Guest post by Nathan Arizona
“Sally Go ’Round the Roses” might be the weirdest song ever to make the Billboard Top 10, not counting the deliberately gimmicky ones. It’s a one-off girl-group song produced by a Mr. Spector. Not Phil, Abner. Clearly no relation.
The sound is dark and hypnotic with a fairly brisk tempo that pulls you along. The lyrics are spooky. It’s not the frothy, sentimental fare you might expect from the Ronettes or the Crystals. There’s a boyfriend in there someplace, but he wouldn’t be much fun at the hop.
Andy Warhol, no stranger to weird, played the song almost continuously in his studio when it came out in the summer of 1963 and reached No. 2 on the Billboard chart.
The ghostly vocal sound might be due to the many overdubs on top of singing by the obscure lead vocalists rounded up by arranger Artie Butler after Spector turned a raw version over to him. One person there counted some 20 voices. But nobody seems to know exactly what the muffled words are about anyway.
Sally, “don’t you go downtown” because “the saddest thing in the whole wide world/Is to see your baby with another girl.” But she can “let her hair hang down” and “sit and cry where the roses grow.” The “roses won’t tell {her} secret.” What secret? What roses? Where are they? It can get confusing.
Maybe that’s why the lyrics have evoked so many different interpretations, all in keeping with the darkness of the music. It’s been seen as a reference to lunacy, ecstatic spirituality, unwed motherhood, suicide, lesbianism and drug deals.
“Sally Go ”Round the Roses” is loosely based on a nursery rhyme, but it’s not one you’ll want to explain in detail to the kids. The familiar “Ring Around the Rosie” is often thought to be a reference to the Great Plague of the 17th century. Symptoms included round, pinkish blotches on the skin. The posies were to ward off noxious odors. At the end, “all fall down.”
The song has attracted many covers. The folk-rock group Pentangle made a highly regarded version in 1969. Other successful covers include those by pre-Airplane Grace Slick, edgy folk singer Tim Buckley and contemporary psychedelic jam band Third Mind. Donna Summer made a funky one, Peter and Gordon a boring one, Mitch Ryder a silly one.
Pentangle was a key player in the 1960s rise of British folk-rock, with its blend of classic folk, blues, jazz and prog. Bert Jansch and especially John Renbourn were ranked among the best guitarists of the time. Lead vocalist Jacqui McShee set the tone for other singers in the style. Danny Thompson, who played bass, has long been considered a master of the instrument.
The band’s folk connection and the song’s title had many fans thinking “Sally Go ‘Round the Roses” was an old English ballad. Pentangle did perform authentic folk tunes, but usually with powerful guitar work and strong rhythms you’d never find in the Child Ballads.
Here’s the original by the Jaynetts. The photos show three people but two others shared the lead vocals.
? and the Mysterians gave it an unhinged treatment.
