All my friends stand up and cheer and say ‘Man, you’re old’
I once saw a posting on Facebook that said, “There is a time in one’s life when it’s appropriate to stop having birthday parties. That age is 11.”
That seems a bit harsh. There’s “Sweet Sixteen” (driver’s license time); there’s 18 (voting age); there’s 21 (drinking age); there’s 30 (“over the hill” parties). And you could make a case for 40, 50, and every decade thereafter as significant milestones.
But really, don’t we go a little crazy about the whole birthday thing? It’s just another day on life’s journey, isn’t it? Apparently not, say some folks, who relish the opportunity to shower friends and loved ones with loads of attention one day every year. And if it’s a milestone birthday, look out. Things are going to ramp up quickly to an excessive level.
At the risk of being inundated with social media attention, I must wearily announce I am turning 71 years old today. Too old to rock and roll? No way, man! Too old to attend Coachella, certainly; too old to stay up past 10 pm, probably. Not too old to play my music loud!
Birthdays are going to continue to be commemorated, so it’s always good to have some appropriate songs to mark the occasion. I’ve taken the liberty of compiling an eclectic list of tunes — some hits, some obscure, some ancient, some fairly new, some joyous, some reflective — that can come in handy when you want to pay respect to, or reflect upon, turning another year older, the act of aging, or growing up.
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“Birthday,” The Beatles, 1968
Most of the 30 tracks that fill “The White Album” were written during the band’s retreat in India in early 1968, but “Birthday” was born in one night only weeks before the album’s release in November. Lennon and McCartney had been listening to an old ’50s doo-wop birthday song and wanted to come up with something a bit more contemporary, more rock ‘n roll. McCartney started banging out the basic chord progressions on the piano, and a few hours later, the whole gang reconvened to flesh it out and shout out the vocals in unison with great fervor. It has earned classic Beatles status despite not being released as a single, but Lennon’s opinion of it a few years later? “A load of rubbish.”
“My Back Pages,” The Byrds, 1967
This classic tune by Bob Dylan isn’t a birthday song, but it qualifies for this playlist because of its pointed line about aging: “Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.” Many regard Dylan’s sentiment here as one of self-doubt and even regret regarding past life events and beliefs, which is something that happens to most of us as we get on in years. Dylan wrote it at the tender age of 23 for his 1964 LP “Another Side of Bob Dylan,” and it was recorded by a number of other artists, Monty notably The Byrds, who’s rendition reached #30 on US charts in 1967. An all-star cast including Dylan himself collaborated in 1994 on a live version of “My Back Pages” at a Madison Square Garden celebration that’s available on YouTube.
“Birthday,” Katy Perry, 2013
Considering Perry said this disco-ish hit single was inspired by Mariah Carey, you’d think this wouldn’t be my cup of tea, but lo and behold, I kind of like it. It’s certainly a festive tune; one critic called it “pure fun” and “the best thing on the ‘Prism’ album.” Another critic said it reminded him of Prince or Daft Punk, marked by “jerky breaks and synth washes.” Perry chose to spice it up with lyrics that amount to an invitation for sex: “Boy, when you’re with me, I’ll give you a taste, make it like your birthday every day… So let me get you in your birthday suit, it’s time to bring out the big balloons (Woo!)…” It reached #17 on US pop charts and #1 on the dance club chart in early 2014.
“Old,” Paul Simon, 2000
You could always count on Simon to come up with something either poignant or whimsical to say about pretty much any topic, and on his 2000 LP “You’re The One,” he didn’t disappoint. On the track “Old,” he found a way to be both wry and thoughtful in the same set of lyrics when he addressed the subject of birthdays: “Down the decades every year, summer leaves and my birthday’s here, and all my friends stand up and cheer and say, ‘Man, you’re old, gettin’ old, OLD, gettin’ old…’” This is one of my favorite lesser-known Simon albums, and this track in particular always makes me smile.
