The Story of a Song

I get mildly obsessed with certain songs from time to time. I love songs, and I'm fascinated by "standards," which are really the folk songs of our culture, if you can get away from the notion that "folk" has to be a style. I just read a book about Frank Sinatra and I don't even like Frank Sinatra. (This post triggered that.)

The song I'm obsessed with at the moment is called "Save the Last Dance for Me." It was a hit in 1960 for The Drifters, a doo-wop group* that has had no fewer than sixty singers over the years. Ben E. King was lead vocalist in 1960. Here's the original. The song has been covered by innumerable other artists, including a fine country version by Emmylou Harris in 1980**. Note that later Drifters re-recordings are essentially by different groups; Ben E. King also sang it as part of his own act.

The song has an enigmatic core: half regretful, as a guy watches his girl have fun with other men, and half joyful, as he asserts that he's the one whose arms she'll end up in. Here are some of the lyrics:

You can dance
Every dance with the guy
Who gave you the eye
Let him hold you tight

You can smile
Every smile for the man
Who held your hand
'Neath the pale moonlight

But don't forget who's taking you home
And in whose arms you're gonna be
So darlin'
Save the last dance for me.

Oh I know
That the music is fine
Like sparkling wine
Go and have your fun

Laugh and sing
But while we're apart
Don't give your heart
To anyone

But don't forget who's taking you home
And in whose arms you're gonna be
So darlin'
Save the last dance for me.

The story behind it is poignant, but it clears up the ambivalent situation touched upon by the song. It was written by the songwriting team of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman. Although each helped the other, Mort Shuman mainly wrote the music and Doc Pomus mainly supplied the lyrics. According to Lou Reed, who sang the song on a Doc Pomus tribute album called Till the Night Is Gone, Doc told Lou he wrote the lyrics to "Save the Last Dance for Me" on his wedding night. Doc had limited use of his legs because of post-polio syndrome, but when he married Willi Burke, a Broadway actress and dancer, he wanted her to have fun at their wedding reception, so he encouraged her to go dance with others while he watched from his wheelchair.

The song is his "cry from the heart" that expressed his overflowing emotions as he watched her.

Doc Pomus singing at the Pied Piper in New York as a young man in
1947, age 21. Photo by William P. Gottlieb.

Doc Pomus wrote or helped write many other songs of his era, including "This Magic Moment," "Lonely Avenue," and "There Is Always One More time."

Mike

*...Group, or corporate-style entity? The Drifters name was owned by George Treadwell, the great jazz singer Sarah Vaughan's first husband, who hired a rotating constellation of low-paid musicians to fill its ranks.

**Johnny Cash thought Emmylou in that era had the finest voice in country music. Try her album Quarter Moon in a Ten-Cent Town, a blissful, mournful masterpiece from 1978.

Original contents copyright 2015 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Comments

[jim woodard]

Once again a post that shows me and your other readers just why TOP is such a great blog! And gives the fascinating story behind a song many of us "grew up" with If you haven't allready try this album as a wonderful overview of some of Doc's songs by great artists! Plus its available on Amazon through TOP Links! Happy New Year!

[jim woodard]

Sorry, here is the album link!
http://theband.hiof.no/albums/doc_pomus_tribute.html

[Steve Rosenblum]

Towards the end of his career I had the great pleasure of attending a Doc Pomus concert at the Ark in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Ark is a small community supported music venue that has been hosting intimate concerts multiple nights per week for 50 years. The Doc Pomus concert was wonderful and I can still picture him playing as though it had occurred last night. He wrote many wonderful songs and was a dynamic performer despite his disability.

http://www.theark.org

[Joe Holmes]

I love the stories behind some of my favorite songs. There are some amazing tales. One of my favorites is the story behind the writing and recording of "Crimson and Clover," and it's told best at songfacts.com in the words of Tommy James and the others involved - http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1883

But the TL:DR short version is: After the Shondells' songwriter quit, Tommy James spent half a day in a basement studio in the Brill Building recording a rough mix of a new song, Crimson and Clover, playing all the instruments but drums. Despite the fact that the recording was just intended as a demo, it ended up being released and becoming a top ten hit. Trivia: Humbert Humphrey wrote the liner notes for the album!

songfacts.com is full of great tales.

[John Bohn]

Happy New Year, Mike! Thank you for the Emmylou Harris link.

[Steve G, Mendocino]

Mike:

Theres a pretty good documentary on Doc Pomus titled "AKA Doc Pomus" - link at http://akadocpomus.com/the-film/

We showed it in the big tent at the Mendocino Film Festival, a yearly gig of mine. Well received by the audience.

