VERA LYNN – “My Son My Son”
My God My God. One of the defences of the sales-based UK charts I regularly offer is that it impartially reflects anyone who is buying singles, not just the people record labels and radios would like to be buying them. This means the charts can be regularly mugged by tots and grannies taking a fancy to a particular single. On paper this is a victory for unpredictability and punter power, in actual fact it means Dame Vera and “My Son My Son” can get to Number One.
If you asked most people with an interest in rock what pre-rock pop sounded like – the stuff that Elvis shimmied into destruction according to the official histories – they’d imagine something not unlike “My Son”. Sledgehammer production, tottering sentimentality, a complete and deliberate absence of youth: this one has it all! If there was ever a battle between this old music and that imminent new one then this was so defeated, so comprehensively annihilated that now it seems like an archaeological find, not an old enemy, not even quaint.
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Tom in Popular • 1,140 views • Share/Save
The song isn’t very good, but I think you’re letting your 2003 view of Dame Vera colour your thinking on this one. She was only 37 here – she was younger than Frankie Laine, for example. If she got to number one now, you could chalk it up to Granny Power, but back then this was surely just the kind of stuff that people bought.
Just what I’ve said on here too and she was also younger than Frank Sinatra and the same age as Dean Martin.
And this tracks appearance at No 1 could well have had something to do with it being sent overseas (possibly just in time for Christmas)to the tens of thousands of National Serviceman based all round the world and who in some caese didnt see Britain again for 2 years by their mothers.
And then there’s Clive Dunn, Chrissie Hynde, Debbie Harry… actual age of the singer in this case seems barely relevant. It’s pretty gruesome.
Good point on National Service. It ran til the end of the 50s (1959?), which could also explain Anne Shelton’s Lay Down Your Arms a couple of years later.
Well yes, wichita, and there’s also the little matter of Two-Way Family Favourites, which was mainly aimed at families separated by National Service and which was perhaps the most listened-to music radio of all at the time going out as it did at Sunday lunchtime when most families still had a traditional sit-down Sunday dinner. I’d imagine that this would be exactly the sort of thing that would be heavily requested.
Absolutely, but not by the time I was listening thank gawd. When I was old enough to be aware of Family Favourites the requests were for Andy Williams’ Almost There (good), the Four Tops’ Reach Out I’ll Be There (better), and the Turtles’ Happy Together (bestest).
It always seemed to be the Three Degrees ‘When Will I See You Again?’ when I was old enough enough to remember – literally every week that was on (for obvious reasons)plus Peters and Lee ‘Welcome Home’. Actually when was probably even younger I also seem to remember ‘Dedicated to the one I love’ by the Mamas and Papas and ‘Morningtown Ride’ by the Sseekers being on quite a bit.
There are some parts of this song that are horrible to my modern ear, but also a couple of emotional snatches that I really like.
Independently of what it sounds like, I think it’s great and refreshing to hear a pop song sung from the point of view of a mother instead of a lover, or some teenage tearaway. (The Beatles must have thought so too, given the likes of She’s Leaving.) And when middle-aged women seemed not to exist in Hollywood and the popular consciousness for such a long, shameful period in our own lifetimes, I’m all for a bit of Mum Power in the charts.
Light Entertainment Watch: Vera Lynn reamined a popular television attraction until the 1980s. Surviving appearances include;
BIG NIGHT OUT: with Mike and Bernie Winters (Hosts), Lionel Blair and his Dancers, David Hamilton (Voice Over Opening Credits), The ABC Television Showband, Vera Lynn, Dickie Valentine, Digby Wolfe, Jack Haig (1964)
CHRISTMAS NIGHT WITH THE STARS: Vera Lynn (1958)
DES O’CONNOR TONIGHT: with Marilyn Michaels, Kip Addotta, Vera Lynn (1980)
DES O’CONNOR TONIGHT: with Vera Lynn, Harry Secombe (1982)
DES O’CONNOR TONIGHT: with Vera Lynn, Engelbert Humperdinck, Henry Mancini, Gloria Gaynor (1987)
