There is no way that I could have come up with that name until, this morning, I checked Google to learn about another insistent song that somehow sneaked into my head during the night--and would not leave. (Link to song.)
He released the song "My Heart Is an Open Book" in December 1958. I was in ninth grade at Hiram High School, and the song became a regular on the radio, on our 45rpm record players, at our sock hops.* It would reach Number 3 on the top hits of 1959.
Written by Hal David (!) and Lee Pockriss (?), the lyrics--and there aren't many--are simple (see below). Lots of repetition.
Dobkins, Jr., born in 1941 in Cincinnati (!), died in Mason, Ohio (about 24 miles NE of Cincinnati), on April 8 this year! (Was it COVID-19? I can't find it easily, and so I quit looking--that's my Old Guy Response these days.) His musical prominence did not last--so short was his popularity span, in fact, that (as I said at the top of this post) I could not come up with his name--and even when I saw it this morning on my screen, I did not recognize it.
A little lesson in humility, eh? Our names--unless they happen to be, oh, William Shakespeare or George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)--will not live long after us. (Can you name--without cheating--all sixteen of your great-great grandparents?)
Anyway, the song is a simple plea: Don't believe that guy who's telling you lies about me; I am not cheating on you. "I love nobody but you," he says.
But the song caught on, hung around for a while, faded, died.
Sound familiar?
* I was very surprised to discover that "sock hop" (or any other of its variant spellings--soc hop, etc.) does not appear in Merriam-Webster online, in dictionary.com, in the OED--tempus fugit.
Lyrics:
Don't believe all those lies Darlin', just believe your eyes And Look, look My heart is an open book I love nobody but you (ah, ah, ah, ah) Look, look My heart is an open book My love is honest and true Some jealous so and so Wants us to part That's why he's tellin' you That I've got a cheatin' heart But don't believe all those lies Darlin', just believe your eyes And look, look My heart is an open book I love Nobody but you Some jealous so and so Wants us to part That's why he's tellin' you That I've got a cheatin' heart But don't believe all those lies Darlin', just believe your eyes And Look, look My heart is an open book
I love Nobody but you Nobody but you Nobody but you
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