A few weeks ago, one commenter asked about this one since the song is approaching its 50th anniversary in December. Yup, I am talking about Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" which was released all the way back at the end of the year 1975.
My personal encounter with "50 Ways" happened back in band class in the early 1980s and it wasn't particularly an auspicious one. Our class was given the sheet music for it and we had to practice it. The first impression by us was how we could make a sardonic joke about nicknaming it "50 Ways to Love Your Lever". Aside from that, we didn't do a great job on it, not that many of us were all that interested in it or knew about it or Simon at that time. I knew about the famed New Jersey singer-songwriter mostly through his partnership with Art Garfunkel and for his many hosting appearances on "Saturday Night Live".
I finally got to hear "50 Ways" once I finally decided to drop my clarinet (figuratively speaking) for the last time and put a very happy sealed door on my music-playing career. That's when I said "Ah, so that's how it's supposed to sound!". Not too bad a song either with the key change between verse and chorus, the hip rhyming chorus itself, and the legendary Steve Gadd with his classic drum riff.
In Canada, "50 Ways" reached No. 7 on RPM while in the United States, it hit No. 1. As for what was pretty hot in Japan at the time, I'll go with the final Oricon ranking for 1975...December 29th.
1. Yumi Arai -- Ano Hi ni Kaeritai （あの日にかえりたい）
2. Masatoshi Nakamura -- Ore tachi no Tabi （俺たちの旅）
3. Hiromi Iwasaki -- Sentimental （センチメンタル）
ThiHis lineup is soul-filled (or sentimental) with lots of youth, too! Hiromi Iwasaki and Yumi Arai were both very young or at least decades younger than they are today, and it shows in their voices and performances. I do not believe I have ever spent time with Yumi Arai's 「あの日にかえりたい」before, but I really like it as it is different from some of the other songs of hers I am more familiar with.
ReplyDeleteIf I'm not mistaken, Iwasaki was in her mid-teens while Arai was in her early 20s. They were just at the beginning of their respective greatness.
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