FIFTY YEARS OF MUSIC: with Henry Hall, Lulu, Vera Lynn, The New Seekers, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Cliff Richard, The Young Generation (1972)
THE GOOD OLD DAYS: with Vera Lynn, Sheila Steafel, Windsor Davies and Don Estelle, Lyn Kennington, Davy Kaye, Ray C. Davis (1975)
A JUBILEE OF MUSIC: with Vera Lynn, Acker Bilk, Max Bygraves, Petula Clark, Ken Dodd, Val Doonican, Rolf Harris, Kathy Kirby, Lulu, Matt Monro (1976)
LOOKS FAMILIAR: with Vera Lynn, Eric Morecambe, Ernie Wise (1976)
LOOKS FAMILIAR: with Vera Lynn, Eric Morecambe, Ernie Wise (1976)
THE MORECAMBE AND WISE SHOW: with Gordon Jackson, Jack Jones, Vera Lynn, Peter Murray, Shirley Bassey, André Previn (1972)
PARKINSON: with Vera Lynn, Sir Douglas Bader, Windsor Davies, Kenneth Williams (1981)
THE PAUL DANIELS MAGIC SHOW: with Donuta, Meir Yedid, Graham Fletcher, Vera Lynn, Wynford Vaughan Thomas (1985)
THE ROYAL VARIETY PERFORMANCE: with Bruce Forsyth, The Crazy Gang, Russ Conway, Frankie Howerd, Diana Dors, Vera Lynn, Nat ‘King’ Cole, Bob Monkhouse, Norman Wisdom, Jimmy Edwards (1960)
THE ROYAL VARIETY PERFORMANCE: with The cast of Billy, Harry Secombe, Count Basie and his Orchestra, Larry Parker, Dad’s Army, Charles Aznavour, Telly Savalas, Ronnie Dukes and Rikki Lee, Michael Crawford, Vera Lynn (1975)
RUSSELL HARTY: with Vera Lynn, Charles Pearce (1975)
SEASIDE SPECIAL: with Vera Lynn, Jim Davidson, The Wurzels, Tony Selby (1977)
SHOW OF THE WEEK: Vera Lynn (25 editions 1969-1974)
SUNDAY, SUNDAY: with Victoria Wood, Amanda Burton, Joe Loss, Vera Lynn, Wendy Richard, Anton Rodgers, Omar Sharif (1986)
THIS IS YOUR LIFE: Vera Lynn (1979)
THIS IS YOUR LUNCH: Dame Vera Lynn (1975)
THE VAL DOONICAN MUSIC SHOW: with Vera Lynn, George Hamilton IV, Lynsey De Paul (1977)
VAL PARNELL’S SPECTACULAR: The Vera Lynn Show (4 editions, 1960-1961)
WOGAN: with Angela Rippon, Roald Dahl, Vera Lynn, Kiki Dee (1984)
WOGAN: with Steve Guttenberg, Michael Hordern, Vera Lynn (1988)
With such a wealth of material, perhaps the lost status of these shows is easier for us to take;
BIG NIGHT OUT: with Mike and Bernie Winters (Hosts), Lionel Blair and his Dancers, Vera Lynn, Alfred Marks, Gerry And The Pacemakers, Don Arrol (1963)
COMEDY BANDBOX: with Vera Lynn, Clive Dunn, The Dallas Boys, Joan Turner, Hope and Keen, Lynton Boys (1963)
THE HARRY SECOMBE SHOW: with Vera Lynn, Ronnie Barker, The New Seekers, George Hamilton IV, Julian Orchard (1971)
INTERNATIONAL CABARET: with Kenneth Williams, Alyn Ainsworth and his Orchestra, Vera Lynn, Winifred Atwell, Robby Royal (1968)
MEANWHILE ON BBC 2: with Vera Lynn, The Dancing Devils (1971)
THE ROLF HARRIS SHOW: with Vera Lynn, David Nixon, Jim Ale, Cheryl Gray, The Young Generation (1969)
THE VAL DOONICAN SHOW: with The Gojos, The Adam Singers, Vera Lynn, John Williams, Des Shawn (1968)
VERA LYNN:with The Young Generation, Vince Hill, Labi Siffre, Roger Webb (1972)
VERA LYNN SINGS (1977)
WHACK-O!: Vera Lynn (1959)
Vera Lynn made a surprisingly good C&W LP (“Vera Lynn in Nashville”) in 1977.
Also, she made it into generally accepted rhyming slang, which is probably the most hallowed of all possible conditions. Well done, Vera.
Yes one of a select few people from the world of popular music who made it into generally accepted rhyming slang…along with Ruby Murray, Pete Tong, Gary Glitter, Nelson Eddy, Nelson Riddle, – are there any more?
isn’t it amazing that our great “free thinking and open minded new generation” cannot understand that there are people who think differently to them. what hope of the future? God bless Vera Lynn and the followers who enjoy tuneful music.
New generation ? Good heavens. Sometimes there are such disparities between pre-rock & roll music and post that it is difficult to assess the two alongside one another. The Forces sweetheart here rams home a sentimental journey into parenthood – an ode to loved ones stationed abroad. It’s difficult to argue with the sentiment but it’s a staid affair which strangely seems to stray into Russian folk song territory in the middle (replete with humming male voices) before returning from whence it began for no good reason at all.
Has Dame Vera got the last laugh? The Beatles remasters have only been out for two days but according to the midweeks she’s comfortably outselling the lot (and, apart from Jamie T, everybody else).
Interestingly “My Son, My Son” is nowhere to be found on her compilation.