“Birthday,” Kim Wilde, 2018
In the 1980s and 1990s, British singer Wilde charted several dozen Top 20 singles in the UK and other European countries, but her popularity in the US has been far more sparse, limited mostly to her huge #1 cover version of The Supremes’ “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” in 1987. Although she has curiously chosen to pursue a successful side career in horticulture beginning in 2001, Wilde has continued to have a minor presence in the music scene as well. From her 2018 LP “Here Come the Aliens,” I stumbled on yet another tune entitled “Birthday,” which features some uncharacteristically biting guitar work by Neil Jones and upbeat dance vibes: “You gotta jump like it’s your birthday, you gotta shout like there’s no tomorrow, /This is now, gotta show ’em how to party, the night is yours, /It’s your birthday!…”
“Done Got Old,” Buddy Guy, 2001
One of the most legendary blues guitarists of all time, Buddy Guy turns 89 years old this year, and he certainly knows a thing or two about aging and the limitations it brings, although you wouldn’t know it from listening to him perform, which he is STILL doing now and then. This track from his 2001 LP “Sweet Tea” — his eleventh out of 20 albums in 55 years — uses a simple acoustic Delta blues guitar and voice arrangement to sing these lyrics of resignation about life’s realities (that, frankly, hit a little close to the bone for me these days): “I can’t look like I used to, I can’t walk like I used to, I can’t love like I used to, /Now things gone changed, and I done got old, I can’t do the things I used to do, ’cause I’m an old man…”
“Happy, Happy Birthday Baby,” Dolly Parton & Willie Nelson, 1982
The original recording of this slice of doo-wop from 1957 by The Tune Weavers reached #5 on the charts in the early years of the rock era. It was written by Margo Sylvia and Gilbert Lopez, and Sylvia sang lead vocals on the track. The lyrics mourn the narrator’s recent breakup with her boyfriend and how much she wanted to be by his side on his birthday. The original is a little too cheesy for my tastes, so I looked at some of the cover versions (Ronnie Milsap, Wanda Jackson, Sandy Posey) and decided to feature the duet by Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson, which appeared on the 1982 compilation LP “The Winning Hand,” which included 20 songs featuring Parton, Nelson, Brenda Lee and Kris Kristofferson.
“As I Come of Age,” Stephen Stills, 1975
Written by Stills in 1971, this fine tune has an interesting history. Stills recorded the basic piano track with Ringo Starr on drums during a session in London that year, then resurrected it in 1973, intended as the title track of a Stills solo LP. He overdubbed organ and bass, and Donnie Davis added guitar. The vocal harmonies are by Crosby, Stills and Nash, the first time they’d recorded again as a trio in four years. The threesome reunited with Neil Young in 1974 for a stadium tour, and they sometimes performed the song during those concerts. Finally, he released the song on his solo “Stills” album in 1975. The lyrics, which reflect on how emotions can ebb and flow with the passage of time, bemoan a young man’s loss of his love, made more painful with each passing year: “Yes but it’s all over now, I’m a little bit older now, the lessons that I’m learning now are gonna make it easy somehow…”
“Advice for the Young at Heart,” Tears for Fears, 1989
This dreamy song about life lessons is one of my favorite tracks on the #8 LP “The Seeds of Love” by this excellent British pop-rock duo. Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith made Tears for Fears a household name in the ’80s with “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” “Shout,” “Head Over Heels” and “Sowing the Seeds of Love,” but this deeper track always grabs me whenever I hear it. The lyrics depict an older, experienced person who offers a cautionary tale to a younger man of the importance of doing the hard work now to make a relationship successful, because, as they say, life is short: “Soon we will be older, when we gonna make it work? /We’ve got the whole wide world in our hands…”
“Birthday Song,” Don McLean, 1972
When asked what his phenomenally iconic song “American Pie” means, he used to wink and say, “It means I never have to work again for the rest of my life.” While it’s true that royalties from that classic have continued to flow in every year for half a century, McLean wrote and released another 15 albums and scored a few other hits (“Vincent,” “Dreidel,” “Crying”) as well. On the downbeat “Don McLean” album that followed “American Pie” in 1972, McLean wrote a philosophical piece called “Birthday Song” in which he confessed it was hard to write songs from the heart: “All along, I loved the song, but I never learned it through, /But since the day you came along, I’ve saved it just for you… /’Life continues right or wrong when I play this birthday song…”
“Years,” Beth Nielsen Chapman, 1990
“And I thought about years, how they take so long, and they go so fast…” Wow. Such a concise and profound statement about life, and aging, and the need to embrace each moment. Chapman, a gifted singer as well as songwriter, has more than a dozen albums full of songs with an extraordinarily wise lyrical viewpoint. This song, with its aching melody and sober reflection on her childhood, is perhaps my personal favorite of hers, from her “Beth Nielsen Chapman” album in 1990.
