Last night we were singing Duke Ellington songs, and early Broadway tunes from shows like 42nd Street and Ain't Misbehavin'. We were in the groove. We were groovy. At least according to the 1930's song lyrics we were singing. Groovy. 30-40 years before I think of it as the trendy slang of my childhood.
Groovy...makes me think of that hippy era from the late 60's and early 70's. By the mid 70's that word was pretty much over in the cool, common slang of the day. Groovy puts me in a room full of tie dye and psychedelic paisley, seen through a heavy haze of pot smoke. Long haired boys with ragged-edged bell bottoms dragging on the floor, and girls in micro-minis or peasant dresses with granny glasses and love beads said groovy. Not my parents. Surely not my grandparents.
But they did.
Or at least they heard it, knew it, and placed their own hip, cool, jive, spin on the term.
To me the "groovy" songs were, of course, Simon & Garfunkle's "59th St Bridge Song" (which everyone just calls Feelin' Groovy), the Mindbender's "Groovy Kind of Love" and the Troggs' "Wild Thing" which made "...everything.....grrrooovy."
There are others, I know, but those three come to mind. I was actually a huge fan of the Phil Collins remake of "Groovy Kind of Love." It was popular during a rough period in my life, and I remember taping it and listening to it over and over. I don't often like remakes over the original, but in this case I did. I know Petula Clark sang a version of it as well, and her "Downtown" is a happy song for me from my childhood....fodder for another post later...but I cannot place her version of "Groovy Kind of Love" in my mind.
So, I'm nostalgic for groovy, and any swell old song from the 30's, 40's, & 50's, as well as the 60's & 70's. Send me your favorite "groovy" songs and I'll post a list. Thanks for listening.
