The Five Satins

A doo wop group, you know, The Five Satins. This collection, called The Five Satins Sing Their Greatest Hits, comes from La Grande Bibliotheque – sometimes I wonder whether I moved to this city just to have access to the great CD collection at the library – it has 20 tracks, including all 4 (!) of their top 100 singles. Cool.

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The Five Satins:

• In The Still Of The Night – One of the great doo wop classics. I first learned this from a Sha Na Na album, actually, one on which they did mostly original stuff. Then at the end they reverted to their usual forte, and this is the song they picked. This song stayed 24 weeks on the top 100, but only ever reached number 24. Go figure. That was in the fall of 1956. It is variously known as (I’ll Remember) In The Still Of The Night. Not to be confused with the Cole Porter song of the same name.
• Shadows – “Last Semptember, our live was bright and gay.” Oh how our language has become corrupt. Things have gone bad. From late 1959.
• Wonderful Girl – I’m in love with a wonderful girl. Good to know.
• You Can Count On Me – The Satins sing of one of the qualities that women actually look for, I think…
• I’ll Be Seeing You – The old standard. From the spring of 1960.
• Oh Happy Day – Not the Edwin Hawkins Singers song
• A Million To One – Not the Dean Martin song.
• A Nite Like This – Reminiscing about when things were wonderful, with sweet strings, a lilting melody, and Fred Parris singing…
• I Ain’t Gonna Dance – Romantic revenge.
• To The Aisle – The wedding aisle, not the supermarket aisle. Romance as a foregone conclusion. I’m so used to hearing the American Graffiti soundtrack that I keep expecting to hear Wolfman Jack’s voice. From the summer of ’57, a great slow dance.
• All Mine – A capella.
• Our Anniversary – There is a tuba in this. This is a rare celebration of marriage. There’s a few around. Happy Anniversary by The Little River Band, etc. etc.
• Our Love Is Forever – Waltz time, 1-2-3, 1-2-3…
• A Nite To Remember – I bet…
• Candlelight – How basic is that; we fell in love by the candlelight. Another great slow dance.
• I Got Time – A fast one.
• Land Of Broken Hearts – That’s wear Lonesome Town must be; centre of town you’ll find Heartbreak Hotel on Lonely Street…
• The Jones Girl – Just a typical adoration song, the use of the surname being highly unusual…
• Pretty Baby – This one has a modern sounding guitar solo…
• Weeping Willow – Not to be confused with Willow Weep For Me, but same idea.
• Wish I Had My Baby – Interesting use of the possessive…
• Toni My Love – An unusual girl’s name for a love song. There’s a Toni where I work, she is some kind of project manager, a nice lady, but I wouldn’t write her a love song. I think there was a Toni in my parents’ world when I was growing up; she was a psychologist I think, and lived in LA, so we didn’t see her often. I wouldn’t write her any songs either.
• Love With No Love In Return – Alright alright alright, isn’t self pity a beautiful thing. Think Love To Love by Neil Diamond.
• The Time – Cute, echoes the vocal chorus from In The Still Of The Night