Saturday, April 01, 2023

April Showers: What Fools These Mortals Be!

Pieces of April: Three Dog Night 
YouTube Video by Jim C.

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In April:
 April Fool's Day or All Fools' Day
It is celebrated yearly on the first day of April when people play practical jokes on each other. The victims are "April fools" and hoax stories may be reported in the newspapers on the day itself but explained subsequently. Well known in Canada, Europe, Australia, Brazil and the U.S., it has been popular since the 1800s.  The earliest recorded connection with 1 April and fooling can be found in 'The Canterbury Tales' by Geoffrey Chaucer [1392]. 
In Singapore too, we used to trick each other with April Fool jokes. As a younger person in the 60s, it was worse. And there are songs about April and fools! Either Elvis Presley's A Fool Such As I or Rick Nelson's, Poor Little Fool would have been a good choice for today's posting but here's one you might not have heard of.  It is a ballad written by Marty Robbin's friend Don Winters which was on the flip of his big hit, Devil Woman from 1962.

April Fool's Day: Marty Robbins
YouTube Video from: David R. Rogers.

April Fool's Day (composed by Don Winters)

"It should be April Fool's Day cause you've been foolin' me
All the things you promised just weren't meant to be
You lied, you lied you cheated, you never could be true
It should be April Fool's Day and the joke should be on you.

It hurt me so to see you go your secret love and you
As in the past, for now, at last I found someone too
Your secret love has left you and I found someone new
It should be April Fool's Day and the joke should be on you."

Puck is an illustration of a character from 
W. Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.'

In another context

Puck:
"Captain of our fairy band,
Helena is here at hand,
And the youth, mistook by me,
Pleading for a lover's fee.
Shall we their fond pageant see?
Lord, what fools these mortals be!"

William Shakespeare:
A Midsummer Night's Dream: (3.2: 110-115)


Familiar Songs With April In Title

Pieces of April - Three Dog Night 

April Love - Pat Boone 
April - Deep Purple
April Come She Will - Simon/Garfunkel 
April Fools Dionne Warwick 

April In Paris - Frank Sinatra / Billie Holiday / Count Basie 
April In  Portugal - Frank Sinatra / Les Butler 
April Played A Fiddle - Frank Sinatra 
April Showers - Eddie Fisher 
I'll Remember April - Charlie Parker 
April Love: Pat Boone 
YouTube Video:
Barbara83Couto

Google Images 
YouTube Videos.
This post has been rejuvenated from 1/4/2013.

A Fool Such As I: Elvis Presley. 
YouTube Video by: musicislifee01.

4 comments:

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Anonymous said...

It's amazing how many songs were written about April and yet we hardly hear them played these days. Such a shame.
Comments by Cedric

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

Thanks Cedric Collars, from Australia, for the above comment.

Yes, it is a shame really!
Some of them are hits too during the 60's and 70's.
Worse, the older ones like April Showers, April in Portugal, etc. from the 40's and 50's are
not heard at all.