Pink Shoelaces

Yesterday, I did a brief Facebook post about how I'd just changed the shoelaces in my sneakers--and about how, because I hadn't performed such an operation in a long, long, long time, that I had to, uh, think a bit about what I was doing. For me,  the "autopilot" part of that mundane activity had malfunctioned. Mental entropy!

And then--curse our human minds!--into my head popped an old song--well, part of it did. A little work was necessary to resurrect the rest of it.

Here's the part that came back He wears tan shoes with pink shoelaces ....  Some of the rest trickled back during the night, but it was not until, oh, right now that I did a little Goggling and came up with the rest. (See below.)

Dodie Stevens was the singer (her birth name: Geraldine Ann Pasquale), born 1946. "Pink Shoe Laces" was released in February 1959--I was still just fourteen--in ninth grade. Taking Latin I and Algebra I and whatever. Playing JV basketball, varsity baseball, singing in the school musical production (The Mikado). Trying to avoid the Big Kids ... And, of course, there was the ... Love Stuff ...

Yes, that was the time when that annoying song came out, that song whose words (okay, some of them) invaded my brain yesterday and dug in for what appears to be a long, long stay. Oh, the song reached #3 on the charts for 1959--which says a few things about 1959, I guess.

Another fact that I somehow find a little ... disturbing? When she recorded that song, she was eleven years old. I'm not sure why I find that "disturbing," but I do. I'll have to think about that a bit more, I guess.

The song was written by Micki Grant, (1941-), an African American songwriter (3 Tony nominations) whose Wikipedia page, though brief, is impressive--though it neglects to mention Dodie Stevens and "Pink Shoelaces" (can't say that I blame her). So she wrote that song when she was a teen!

Dodie Stevens now has a website (link), advertising herself as "recording artist, songwriter, & vocal coach." And here's a YouTube video of her (some years later) singing the song. (Link.) And here's even a BETTER video of Stevens--from 1959.

And here are those awesome lyrics that ruined my rest last night:

Now I've got a guy and his name is Dooley

He's my guy and I love him truly

He's not good lookin', heaven knows

But I'm wild about his crazy clothes

He wears tan shoes with pink shoelaces

A polka dot vest and man, oh, man

Tan shoes with pink shoelaces

And a big Panama with a purple hat band

Ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh

Ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh

He takes me deep-sea fishing in a submarine

We got to drive-in movies in a limousine

He's got a whirly-birdy and a 12-foot yacht

Ah, but that's-a not all he's got

He's got tan shoes with pink shoelaces

A polka dot vest and man, oh, man

Tan shoes with pink shoelaces

And a big Panama with a purple hat band

Now Dooley had a feelin' we were goin' to war

So he went out and enlisted in a fightin' corps

But he landed in the brig for raisin' such a storm

When they tried to put 'em in a uniform

He wanted tan shoes with pink shoelaces

A polka dot vest and man, oh, man

He wanted tan shoes with pink shoelaces

And a big Panama with a purple hat band

Ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh

Ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh

Now one day Dooley started feelin' sick

And he decided that he better make his will out quick

He said

"Just before the angels come to carry me

I want it down in writin' how to bury me."

A'wearin tan shoes with pink shoelaces

A polka dot vest and man, oh, man

Give me tan shoes with pink shoelaces

And a big Panama with a purple hat band

Ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh

Ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh

Ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh

And a big Panama with a purple hat band!!