DAY 110 - COUNTING DOWN TO TH 50TH

GOOD MORNING, CLASS OF '64

Vintage Kiss - Leonid Afremov

Give me a kiss, and to that kiss a score;
Then to that twenty, add a hundred more:
A thousand to that hundred: so kiss on,
To make that thousand up a million.
Treble that million, and when that is done,
Let's kiss afresh, as when we first begun.
Robert Herrick, To Anthea (III)

 

A Kiss

 Sooner or later a kiss probably caught you.
Were you coy and standoffish as it eagerly sought you?
How fast were you running when it finally got you?

 Were you moving along at a leisurely pace
Or giving the smoocher a heck of a race
When you finally decided to call off the chase?

Did the smoocher depart with the silliest grin
Feeling euphoric and head in a spin
Thinking he'd taken what you allowed him to win?

 

Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta - Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres

How did it happen that their lips came together?

 How does it happen that birds sing,

that snow melts,

that the rose unfolds,

that the dawn whitens behind the stark shapes

of trees on the quivering summit of the hill?

A kiss, and all was said.

Victor Hugo

 

Romeo and Juliet - Sir Frank Dicksee

A Kiss to Build a Dream On

Recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1951.

  Hugo Winterhalter and his Orchestra, with vocalist Johnny Parker, made it to the Pop 20 chart in 1952.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Kiss_to_Build_a_Dream_On

Louis Armstrong - 1951

 

The mouth is made for communication,
and nothing is more articulate than a kiss. 
Jarod Kintz, It Occurred to Me

Couple Kissing - Linda Apple

Kisses Sweeter than Wine

 #3 US hit for Jimmie Rodgers in 1957
Jimmy Rodgers - 1957

“If you weren't driving, I'd kiss you senseless," I tell him.
He swerves to the side of the road
and stops the car abruptly.
"Not driving any more.”   
    Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
 

Dancing in the Dark - Georganne Bishop

 (Till) I Kissed You 

Written by Don Everly of The Everly Brothers.
Peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
 Chet Atkins played guitar on this record.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(Till)_I_Kissed_You
The Everly Brothers - 1959

Any man who can drive safely
while kissing a pretty girl
is simply not giving the kiss
the attention it deserves.
Albert Einstein

 

Stolen Kiss - Jean Honore Fraganard



Then He Kissed Me

 Peaked at number six.

#493 on Rolling Stone magazine's

list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Pitchfork Media placed it at number 18 on its

list of "The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s".

The Crystals - 1963

    

"May I print a kiss on your lips?" I said,

And she nodded her full permission:

So we went to press and I rather guess

We printed a full edition.

Joseph Lilientha

The Kiss - Francesco Hayez

The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)
Reached Billboard Hot 100 at #6
in the spring of 1964
No. 1 on the Cashbox magazine
R&B charts in 1964http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shoop_Shoop_Song_(It%27s_in_His_Kiss)
Betty Everett

How far away the stars seem,
and how far is our first kiss,
and ah, how old my heart.
William Butler Yeats

 

The Kiss - Terri Meyer

A kiss makes the heart young again

and wipes out the years.

Rupert Brooke
 

Kiss in the Woods - Leonid Afremov

Out of a world of laughter

Suddenly I am sad. . .

Day and night it haunts me,

The kiss I never had. 

Sydney King Russell

From Midsummer  



Secret Kiss - Georges Barbier

Lady and the Tramp 

The Kiss Scene

 15th animated film in the

Walt Disney Animated Classics series.

 The first animated feature filmed

in the CinemaScope widescreen film process

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_and_the_Tramp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bella_Notte

The Spaghetti  Kiss Scene - 1955

 
Bella Notte

 

Oh this is the night, it's a beautiful night
And we call it bella notte
Look at the skies, they have stars in their eyes
On this lovely bella notte.
Side by side with your loved one,
You'll find enchantment here.
The night will weave its magic spell,
When the one you love is near!
Oh this is the night, and the heavens are right!
On this lovely bella note!

