WIAA: Alyson, like Nathan Jones, you’ve been gone too long. What’s happened?
ALYSON: I know WIAA, it’s been far too long and I have no legitimate excuse either. I never wanted to be one of those bloggers who was “no longer in the field” but I can see how it happens. Only another 7 months until my blog’s tenth birthday though, and I really want to make it to that date.
WIAA: You can do it Alyson, I have every faith in you.
ALYSON: Despite saying I have no legitimate excuse for my absence, I kind of do. DD has hijacked my blog’s title and set up one of her own – all because she has a new puppy in her life called, wait for it…, ALFIE!
Alfie by Cilla Black:
WIAA: Well, he certainly is a cute bundle but I’ll bet he’s keeping you on your toes.
ALYSON: He certainly is. We kept pointing out that it would be really difficult owning a dog when she and her other half work full-time, but of course that “minor” stumbling block was ignored, as I think she knew, come the hour, we would step in and help out with him. To be fair, DD does work from home a lot so it’s not been too full on yet, but we are roped in for puppy-sitting a few times a week. Mr WIAA is very fond of Alfie but I’m already totally smitten.
So, what’s the obvious song to feature for someone like me who was aged 12 in 1972? Why that would be Donny Osmond’s massive No. 1 hit called Puppy Love. As regular visitors to this place might already suspect, I was a big fan of this boy from Utah who had a gorgeous smile and an awful lot of brothers. Although I’ve already shared around here the first album I ever bought with my own money (an Elvis one), I have never admitted to the second one. That would be because it was indeed a Donny Osmond one, Portrait Of Donny. It came with signed photos and I very naughtily told my friends I had written to Donny and he had sent them back to me. A lie to be sure, and I don’t think anyone believed me when they scrutinised the pictures, but hey, I was a pre-teen with a big crush who had a Donny transfer ironed onto her pillowcase and a pair of brushed denim flares with his name embroidered on the patch pocket (in chain stitch done by my own fair hand).
But of course it is no longer 1972 and I am no longer a pre-teen, and once their early ’70s heyday was over, it became really quite uncool to be a fan of any Osmond family member. What I thought would be interesting would be to see a clip of the song’s writer, Paul Anka, performing it in 1960. Not a song about a canine at all, but about teenage love, and how no-one understands it’s intensity – although we’ve all been there.
Paul Anka was a Canadian, who like Donny, was a bit of a teen idol. Unlike Donny he self-penned most of the songs he recorded and is famed for having written the English lyrics to the song My Way, Frank Sinatra’s signature song. Paul had a bit of a career resurgence in the 1970s and I do remember his song from 1974, (You’re) Having My Baby. My dad did a bit of a double-take when he heard me listening to that one, probably hoping it would be some time until I would be having anyone’s baby (it took 20 years actually!).
The last word should go to the real puppy though, Alfie. He came along just before St Valentine’s Day so of course he had to arrange a card for his new owner/mum. Very apt I think.
Thanks to my blog for prompting me to get blogging again.
Until next time…
Puppy Love Lyrics
(Song by Paul Anka)
And they called it puppy love
Oh, I guess they’ll never know
How a young heart really feels
And why I love her so
And they called it puppy love
Just because we’re, we’re 17
Tell them all it-, please, tell them, isn’t fair
To take away my only dream
I cry each night my tears for you
My tears are all in vain
I hope and I pray that may, maybe someday
You’ll be back (you’ll be back) in my arms (in my arms) once again
(You’ll be back in my arms once again)
Someone, help me, help me, help me, please
Is the answer up above?
How could I, oh, how could I tell them
This is not a puppy love? (This is not a puppy love)
Someone, help me, help me, help me, please
Is the answer up above?
How could I ever tell them
This is not a puppy love?
(This is not a puppy love)
Postscript:
As I’ve had a positive feedback to this one I shall cast my embarrassment aside and also share the clip of Donny singing his song, with his brothers doing a bit of backup singing. They all had their individual costume colour and Donny’s was purple. It therefore became the favourite colour of many a preteen girl around then!
What's It All About? 
Speaking of Alfie, here’s a recording you might like:
LikeLiked by 1 person
That soundtrack reeks of the late 60s doesn’t it? So many films from that era had similar soundtracks – you can just imagine the scenes in your head.
Of course it was Cher that sang the song Alfie for the film although Cilla Black did record it here in Britain with Burt Bacharach and it’s the only version I have.
Thanks for the clip.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Photos of puppies (even very cute ones) are all very well. But we want are photos of you in your embroidered flares.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wish I had some photos but they were rare commodities in those days and I don’t think I invested in more than one spool for my camera every year – an expensive business getting the photos developed at the chemists!
I can still remember them in my head however. The embroidery eventually extended to the flared bottoms of the jeans too but I don’t think Donny’s name appeared again. Such times but what can I say, I was a pre-teen with a crush.
