Tuesday 8 February 2011

"Sugar Baby Love" (The Rubettes 1974)

So we were driving the 100miles back from a day out, windscreen wipers on, radio on, and I began to think ….. who was the first guy who called his girlfriend “Baby”?  And what was her reaction?!!

Baby? Honey? Sugar? Doll?  Girlfriend pet-names, used in pop songs over many decades. I haven’t done huge research but Ted Lewis had a hit (7 weeks at number 1) with When my Baby Smiles at Me in … 1920!! (not the Peter Allen 1979 Dante's Inferno version!)

What exactly does he mean when he calls her his Baby?! I don’t think I want to even explore the possibilities!  Honey? – I suppose she’s sweet, much like Sugar. Doll? – a plaything? Little boys have never been associated kindly with dolls! They’ve been known to swing them around by their hair, or break off their heads, or – as in a current UK TV ad (for gravy nogal!) – they throw them up on the roof to be mean to their little sister!  Mmmm! Sorry Cliff Richard! Maybe that Cryin’, Talkin’, Sleepin’, Walkin’ Livin’ Doll was a little scared, hence the cryin’, and trying to run not just walkin’!! Take a look at her hair, it’s real – now how was that determined?!!

OK, enough of the doll!  I know a young lady who was not too impressed when her boy-cousin – who she hadn’t seen for a good many years – called her Cookie!  Now would that be a Chocolate Chip Cookie? Or a Fortune Cookie?! Or just the Basic Cookie? The same young lady used to be called Pumpkin by a close relative!  A big orange round thing?! With holes poked in at Halloween?! 

Angel? She has to be the perfect one – that’s OK! Chick? That’s so 80’s? A fluffy yellow, high squeaking, demanding ….?!!

I suppose as long as he loves you, it doesn't matter ---- does it?!! 

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