The Tender Years

Isn't that a line from a song in the movie Eddie and the Cruisers? Hmmm. I don't remember exactly. But it seems like a title that fits this post.

Do you remember your favorite songs and artists from your teen years?

Boy, I'm moving back in time here, and with the state of my memory these days, my "teens" will probably include more years than just the six between ages 12 and 20. But here goes anyway.

I think my first favorite romantic ballad was That's My Desire by Frankie Laine. I don't remember many of the lyrics anymore, but if push comes to shove, I have a vinyl with the song on it stashed somewhere in a dusty storeroom.

Then the Mills Brothers caught my attention with Till Then. Those guys were smooth, and listening to them on the radio as we drove around was about as good as it gets.

Somehow, things seemed to move rapidly after that and my head is filled with artists and songs that I haven't thought about in a long time, people like Johnny Ray, Buddy Clark, Don Cornell, Georgia Gibbs, and a host of others.

Those were romantic times, but they weren't the end of romantic music. In the fifties, we listened to songs like Love is a Many Splendored Thing, The Great Pretender, Only You, Kiss of Fire, My Special Angel, Band of Gold, holy smoke, I'm running out of brain power.

To be honest, I also found a good deal of romance in the music of the Beatles, even though they came along when I was a little older (not much, though, and not too old). I still love Yesterday, not to mention I Give You All My Love.

And who could forget Patsy Cline's Crazy and Walking After Midnight. Or Roy Orbison's classics, Pretty Woman and Lonely?

I could go on and on about my own "tender years," which as you can easily tell, have extended across a couple of decades and are still going strong.

But, hey, how about yawl? You have your own memories, right? Feel free to share them with everyone. We all love romantic music.

Okay, where's my Eddie and the Cruisers soundtrack?