Title: “For the Good Times”
Artist: Perry Como (yeah yeah shut up)
Nationality: American
Year: 1973 (original version 1968)
Genre: Easy Listening (written though as a country song)
Source: No idea; a million “best of” Perry Como albums. I think I heard it on
Perry Como: 20 Golden Greats but I couldn’t swear to it.Oh no wait: it’s on
And I Love You So, as shown above.
Written by: Kris Kristofferson
Chart position(s) (Singles only): 1
Storyline: A man and woman spend a last night together before breaking up forever.
Main instrument: Orchestra
Other version(s) by: Bill Nash (1968) Ray Price, Kris Kristofferson, Lynn Anderson (1970), Andy Williams, Loretta Lynn (1971), Al Green, Jerry Lee Lewis (1972), Tennessee Ernie Ford and Glen Campbell (1975), Rita Coolidge (1984 and again in 1996), Johnny Cash (2010; posthumously) and a ton of others including Sinatra, Kenny Rogers, Willie Nelson and Michael Jackson.
Comments: Look, just fu
ck off will you? Yes, I used to take my mother’s records and play them. It was a time when money was tight, I wasn’t working and there was no such thing as the internet, streaming or YouTube, and I got bored listening to my collection of about 400 albums after a few years. I listened to Barry Manilow (I SAID, shut UP!), Johnny Mathis, Elkie Brooks and Andy Williams (look, I won’t tell you again…) and found that there is some damn fine music there. This was one of the favourites for me on her Perry Como album (I don’t know; I think it was something like
20 Golden Greats or some other inspired title for a greatest hits album. The cover was green. I think) and it’s a beautiful song, treated with Como’s trademark croon and perfect diction. I love that about these sort of songs: there’s no dropping of g’s - it’s always dreaming not dreamin’ - and all words are perfectly and fully enunciated, with "and" being "and" not "an'", "why don’t you" being just that instead of "why don’t ya" and "I want to", never "I wanna". Class.
But at its heart, this song, written by country supremo and star of the movie
Convoy Kris Kristofferson, is a man getting laid one last time before he breaks up with the woman. The reason for the split is not alluded to; he just turns to her in bed and says “I know it’s over” and then comes out with all sorts of platitudes, such as “life goes on and this old world will keep on turning”, assuring her that she’ll “find another” and that he’ll “be there if you should find you ever need me.” Yeah, right. As sentiments go, it’s pretty selfish and heartless, though in fairness I can’t say his woman is feeling and doing the very same thing, getting some before leaving him. Still, the song does open with the words “Don’t look so sad, I know it’s over”, which could be interpreted two ways.
It could be that she was about to tell him she was leaving but he’s telling her he knows and understands, or he could have just dropped the bombshell on her and she’s now processing it. If the latter, he doesn’t give her much time to get her head around it before she’s, um, getting something else around something else, if ya catch my drift. But for all that, the imagery is gorgeous - “Hear the whisper of the raindrops falling soft across the window” - and then that’s kind of taken off by his request “Make believe you love me one more time.” So we’re back to the question: is she leaving him? She must be, if he wants her to pretend she loves him, but then again… well, this could go on forever. Being originally a country song (and written by not only a man, but a
man’s man - remember “Help Me Make It Through the Night”?) you would have to assume it’s written very much from a dominant male perspective. Really, the only country songs that look sympathetically at a woman’s plight tend to be written by, well, women. What about “Ruby (Don’t Take Your Love to Town)”? Hardly an understanding woman in that, is there?
The song has become so popular and famous that both Como AND Andy Williams (who I tend to see almost as twins separated at birth, and hell, throw in Val Doonican and you have triplets) covered it, as did a whole host of other people, shown above. Even ol’ Blue Eyes himself had a go, Michael Jackson sung it to his mother on her birthday (wait, what? That’s an odd song to sing to yer ma! “And I Love You So” maybe. “It’s Impossible”, sure, but this? “Lay your head on my
what, son?”) and country legend Willie Nelson had a go too. Even the Man in Black recorded a version, just prior to his passing, which was released after his death.
It would probably be interesting to see what the other versions are like, especially the earlier, presumably more country ones, but I’m a busy man and time does not wait for me so here’s the version I know and love, and even if you think Perry Como’s surname is misspelt, you need a heart of stone not to be just a little moved by this.