Today’s song is ‘Don’t’. This song was performed by Elvis Presley and was released in 1958. Written and produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller it was Presley's eleventh Number 1 hit in the United States. ‘Don't’ also peaked at number four on the R&B charts.]Billboard ranked it as the Number 3 song for 1958.
The song was included in the musical revue ‘Smokey Joe’s Café, as a medley with ‘Love Me’, and cleverly used in the key scene of the 1992 film ‘Dave’, right at the moment the President of the United States (played by Kevin Kline) , has a heart attack while making love to a mistress, inside the White House.
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I was 16 years old when this song came out and my best friend at the time was Tony Walsh. Tony had come across from his home country in Ireland to stay at a relative’s home on the estate where I lived. Being Roman Catholic and Irish, and living on the same estate as I was, it was only natural that we would become the best of buddies.
Neither of us could honestly have been described as being ‘bad boys’ in the worst sense of the word but when all the water had been drained from the cooking pot of life, I’d have to admit that we were both up for a laugh, a good fight, a clean piece of fun, or entering into competition in the dating game with the Windybank Estate girls (a game that I invariably won, being the best looking, I must admit). In short, there was simply nothing legal that we wouldn’t do, so having our parents or guardians saying ‘Don’t…’ was a word that never registered too long in our hearing range.
While we both grew up in the era of Rock and Roll, our favourite singer at the time was the late Elvis Presley. While I had a number of favourite singers, there was only one favourite for Tony and that was the King himself.
I dedicate my song today to Tony Walsh from Carrick-on-Suir and his lovely wife, Lily. Have a good day, you two Irish lovebirds. We have not been able to have a holiday this year due to my contraction of two additional cancers to my original terminal blood cancer, four cancer operations under a full anaesthetic, one shoulder dislocation operation under a full anaesthetic and twenty sessions of radiotherapy to ‘mop up’ any cancer residue in my skull. However, if my health is good enough next year, Sheila and I will be taking an extended holiday travelling around Ireland in the springtime. We will be spending a few days around my birthplace, Portlaw (less than 7 miles from Carrick-on-Suir) and we will certainly be calling to see you both. Love from Bill and Sheila xx
Love and peace Bill xxx