Song 422: This week on the playlist you’ll find Midnight Mary by Joey Powers, written by Artie Wayne and Ben Raleigh, and you can catch a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I heard this hit on the radio at the small diner down the road from my parents house one sunny afternoon when I stopped in briefly, probably to deliver the local newspaper. While I had remembered that interlude as being a summer day, my sources indicate that this 45 made the charts in the fall of 1963, and peaked in early January of 1964, so perhaps I just happened to catch it on a warm autumn day, but regardless of how my memory may have confused the particulars, I fondly recall the lasting musical and lyrical impressions it gave me. I enjoyed it so much that I learned the chorus melody and words just from that initial encounter, and I would, in solitary moments over the next few months, often sing that chorus to myself, just for my own pleasure. Of course, when February rolled around, a quartet from Liverpool rocked my world, and I starting learning a whole new set of melodies and lyrics, but I still never forgot about midnight and Mary.
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