 

The Kiss - Elvis and a Fan in Richmond, Virginia - Albert Wertheimer Photographer

The fan said to Elvis, “I’ll bet you can’t kiss me."

 Elvis replied, “I betcha I can.”

Elvis was right.

 



The decision to kiss for the first time
is the most crucial in any love story.
It changes the relationship of two
people much more strongly than
 even the final surrender;
because this kiss already has
within it that surrender.

Emil Ludwig

 

Kiss Me Quick

 Kissing Game

SPIN THE BOTTLE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_the_bottle

A bottle is placed on the floor in the middle of a circle of people. One person spins the bottle (or flashlight in the dark), and they must kiss the person to whom the bottle is pointing when it stops spinning. 

 

 

Then I did the simplest thing in the world.

I leaned down... and kissed him.

And the world cracked open.

Agnes de Mille

You may conquer with the sword,
but you are conquered by a kiss.
Daniel Heinsius

 

The moment eternal - just that and no more -
When ecstasy's utmost we clutch at the core
While cheeks burn, arms open, eyes shut, and lips meet!
Robert Browning

Inspiration for the Spirit - Arthur Symons

DAY 128 - COUNTING DOWN TO THE 50TH

GOOD MORNING, CLASS OF '64

The Love Letter - Edmund Adler

Love Letters

 

“What? 

Do you dare smile and suggest 

for a moment that just because 

of the Absence between us I 

cannot make myself vivid to you? 

Ho! Silly boy! 

 Don't you know that the plainest 

sort of black ink throbs 

more than some blood—and 

the touch of the softest hand 

is a harsh caress compared to 

the touch of a reasonably shrewd pen? 

Here—now, I say—this very moment: 

Lift this letter of mine to your face, 

and swear—if you're honestly able to—

that you can't smell the rose in my hair!”
  Eleanor Hallowell Abbott, Molly Make-Believe 

Penning a Letter - George Goodwin Kilburne

“The frankest and freest and privatest 

product of the human mind and heart 

is a love letter...”
Mark Twain, Mark Twain's Own Autobiography: 

The Chapters from the North American Review 

Young Girl Writing a Love Letter - Pietro Antonio Rotari

You might have written a love letter, 

or more than one. 

You might have received a love letter, 

or more than one.

Maybe you wrote and received none.

Pitiable, all those Romeos and Juliets, too,

Who overlooked the passionate you.

Curses on them!

  Wistful reminiscence should afflict them each day

Of the crème de la crème they let slip away. 

(ntmywn)

The Letter - William Kay Blacklock

“To my unsuspecting love.
When I look into your eyes, 

I lose all sense of time and place. 

Reason robbed, clear thought erased, 

I am lost in the paradise I find within your gaze.
I long to touch your blushing cheek, 

to whisper in your ear how I adore you, 

how I cannot bear the thought of living without you.
To be so near you without touching you is agony. 

Your blindness to my feelings is a daily torment, 

and I feel driven to the edge of madness 

by my love for you”
Julianne Donaldson, Edenbrooke

Love Letters in the Sand

Became a major hit in June and July 1957, 

spending 5 weeks at number one 

on the Billboard Top 100, 

with 34 weeks in total on the chart.

(Preceded by Elvis' All Shook Up 

and followed by Elvis' Teddy Bear)

 Boone also did the whistling in the
instrumental portion of the song.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Letters_in_the_Sand
the # 11 song in the 1955-1959 rock era
was # 1 for 7 weeks in 1957
was also a # 6 hit in 1931 for Ted Black
http://www.lyricsdepot.com/pat-boone/love-letters-in-the-sand.html 

Pat Boone - 1957

 How you laughed when I cried
Each time I saw the tide
Take our love letters from the sand 

Love Letters (Straight from your Heart)

• Dick Haymes (in 1945, US #11)
• Ketty Lester (in 1962, US #5, US R&B #2, UK #4)
• Elvis Presley (in 1966, US #19, UK #6)

