It's happened again.
From some unidentifiable source--for some unfathomable reason--a song popped into my head late last night. I remembered only a few words of it ...
Knock three times on the ceiling if you want me.
Twice on the pipe ...
That's all. I could not remember who sang it--or when--but I do know this: Every time I woke up last night--every single time--those fragments of lyrics popped up into my head like a grinning creature in Whac-A-Mole, a grinning creature that escaped me every single time.
So ... this morning ... Google to the Rescue!
Performers: Tony Orlando and Dawn (see pic at the top of this post)--at the time, though, they were just "Dawn": Tony Orlando had not emerged to take the spotlight. The others in Dawn at the time were Toni Wine and Linda November.
Composers: L. Russell Brown and Irwin Levine
Released: 1970; it would become #1 in the USA (January 1971) and in numerous other countries.
Lyrics: see bottom of this post
In 1970 I was in my first year of marriage, living in Kent, Ohio (323 College Court), with Joyce; I was driving twelve miles each morning to the old Aurora Middle School (102 E. Garfield Road) to teach 7th grade Language Arts. I listened to the car radio, going and returning, so I'm pretty sure I heard that song every day at least once. It was everywhere.
It's kind of a catchy thing, you know? Not very deep. Not very ... angry ... or even passionate. (Link to video.) A guy living upstairs from a woman he's ... uh ... obsessed with (too sweet a song to be creepy?). It's sung to her, asking her to let him know if she wants to meet him ... and she can let him know by knocking three times on the ceiling; if the answer is "no," well, she should knock twice on the pipe.
Tony Orlando, by the way, was born the same year as I: 1944--though he's about seven months older (and, yes, he's still alive, still performing). (As I am.) (Not.)
He and Dawn had a TV variety show on CBS--1974-76: The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show. The group broke up in 1976 after the show went off the air.
I'm not sure why this what's-that-song? stuff happens to me now and then (always at night, of course--when my phone and computer are off). Is there some insidious rogue area in my brain that, every now and then, decides to disturb my sleep? That sends into my consciousness the (partial) memory of something that doesn't really matter? But that nonetheless drives me batty the rest of the night as I struggle to access that part of my memory labeled Stuff That Doesn't Really Matter but Which You Must Remember Right Now or You Will Sleep Only Sporadically the Rest of the Night?
And so I ask, "Mr. Darwin, what possible evolutionary advantage did this cerebral quirk grant to me and my fellow sleep-troubled humans?"
Maybe it kept us safe at night? Restless, we would not be as vulnerable to, you know, prowling, hungry flesh-eaters?
Okay, but there were times last night, trying to sleep, when I would have preferred to become a tiger's late-night snack.
Lyrics to the song:
Hey girl what ya doin' down there
Dancin' alone every night while I live right above you
I can hear your music playin'
I can feel your body swayin'
One floor below me you don't even know me
I love you
Oh my darling
Knock three times on the ceiling if you want me
Twice on the pipe if the answer is no
Oh my sweetness
Means you'll meet me in the hallway
Twice on the pipe means you ain't gonna show
If you look out your window tonight
Pull in the string with the note that's attached to my heart
Read how many times I saw you
How in my silence I adored you
Only in my dreams did that wall between us come apart
Oh my darling
Knock three times on the ceiling if you want me
Twice on the pipe if the answer is no
Oh my sweetness
Means you'll meet me in the hallway
Twice on the pipe means you ain't gonna show
I can hear your music playin'
I can feel your body swayin'
One floor below me you don't even know me
I love you
Oh my darling
Knock three times on the ceiling if you want me
Twice on the pipe if the answer is no
Oh my sweetness
Means you'll meet me in the hallway
Twice on the pipe means you ain't gonna show
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