will you love me tomorrow

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

can i believe the magic of your sigh?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 11 March 2005 16:27 (twenty years ago)

i like frankie valli's version

― Chris 'The Nuts' V (Chris V), Friday, 11 March 2005 16:30 (twenty years ago)

this song cuts right to the point, doesn't it?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 11 March 2005 16:31 (twenty years ago)

tonight with words unspoken you said that i'm the only one

― lychee mello (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 11 March 2005 16:31 (twenty years ago)

the line i quoted always gives me the shivers

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 11 March 2005 16:31 (twenty years ago)

i prefer the somewhat uptempo verisons of this song to the 'ballad' reinterpretations. it seems to capture the anxiety better.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 11 March 2005 16:32 (twenty years ago)

there's something to be said for plain, direct expression in a pop song. there is in fact a lot to be said for it. especially plain, direct expression that can people the shivers.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 11 March 2005 16:34 (twenty years ago)

(x-post)
total agreement. maybe my least favorite version of all is carole king's own. and i generally like carole king's recordings.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 11 March 2005 16:35 (twenty years ago)

Is it supposed to be about a first date?

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 11 March 2005 16:36 (twenty years ago)

i generally don't like "naked" "intimate" slowed-down versions of pop songs -- it's like the artist is saying "look ma it really is a good song after all DO YOU SEE."

― lychee mello (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 11 March 2005 16:38 (twenty years ago)

i find it so strange and wonderful that something this delicate, this uncomfortably intimate can be heard on the radio, in the bar, in the background of people's lives.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 11 March 2005 16:39 (twenty years ago)

it could be about a first date, it could be about a twentieth date.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 11 March 2005 16:40 (twenty years ago)

i agree in principle jody but in reality some of those "stripped down" versions can be very good. although the whole phenomenon of "tribute records" has made them something of a scourge.

anyway i don't have much to say about this song that i haven't just said. it gives me the shivers.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 11 March 2005 16:41 (twenty years ago)

But surely everyone knew is was a great song by the time Carole King did her version? I love it, and see it more as a "Well, deep breath, here's the big one, finally I'm recording it myself and this is how I can sing it" kind of thing. I don't think it's about proving anything to anyone.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 11 March 2005 16:47 (twenty years ago)

http://wordpower-assets.screenbase.com/assets_wordpower/dynamic/1049725818867.jpeg

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 11 March 2005 16:48 (twenty years ago)

I always heard it as a first date "Is he just charming me for sex? Will he respect me in the morning?" situation. Which makes the use of the word 'love' kind of sadly naive and sweet.

If it's much further down the line in a relationship, then the love thing makes more sense, but it makes her sound awfully insecure. It's not an unrealistic notion, that a girl might fear every day that her boyfriend is going to go off her by tomorrow, but I somehow don't warm to the song as much if I hear it that way.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 11 March 2005 16:52 (twenty years ago)

it can certainly be understood that way, but i think it also relates to fairly universal feelings of uncertainty...pleasure...hope.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 11 March 2005 16:56 (twenty years ago)

Looking at the lyrics again, it's clearly about a first night together, and the sexual element is fairly blatant. So yes, the use of the word 'love' to me is poignant.

x-post

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 11 March 2005 16:56 (twenty years ago)

the blatancy of the sexual element (the 'sigh') is pretty amazing for, what, 1964?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 11 March 2005 16:58 (twenty years ago)

I'd like to hear Moe Tucker's version.

― todd (todd), Friday, 11 March 2005 17:02 (twenty years ago)

it can certainly be understood that way, but i think it also relates to fairly universal feelings of uncertainty...pleasure...hope.

It's funny, I actually can't personally relate to its sentiment, even abstracting it from the specifics of the situation.

I rarely feeling pleasure laced with a fear that it might all collapse around my ears. When things are going well, I'm more likely to just bask in them, take them for granted and watch them collapse around my ears.

But I do feel for all the same, and love the song. I'm dead empathetic, me.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 11 March 2005 17:03 (twenty years ago)

dave marsh once wrote that this song was written from an essentially feminine viewpoint and that men shouldn't attempt to sing the song.

i have to think dave marsh has a very limited view of humanity.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 11 March 2005 17:05 (twenty years ago)

Male version = The Wedding Present's 'Interstate 5'

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 11 March 2005 17:20 (twenty years ago)

I hear the line as "can I believe the magic of your size?" -- don't want no short short man.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 11 March 2005 18:40 (twenty years ago)

but there need be no male 'version' of this song, it's universal!

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 11 March 2005 19:14 (twenty years ago)

really this thread should have ended with jody's post.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 11 March 2005 19:17 (twenty years ago)

exact contemporaneous male version, from the point of view of 12 hours later: "i don't believe you (she acts like we never have met)"

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 11 March 2005 19:18 (twenty years ago)

Oh yeah, and on that note, what about The Beatles and "The Night Before"?

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 11 March 2005 19:21 (twenty years ago)

none of those songs have half the directness and poignancy (not to mention the lovely melody and arrangement) of this one

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 11 March 2005 19:27 (twenty years ago)

i agree (though "i don't believe you" is one of my all-time fave dylan songs)

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 11 March 2005 19:28 (twenty years ago)

Not even '64 -- it was '60.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Friday, 11 March 2005 19:40 (twenty years ago)

Also see the Carpenters' "Superstar" although the narrator there has already had the question answered.

― nickn (nickn), Friday, 11 March 2005 19:46 (twenty years ago)

Maybe a modern version for these crazy, confused times is 'Elevator Love Letter'.

I actually don't think I do want to ever hear a man singing 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow?'.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 11 March 2005 19:53 (twenty years ago)

bryan ferry does a nice version

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 11 March 2005 19:58 (twenty years ago)

Oh, I have heard that. I forgot. No, I like Ferry's cover versions generally but I can't believe him in that role.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 11 March 2005 20:05 (twenty years ago)

I wasn't saying "The Night Before" is the greatest song there ever was, just that it was related, topic-wise.

Note that the original version of "Superstar(Groupie)" is slightly more specific than the one by the Carpenters.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 11 March 2005 20:13 (twenty years ago)

thinking about this song is making me sad

"the magic of your sigh"

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 12 March 2005 00:31 (twenty years ago)

six years pass...

the melody is so beautiful

― by another name (amateurist), Saturday, 20 August 2011 07:40 (fourteen years ago)

first post otm, that is one of the saddest lines in pop music, and maybe partly it's because of how Shirley Owens sings it (in the Shirelles version, which is the only one I care to hear). She sounds like she knows she shouldn't believe him, but really wants to. Lots of anticipatory regret, like it's coming from previous experience, hope fighting with cynicism.

also a kid I was always struck by the image "when the night meets the morning sun."

― suckin em down like they name was jack daniels (billy), Saturday, 20 August 2011 15:17 (fourteen years ago)

three years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq3i9dDhte4

― I dunno. (amateurist), Thursday, 5 February 2015 06:28 (ten years ago)

still the most beautiful song in the english language

― I dunno. (amateurist), Thursday, 5 February 2015 06:28 (ten years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xak1BQKtO3Y

― I dunno. (amateurist), Thursday, 5 February 2015 06:33 (ten years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.