The song appeared, without lyrics, 

in the movie of the same name, 

and was nominated for the Academy Award 

for Best Song for 1945.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Letters_%28song%29

(You might like to hear Julie London's 

version of Love Letters 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFvzHdMWmag)

 Ketty Lester - 1962

Love letters straight from your heart
Keep us so near while apart
I'm not alone in the night
When I can have all the love you write
I memorize ev'ry line
I kiss the name that you sign
And darlin, then I read again right from the start
Love letters straight from your heart

Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa

One of Pitney's biggest hits
Peaked at #17 on December 7
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=11900
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty_Four_Hours_from_Tulsa

  Gene Pitney - 1963

 Oh I was only 24 hours from Tulsa
Ah only one day away from your arms
I hate to do this to you
But I love somebody new
What can I do
And I can never never never go home again

Return to Sender
peaked at number 1 

on the United Kingdom music charts,

 and number 2 on the American  

Billboard singles chart, 

but reached number 1 on the rival  

Cash Box and Music Vendor singles charts. 

"Return to Sender" also went to 

number five on the R&B charts.

Elvis Presley - 1962

Film - Girls Girls Girls

I gave a letter to the postman,
he put it his sack.
Bright in early next morning,
he brought my letter back.

She wrote upon it:
Return to sender, address unknown.
No such number, no such zone.
We had a quarrel, a lover's spat
I write I'm sorry but my letter keeps coming back.

So then I dropped it in the mailbox
And sent it special D.
Bright in early next morning
it came right back to me.

She wrote upon it:
Return to sender, address unknown.
No such number, no such zone.

This time I'm gonna take it myself
and put it right in her hand.
And if it comes back the very next day
then I'll understand the writing on it

Return to sender, address unknown.
No such person, no such zone.

 

A Girl Writing - Henriette Browne

 “As I sit here writing to you, 

I have propped my stocking feet 

much too close to the hearth. 

I’ve actually singed my stockings on occasion, 

and once I had to stomp out my feet 

when they started smoking. 

Even after that I can’t seem to 

rid myself of the habit. 

There, now you could pick me 

out of a crowd blindfolded. 

Simply follow the scent 

of scorched stockings.”
Lisa Kleypas, Love in the Afternoon 

Man Writing a Letter - Gabriel Metsu

“I love you forever. 

I am sorry I cannot love you now.”
― Nick Harkaway, Angelmaker 

The Letter - Albert Lynch

“I am Tarzan of the Apes. 

I want you. 

I am yours. 

You are mine. 

We live here together always in my house. 

I will bring you the best of fruits, 

 the tenderest deer, 

the finest meats that roam the jungle. 

I will hunt for you. 

I am the greatest of the jungle fighters. 

I will fight for you. 

 I am the mightiest of the jungle fighters. 

You are Jane Porter, 

I saw it in your letter. 

When you see this you will know 

that it is for you and that 

Tarzan of the Apes loves you.”
  Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes

Writing a Letter - William Hemsley

Pat Boone was mocked for shedding tears 

when the love letters he'd written in the sand 

were washed away by the tide. 

Small wonder.

Elvis Presley suffered major rejection 

when his letters were continually returned, 

but he kept on trying. 

He just didn't get the message.

Gene Pitney suffered an annoying case of loveatfirstsightis 

when he was only twenty four hours from Tulsa

 and the arms of the girl he was heading back home to see. 

Now he can't go home again, 

but she's still his dearest darlin'.

Ketty Lester's love seems to be reciprocated. 

She does have an actual hand written love letter,

and she rereads every line and 

kisses the name that was signed 

'cause it's straight from the heart.

(love this song, by the way)

What would we have done had we not had 

songs like that to get us through 

those years twixt twelve and twenty?

(Remember that book by Pat Boone?)

We wouldn't have known how to act 

in situations of the love kind, would we?

A Woman Reading - Carl Larsson