the East Pacific? Well, the eye kept tracking east across Mexico and is now Tropical Storm Alex in the Atlantic, and could well still become a hurricane.
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It was 1958 and popular that year was To Know Him Is to Love Him, by the Teddy Bears. I bring this subject on this Sunday because my freshman college roommate said: This is all about God.
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