Song Lyric Sunday — Pink Champagne

You all know by now that I’ll take any opportunity to post music by Benjamin Orr and/or the Cars. This week’s Song Lyric Sunday is no exception; and I guarantee you have never heard this song before (unless you’re a Benjamin Orr fanatic like me). Helen Vahdati’s theme this week is “drink,” and Benjamin Orr’s first record fits the bill. Long before he became the co-founder, bassist, and a lead singer for the Cars, Ben Orzechowski was a teen rock star in his native Cleveland, Ohio. He had joined a popular local band, The Grasshoppers, at 15 years old as a rhythm guitarist and lead singer. The Grasshoppers soon became the house band for a local American Bandstand style TV show, The Big 5 Show (renamed Upbeat upon national syndication), opening for major acts such as Dave Clark Five and Paul Anka. In 1965, The Grasshoppers recorded two regional hits, including “Pink Champagne (And Red Roses)” written and sung by young Mr. Orr (second from the right in the first picture on the video). Take a listen:

Pink Champagne (And Red Roses)

Well, pink champagne and red, red roses

For you, my love, there will be, yeah

Pink champagne and red, red roses

If you spend your life with me

You are my angel from above

I’ll never cast away your love

If you’ll just say you’ll linger with me

Pink champagne and roses there will be

Sometimes a heart can be the very start

So, my dear… and come right here

Pink champagne and red, red roses

For you, my love, there will be, yeah

Pink champagne and red, red roses

If you spend your life with me

With me

Written in response to Song Lyric Sunday theme “drink”

The Lure of a White Wolf Dog

“Lovely lady, would you like to walk with me and my white wolf dog?”

“That was your best pickup line? ‘Lovely lady.’ Jeez, who talks like that? So, did it work?”

“Not exactly. She burst out laughin’ and kept walkin’ away.”

“Well, of course, with a come-on like that! Whadja expect?”

“Well….”

“Aw, c’mon! Don’t tell me you actually thought …”

“Yes. Yes, I did. She likes dogs. She has a dog. Was even walkin’ it when I asked her.”

“Her dog is a purebred prissy little fluff with a ribbon holding its hair out of its eyes. Yours is a big ol’ scruffy mutt, for chrissake! No way he’d pass for a wolf dog. No wonder she laughed!”

“Clancy isn’t a mutt. Are ya, Clance. And he’s not scruffy, either. Just gave him a bath.”

“Yeah, well, looks like you’re gonna have to give him another one. Listen, you and Clancy enjoy the park. I gotta get movin’. Roxie’s parents are comin’ for dinner. If I’m late, she’ll have my hide.”

“Right. See ya…….Well, Clance, I guess it’s you and me, as usual. Whadaya think, fetch or frisbie.”

“I’ll take frisbie for 500, Alex.”

“Whoa! It’s you! For a second I thought Clancy…..I mean … not that I thought he was really talkin’ to me. It’s just, my name happens to be Alex. And yours, lovely lady?”

“You’re not gonna believe this, but my name is actually Lovely. My mom is English, and, well, over there they use ‘Lovely’ like we’d say ‘Honey.'”

“Oh. Well, it’s a lovely name. I mean pretty. …. Why’d you come back?”

“Wanted to meet your white wolf dog. Clancy has a bit of a Schnauzer look to ‘im in a sheep-dog kinda way.”

“I’ve been told he’s a mutt.”

“He is a mutt. Don’t you know? They’re the best kind.”

“Really? Where’s your little…….cutie.”

“Oh, Mitzie isn’t mine. I just walk her for a friend. That’s why I didn’t stop before. Had to get her home. Now, let’s get to that frisbie!”

338 words. Written in response to A Writer’s Life’s Just Start Writing (JSW) prompt to take a line from a song and use it as a first sentence. The line is from Milkwood’s “Lincoln Park,” written by Benjamin Orzechowski (before changing his name to Benjamin Orr.) Photo credit: Ebet Roberts 1978.

Benjamin Orr’s Voice

One of the vexing things about prompts is that I’ll often be prompted to respond outside the “rules” of the challenge. This is one of them. The Haunted Wordsmith posted this lovely picture prompt for her Worth a Thousand Words daily challenge.

She also posts a daily “Three Things Challenge.” Today’s prompts are discovery, lace, and basketball. In my mind, the two challenges combined and resulted in a video response. Once I associate a prompt with a song, any chance for following the challenge rules goes out the window.

With that disclaimer, here is “Skyline” written by Benjamin Orr and Diane Grey Page and released on Benjamin Orr’s 1986 debut solo album, The Lace.

Song Lyric Sunday – “Bye Bye Love”

Did you really think I’d pass up the opportunity to share a Cars song, sung by Benjamin Orr, and right on point for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday theme: Break? Just as my other Song Lyric Sunday pick is my favorite in Poco’s ouevre, Bye Bye Love is my hands-down favorite Cars song. Written, as are all Cars songs, by Ric Ocasek, this is not your Everly Brothers’ Bye Bye Love. For a special treat, even if only for me and sweetpurplejune, I’ll be giving you two BBL videos. The first is circa 1978 when the Cars were just starting out, garnering national and intenational attention*. The second, a 1995 performance, features Benjamin Orr and his band, some seven years after the Cars’ breakup. Enjoy:

“Bye Bye Love”

I can’t feel this way much longer
Expecting to survive
With all these hidden innuendoes
Just waiting to arrive

It’s such a wavy midnight
And you slip into insane
Electric angel rock and roller
I hear what you’re playin’

It’s an orangy sky
Always it’s some other guy
It’s just a broken lullaby
Bye bye love
Bye bye love
Bye bye love
Bye bye love

Substitution mass confusion
Clouds inside your head
Involving all my energies
Until you visited

With your eyes of porcelain and of blue
They shock me into sense
You think you’re so illustrious
You call yourself intense

It’s an orangy sky
Always it’s some other guy
It’s just a broken lullaby
Bye bye love
Bye goo’ bye love
bye bye love
Bye bye love

Substitution mass confusion
Clouds inside your head
Well foggin’ all my energies
Until you visited

With your eyes of porcelain and of blue
They shock me into sense
You think you’re so illustrious
You call yourself intense

It’s an orangy sky
Always it’s some other guy
It’s just a broken lullaby
Bye bye love
Bye bye love
Bye bye love
Bye bye loveWriter/s: RIC OCASEK
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

*Edited 3/23/2019 to note that the first selected video is no longer available.

On the 33rd Anniversary of Live Aid 7/13/1985: Benjamin Orr’s Voice

The Cars performed four songs at Live Aid. I’m showcasing each individually, partly because ABC didn’t cut to their performance until several seconds after they actually started playing. But really, I wanted to showcase Benjamin Orr’s performance first. Of course.

The crazy thing about ABC’s sloppy treatment of the Cars’ first song, “You Might Think” is that the song’s video had previously won MTV’s first Moonman awarded for Video of the Year (1984), in addition to having won five award at Billboard’s 1984 Video Music Awards. After you watch the Live Aid performance, you can see the award-winning video here.