It's Late (1959)
Unfamiliar with this week's song. Hear it here.
1) Ricky Nelson laments that he should have been home hours ago. When is the last time you stayed up later than you should have? What were you doing? I stayed up late last night watching Pillow Talk with my son Josh. We stay up late in the summer. It is so hard for me to go back to school in August because I just love staying up with him. I LOVED that movie by the way. I laughed so hard! So glad Summer is here!
2) Compounding Ricky's problem is that he's nearly out of gas. How is your gas tank right now? When did you most recently fill 'er up? It is full...got filled up today.
3) It gets worse! He can't call home because he doesn't have a dime for the pay phone. Have you recently been in a situation where you've been glad you had your cell phone handy? Maybe not recently, but the reason I have never been without a cell phone is I was traveling late at night many years ago and someone had a car wreck and the body was laying in the road. Then some guy comes running toward my car. I was so freaked out. The guy running toward my car turned out to be someone I knew though. I was afraid I was going to be killed. I was on a dark winding road. I also had a flat one time that my cell phone came in handy.
4) The video for this song is from an episode of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Ozzie Nelson, Ricky's father, was in charge of the show and made the rules. One was that no one was allowed to smoke on the set ... except his wife, Harriet. Do you smoke? Have you ever lived with a smoker? I do not smoke and I do not currently live with anyone that does. My mom smoked when I was a kid though.
5) Life magazine coined the phrase "teen idol" to describe Ricky's popularity. According to Tiger Beat, today's teen idols include Johnny Orlando and Ruby Jay. Johnny was born in 2003, Ruby in 2004. Sam admits that before today, she had no idea who these young people are. How about you? Nope, never heard of those people, but I remember Tiger Beat! I loved that magazine as a teen!
6) While Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan have posthumously praised Ricky Nelson's music, 1950s music critics dismissed him as a lightweight. What's the last review you read? Was it written by a professional critic, or was it contributed by a consumer to a site like Amazon or Yelp? Probably something on Amazon or even Ulta. I never read professional critic reviews.
7) At the height of his popularity, Ricky tried his hand at movies, appearing in the western Rio Bravo with John Wayne. He turned 18 during the filming, and Wayne celebrated by playfully throwing Ricky into a sack of horse manure. Do you think pranks and practical jokes are funny? Not particularly.
8) In 1959, when this song was popular, the St. Lawrence Seaway was completed. It connects Canada to our Great Lakes. Without looking it up, can you name all 5 Great Lakes? no, I was able to come up with three and had to look the other two up. I remembered Erie, Michigan and Huron.
9) Random question – You drive past a local motel and see the car of a very married friend right there in the lot. Would you ask her about it? Oh wow! I would probably never pay enough attention to actually look at the cars at a hotel, but if I did, I would probably wait to see if the friend said anything first.