LikeLike
Welcome back! It’s good to hear that you’re well and enjoying having a new canine companion! I loved reading your memories of Puppy Love, as I was also a Donny Osmond fanatic in 1972. Around that time, I entered a magazine competition to travel to Utah to meet Donny and his brothers, and I was convinced I would win – but I didn’t! My walls were plastered with posters of him, including a (nearly) life-sized one, made up of three centrespreads from Jackie magazine, of his head and torso, middle, and legs, collected in consecutive weeks and Sellotaped together.
It’s so interesting that Portrait of Donny was the second album you bought with your own money, as it was the very first one that I bought. I can even remember that it cost £2.14, which seems a strange amount, but it’s stayed in my memory, as I had to save my pocket money to buy it. I wouldn’t have been able to claim that Donny had sent me the photos which came with Portrait of Donny, as you did, because most of my friends had also bought the album!
The photos were described as “candid” on the album cover, and as this was a word I had never heard before, I asked my mum what it meant, and she gave the meaning as “soaked in syrup”. That didn’t sound right to me, so I asked her what it meant when “candid” was used to describe a photo, and Mum said it probably meant the image was sickly sweet. This seemed quite an insulting description of Donny’s photos, so I was still quite puzzled – and even more so when I became aware of the TV programme “Candid Camera”, and I couldn’t work out what was sickly sweet about it. It wasn’t until about a year later than I realised that Mum had thought I’d asked for the meaning of the word “candied”.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Lizza – Good to hear you were similarly afflicted! Shame it’s something I’m a bit embarrassed to admit to nowadays but hey, we were only 12. I also had many many Donny and Osmonds posters on my walls and I remember the ones you had to collect over a period of weeks from magazines like Jackie. I once traced his face from one of these posters and then coloured it in with felt pens and sent it to said magazine hoping it would get published but I think they must have worked out what I’d done and realised it was in no way an original.
Clever of you to remember how much it cost and believe me that was a lot of money in those days as a few years later when I got my first Saturday job, I was only paid £2 for a whole day’s work. Yes, I could only show select friends the signed “candied” photos, those whom I knew didn’t have the LP (as they were called then). Many friends at school did though.
Mums can often lead us down the wrong path when it comes to words but that’s a really funny story. My mum pronounced some words a bit different to everyone else but I thought she was right so continued to copy her. My daughter now does the same because of me and we’re always picked up on it by others. Apparently “oven” should be pronounced “uven” but we always say “offen” because of my mum!
I’ll have to revisit 1972 again, it was a landmark year for many of us.
LikeLike
I think we can let you off the blogging absence for a reason as cute as this one pictured – Alfie, I mean, not Donny. Although….! Yes, I too was a Donny fan and a member of the Osmonds Fan Club for a brief time. I wasn’t sure I understood it all but who cares, a new poster or two of Donny on my bedroom wall was enough reason. He really did seem a sweetie, and I think The Swede can vouch for him too – he made a passing visit to his record shop if memory serves me right. I’m with Ernie on the photo request!
Anyway, it’s lovely to see you back here and coincidentally I just managed to find some inspiration and opportunity to write today too, there must be something in the air.
I love Lizza’s story about the word ‘candid’ – brilliant!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi C – yes, the puppy is very cute but as you say, Donny was too. I feel a bit guilty now for never having shared anything by him around here before but my older self is now rather embarrassed about the whole thing. As the ’70s progressed and he started making the Donny and Marie Show, which was very uncool, we had all moved on from him and his brothers.
I remember TS sharing a picture of the time visited his shop – in the 80s I think when he had made a bit of a comeback. He still seems like a very nice man today and he has aged well!
Good to see you have had some inspiration too. I think we both know we have to pull our socks up before June or we may not be allowed to join in the fun! I’ll drop by your place to savour your new post in the morning.
LikeLike
Didn’t David Cassidy sing about a puppy too? Welcome back btw. With it being so near to Eurovision I was convinced you’d a) be in Switzerland right now and b) be blogging about it frantically.
JM
LikeLiked by 1 person
He did indeed but I’ve written about him before – it was Donny’s turn!
You definitely have me down as being a bigger Eurovision fan than I actually am. We did go 10 years ago when it was in Vienna and had a great time but not been since. Too old now to dress up as Bucks Fizz I think. I wrote this one on Monday just to break my blogging silence, before Eurovision mania took over on the radio and on telly. If I’d been writing today it might have featured Eurovision. Thinking of 1972 as I have been this week I tested myself to remember who won in that year – I checked and I was right, it was Vicky Leandros from Greece representing Luxembourg!
LikeLike
That’s a wonderful arc of history, music and family.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Indeed – it’s a bit all over the place!
LikeLike
Your posts may be less often, Alyson, but they are not ‘less’ in any other respesct. Add the bonus of a puppy (& Donny) and the cuteness reading just tipped into the red!
Looking forward to BlogCon25…nearly there!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Indeed, a bit of a cuteness overload on this one but I’ve never really admitted to my Donny fandom around here before so a good excuse to give him a mention.
Yes, not long to go now – looking forward to it too.
LikeLike