Je ne regrette rien.

A quick lunchtime post, but I can’t let the day go by without saying something, because today is the anniversary I have mentioned once or twice. My idea was to find a happy love song to dedicate to Mrs simonsometimessays – but it has not proved easy. Let me demonstrate.

No Regrets. The Walker Brothers (obviously not brothers). Good title for the day, and a brilliant song with the most understated and controlled vocals by Scott walker. His voice usually soars majestically over the instruments – like in The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Any More,  but in No Regrets he is truly part of the whole. However, it’s about a couple who have split up, so not suitable.

Je Ne Regrette Rien. Edith Piaf. A classy, sassy and (yes, I’m going to say it) iconic number which always sets the blood coursing. But it is also full of defiance, which is not the mood I’m trying to promote. 

Silly Love Songs. Paul McCartney and Wings. Begrudgingly I will admit that this has a positive sentiment to express, but that is as far as I will go, and even that much is on condition that you acknowledge its intrinsic dullness. There is no reason to link to it other than to prove that point. If I offered that to Mrs sss as a token of our years together I wouldn’t blame her for tearing it up and shredding it into my porridge to show how indigestible it is.

I wouldn’t change a thing. Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas, from the cultural height that is Disney’s Camp Rock 2. We’re getting closer with this – it’s at least fun and tuneful with a decent beat; but let’s face it, it’s a bit lightweight and in any event Mrs sss and I are perhaps not the polar opposites that the song depicts.

La ci darem la mano. Mozart – from Don Giovanni. I’m tempted to risk it. This may be the attempt of a highly practised seducer to get past the underwear of yet another young woman (for a full account, see his servant Leporello’s “Catalogue” aria: 1,003 in Spain already…), but if I could write music like this it would speak for itself. There is no better gift I could find for Mrs sss, and it comes with the tiniest hint of  irresistibility to women… no, she’d never buy it.

Summer Night on the River. Delius. This gives me so much pleasure that I simply want to share it, but the link is tenuous at best. Perhaps Mrs sss might consent to spend a summer night on the river – but it would have to be free from spiders and draughts. And I’m not sure we will be spending much time Under the Boardwalk either – we’d end up getting sand where we don’t want it.

I don’t want rueful, bitter-sweet or plaintive. I don’t want to exhort her to Stand by [her] Man despite his many defects of character.

What I need is a song to explain that when no one else can understand me, when everything I do is wrong…

You’re ahead of me. Or at least, you should be. If you’re not: listen and memorise. If you think it’s corny: perhaps so, but I don’t mind. This is a Happy Love Song, delivered by one of the greatest voices of all at his absolute best. So, from me to her:

Elvis Presley, The Wonder of You. 

Thanks, A.