Happy New Year's to you and the doggies.

Steve

[Bob Cook]

Interesting post, Mike. I'm one-half of a "beach bar" duo (me on double bass plus a guitarist) and we do this nearly every week. Even though I would crawl on broken glass to hear Emmy, the original version is sublime.

[david lee]

What was the girl drinking? milk or maybe absenthe? Who was seated at her left? Mondrian? nice picture...

[Robert Gordon]

As a Rotarian, I was moved by this story. Thank you.

[Earl Dunbar]

Even before I knew the story of Doc Pomus and this song, it was one of my favourites from childhood. And appropriate.

[Eric Onorre]

For a nice selection of Doc Pomus songs, check out the album "Till the Night is Gone: A Tribute to Doc Pomus. It features, among others, Bob Dylan, Los Lobos, Lou Reed and Dr. John. I am particularly enamored of the BB King and Irma Thomas selections. It is also noteworthy that Pomus attempted to bring vocalist Little Jimmy Scott out of obscurity in an open letter to Billboard magazine (the text of which can be found with a little Google searching). When Scott sang at Pomus's funeral, he was rediscovered by the industry, with a subsequent album and Grammy.

[JimE]

Nice.

Speaking of music, I stumbled across this today while I was supposed to be working. I know you're a Neil Young fan and thought you might enjoy it.

Happy New Year to you and yours.

Bon Iver at AIR Studios (4AD/Jagjaguwar Session)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9Tp5fl18Ho

[mark o]

Mike a great story and another terrific post to end the year. Thanks and have a Happy New Year.

[Ron Weinstock]

There is an excellent biography of Doc,
Lonely Avenue: The Unlikely Life and Times of Doc Pomus, by Alex Halberstadt. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lonely-avenue-alex-halberstadt/1102152621?ean=9780306815645

Also a good collection of songs he wrote is The Pomus & Shuman Story: Double Trouble 1956-1967 from the English Ace Records (and includes the Drifters hit). http://www.amazon.com/Pomus-Shuman-Story-Trouble-1956-1967/dp/B000O5916A/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1451653673&sr=8-9&keywords=doc+pomus

[Anthony Collins]

When someone asks me what sort of music I like I have to say "Country, but only really Emmylou Harris". Nice Mandolin by Albert Lee on STLDFM.

Check out the lesser known live LP, Last Date, for a great version of Neil Young's Long May You Run.

[Michael Perini]

Thanks for this.
I knew the story, but didn't know about the Lou Reed tribute.
I'll search that out.
Save the Last Dance was supposed to be the 'B" side and fall into oblivion, Here is Doc explaining how Dick Clark saved it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhTyAUE4fMg

[Patrick Perez]

IIRC, Lou Reed's album Magic and Loss was inspired by the passing of Doc Pomus.

Nice read, I knew of him (I even have the CD Til the Night Is Gone). Terrific writer, Doc.

Patrick

[Tim Auger]

Since you mention Frank Sinatra - he was a far more attractive singer before the period for which he is best known. For example, listen to him singing 'Why do I fall in love so easily' in Anchors Aweigh. He really could sustain a note, but seemed to abandon this style more and more as the years went on.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I'll second the recommendation for the documentary film, "AKA Doc Pomus," which I saw when it headlined the New York Jewish Film Festival in 2013.

Another interesting thing mentioned in the film about the lyrics to this song was that he intentionally used awkward syntax (like "in whose arms you're gonna be") to make the song sound like it had been translated from Spanish, in keeping with the Latin rhythm.

[Bruce McL]

Lou Reed told this story to Elvis Costello on Costello's show, called Spectacle. It was on Season One, Episode 4:

http://www.amazon.com/Elvis-Costello-Spectacle-Episode-Reed/dp/B0033Q50H6/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1451803667&sr=1-1

It's a fascinating episode of a generally very interesting show. Reed clearly loved and respected Doc Pomus.

[KeithB]

I first became aware of Emmylou Harris when she hauntingly sang "Here, There and Everywhere" at (IIRC) the Lowell George Benefit concert and her appearance on "The Last Waltz".

I attended a concert and snuck in my Dad's Yashica TL electro and took some pictures. Unfortunately, I did not compensate for the largely black background and she came out very over exposed turning into - as I joked at the time "Angellou Harris".

[Jeremy Cherfas]

Ry Cooder's version isn't half bad either.