Kay Starr “Rock and Roll Waltz” / “I’ve Changed My Mind a Thousand Times”

Kay Starr’s 1955 number-one-hit-song with Hugo Winterhalter’s huge-band Orchestra and Chorus is the A-side of this sturdy RCA Victor 45, which has aged like one of your dad’s tobacco pipes. It was written by Shorty Allen and “Dick Ware,” who, according to the ’pedia, was actually the pseudonym of the actual lyric writer, Roy Alfred’s mother. There’s got to be a story there, maybe a movie of the week. The music’s got some complex subtext going on, but the lyric’s a bit convoluted. While I’m sure it’s nostalgic to the league of YouTube comment scribes, it tires me out. It’s about a young person going home and catching her parents trying to waltz to a rock’n’roll number. I just want to say, kids, please don’t spy on your parents! You might not be able to un-see things you wish you’d never witnessed. I prefer the B-side of this one, which Kay Starr really heats up over the weird chorus occasionally dropping in “do-whaas” and “bop-bops.” A “thousand” seems like an exaggeration, but after ingesting this celebration of fickleness, I’m inclined to agree. But rest assured, in the end, you’re the “only one for me.” (Her.) So she says. In my (s)experience, however, I’ve got to warn you, the odds are better than “lead-pipe cinch” that she’s gonna change her mind again.

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