2013-01-09

Lost Songs: "Everybody Plays the Fool" by Aaron Neville

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This is one of the songs from my teen years that had the right mix of sentimentality and earnestness and fun that kept me up listening to my clock radio hoping it would suddenly appear. I'm not ashamed. I still think it's a great song. And I don't think I can overstate how much I liked it its first couple years on the radio.

The funny thing is, in my imagination, Aaron Neville had always been a betuxed scrawny white guy. A cross between Harry Connick Jr and old Sinatra caricatures. So the first time I saw him---a ripped black guy in torn denim and pencil stache---that was a funny feeling. And I think it taught me something, though I don't want to read too much into the experience.

All that said, I still think that Aaron Neville is the king of the falsettos. Yes, yes, Frankie Valli and Barry Gibb can have honorable mentions, but as far as enjoyable to listen to (rather than just fun to sing along with), Mr Neville wins that race.

C'mon. You know you love him.

Maybe not this video, though.

2 comments:

  1. I'll tell you what I love: that thin mustache and tight denim vest. Mee-yow.

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  2. .

    Another thing about Aaron Neville is his is one of the very first voices I could definitively recognize. I remember in Junior High listening to his duet with Linda Ronstadt.

    No idea what he was wearing then.

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