2:53
Jealous Kind Of Fella, 1969
Written by Garland Green, Jo Armstead, Maurice Dollison, and Rudolph Browner
Soul singer Garland Green died yesterday. This song, which reached number 5 on the Billboard chart, consists of the narrator apologizing and pleading with his baby. It begins with the sound of a phone ringing, and the first verse is a hilariously straightforward recreation of that phone call begging for forgiveness would sound like: "Hello baby, please don't be too mad at me / Because I punched that guy last night / But let me explain, before you say anything / I know I was wrong, just like you said." Despite the fella's candor, and Green impassioned delivery, it's unclear at the end if his inamorata is willing to give him a chance or hangs up on him. This has got to be the greatest song to contain the line "because I punched that guy last night."
This was a fun one, but overall, it's been a morbid week. Let's not do this again, and Lord, protect our musical idols little while longer.