Saturday Morning Soundtrack: "Never My Love" by The Association (1967)

We're heading back to 1967 for this week's installment of  Saturday Morning Soundtrack, when bell bottom jeans, tie dye, fringe jackets, and paisley prints were all the groovy rage. To celebrate, we're featuring a song that has gone down as one of the most iconic (and time-honored) tunes of the 1960s!

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Saturday Morning Soundtrack @ Youtube

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"Never My Love" by The Association (1967)

It's the day after Valentine's Day, and I have to imagine that this week's soundtrack entry got a lot of play last night as smitten couples made and played romantic mixes for one another. It seems like just about everyone has gotten a tape with this song on it at one point or another--my high school girlfriend was the first person to gift me this song (though it was far from the first time I'd ever heard it). In fact, this song is so popular that it remains a well-selling track on iTunes and other media sellers even today, almost fifty years after its release and initial rise to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Interestingly, a BMI survey in 1999 also determined that "Never My Love" is the second most played song in the history of radio and television (right behind The Righteous Brothers's "You've Lost That Loving Feeling"). It was so popular, in fact, that within a year of its release, sixteen other artists had already recorded covers of the song.

What makes this song so timeless and beloved? I think it comes down to the laid back feel of the music and the maturity of the lyrics.

Allmusic.com's Stewart Mason describes the tune perfectly when he says:

The dual lead vocals, by Terry Kirkman and Larry Ramos, are supported by wordless harmonies as effortlessly airy as whipped cream, and Ray Pohlman's clever arrangement adds space to the sound through juxtaposing disparate elements like the four-note bass riff that introduces the verses and the electric piano lick that ornaments the chorus, rather than jamming them on top of each other.

These elements, together, create a song that it catchy enough to hum, but also interesting enough to return to time and time again. The song has a dreamy, faraway quality that helps to undercut any insecurity we might read into its lyrics. This isn't a neurotic 3AM phone conversation between clingy partners. It's the pensive pillow talk lovers engage in as they ponder their uncertain future.

"Never My Love" toes the line between rock and pop, and even in the early years of those genres, listeners were already inundated with the basic "Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch" schmaltz that we've all come expect from commercial music.  Is that so terrible? Nah. Music is a place where we can express all the ooey, gooey, sappy, sentimental, and mawkish expressions that we're too embarrassed to say out loud. That's what makes it so enjoyable to listen to. That said, every once in a while, a song like this one comes along and is able to express a more sophisticated (and ultimately satisfying) romance. Rather than resorting to generic platitudes of love, "Never My Love," paints a picture of two lovers who have been together long enough that they are ready to begin talking about their future but not so long that they've reached that state of comfortable stability:

"You ask me if there'll come a time / when I grow tired of you." 

I'd venture to say that every couple, no matter how secure, has had some variation of this conversation at some point. Why? Because even the most relentlessly optimistic among us realize that love is a lot tougher in real life than it is in the movies. Feelings can change. Passion can cool. Plans can change. Couples can stop working at it. And so we seek simple and direct affirmation, the kind that our singer offers when he says, "Never, my love." 

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So what do you think? Did I get it right or miss the mark? Please, feel free to weigh in using the comments below. And, if you would like to write a Guest Entry for the "Saturday Morning Soundtrack" series where you creatively respond to one of your favorite rock songs, don't hesitate to contact me with queries.