“Growin’ Up,” Bruce Springsteen, 1973
This was one of two songs that Springsteen performed for Columbia Records honcho John Hammond in 1972 that won him his recording contract. It appeared on his debut “Greetings From Asbury Park” LP and has made regular appearances on his concert setlist for more than 50 years. Ironically, the fact that he still plays it in his 70s speaks to its emotional wallop as a nostalgic tribute to getting older. One critics said, “It deftly captures the unhinged joy, defiance, angst and frustration of turning from teen to young man.” “I broke all the rules, strafed my old high school, never once gave thought to landing, /I hid in the clouded warmth of the crowd, but when they said, ‘Come down,’ I threw up, /Ooh, ooh, growin’ up…”
“Happy Birthday,” Stevie Wonder, 1980
Ever since Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968, civil rights groups passionately called for his birthday to be commemorated as a national holiday. It took 15 years, but in 1983, President Ronald Reagan, of all people, approved the idea and established MLK Day as the third Monday in January. One of the key cheerleaders of the movement was Stevie Wonder, who wrote his tune “Happy Birthday” for his “Hotter Than July” album in 1980, with lyrics that wondered why anyone would oppose a holiday in honor of the chief spokesperson for the use of nonviolent activism to bring about societal change. It was not released as a single in the US, but in the UK and other countries, it reached the Top Five on pop charts, and it’s warmly regarded as one of Wonder’s signature songs.
“Reelin’ in the Years,” Steely Dan, 1972
Did they mean the years were being reeled in, like a fishing line? Or did they mean we’re all dizzily trying to keep it together, just reeling as the years go by? As usual, furtive composers Donald Fagen and Walter Becker wouldn’t say, but both interpretations offer interesting takes on what the lyrics to this classic tune from the band’s “Can’t Buy a Thrill” debut LP are really about. Either way, the song evokes a certain wistfulness about the years slipping by as we get older: “Your everlasting summer, you can see it fading fast, so you grab a piece of something that you think is gonna last… /Are you reelin’ in the years?…”
“Grow Old With Me,” John Lennon, 1980/1984
Inspired by the poetry of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono each wrote songs based on favorite poems, then blended them into this endearing piece. It was intended for the “Double Fantasy” comeback album, but instead they chose to hold it for the follow-up album, “Milk and Honey.” Sadly, they could never make an official recording due to Lennon’s murder, but one of the rough demos they made appears on that pothumous LP. They hoped it would become a standard, played in church weddings as inspiration for everlasting love. Mary Chapin-Carpenter has a stunning cover version on the 1995 album “Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon.”
“Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen,” Neil Diamond, 1993
In the late ’50s and well into the ’60s, Diamond was one of a whole stable of songwriters who worked for music publishers in the famous Brill Building in New York City, cranking out pop hits for dozens of artists. Some of these tunesmiths, including Neil Sedaka, Carole King and Diamond, went on to become successful performing artists in their own right. In 1993, Diamond chose to pay homage to his friendly rivals from those days by recording and releasing “Up on the Roof: Songs From the Brill Building,” on which he reimagined classics like “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” “Save the Last Dance for Me” and Sedaka’s frothy teenage anthem “Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen.” Little Feat’s Bill Payne provided the acoustic piano as Diamond offered a more mature vocal reading for the polished arrangement.
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Three other tunes of note:
“Happy Birthday Sweet Darling,” Kate Taylor, 1978
James Taylor’s little sister had herself a couple of albums out in the ’70s and performed throughout New England college towns, mostly, and in Vineyard clubs. Her second LP in 1978 reached #49 on the charts, and brother James wrote this whimsical little tune for her to sing, which begins with original verses, then uses parts of “Happy Birthday to You” before concluding with a coda of “You’re a little bit older now, a little bit older…” Not sure why, but the album doesn’t show up on Spotify net her other releases, so it’s not on the playlist, but you can find it on YouTube if you’re interested.
“Happy Birthday Baby!,” Elvis Presley, 1974
This hard-to-find live recording from The King’s catalog is pretty much a speeded-up remake of the old Christmas blues tune, “Merry Christmas Baby,” which has been covered by dozens of artists. In this one, Elvis manages to name-drop many of his hit song titles (All Shook Up,” “Love Me Tender,” “Burning Love,” “Hound Dog”) into the lyrics as he offers birthday greetings to his gal with lines like “you can have your cake and eat it too if you promise to be good” and “so blow out all them candles and let’s have a good time.”
“Happy Birthday to You,” 1893/1912
The music for this “song,” allegedly the most recognized musical composition in the English language, was written in 1893 by Patty and Mildred Hill, two kindergarten teachers who were looking for a simple melody children could quickly understand and enjoy. The original lyrics were “Good Morning to All,” and the song was used to greet youngsters as they arrived for school. The lyrics “Happy Birthday” emerged in 1912, but authorship is somewhat murky, as a copyright wasn’t issued until 1935, to Preston Orem and Mrs. R.R. Forman. Consequently, there have been numerous copyright infringement lawsuits over its use in film and TV, so it is rarely ever used in its entirety. Perhaps the most famous public performance of it was Marilyn Monroe’s scorching rendition for President Kennedy in 1962. The song is also often sung at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to mark a member’s successful year of sobriety.
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