The Song
Like Born a Woman, which was also written by Martha Sharpe, Single Girl contained some sentiments that were obstensibly sceptical of men (for example, "I know all about men and their lies"). But whereas Born a Woman was seen by some as having feminist overtones, Single Girl was essentially more traditional in outlook – a young, isolated woman anticipating that "some day", despite not knowing anybody, people being "phoney" and the nights getting "so lonely", she would find waiting for her a man to "lean on". As one later commentator put it, drawing a contrast with Julie Rogers' The Wedding (1964), "Single Girl ... touched a nerve with every 'wallflower' who possessed a record player".
The score of Single Girl was notable for its gradual crescendo towards the end and a piano backing that, between the closing lines,
- Someday I’ll have a sweet loving man to lean on
- The single girl needs a sweet loving man to lean on,
contained two distinctive high notes that were apt to linger in the mind of the listener. Billboard described Single Girl as "a strong piece of ballad material with driving rhythm background". The production overall conveyed very well the sense that "to make it in pop music in the 1960s, a girl needed a really strong song and a strong production, as well as a lot of tenacity and dogged determination".
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Famous quotes containing the word song:
“Separated lovers cheat absence by a thousand fancies which have their own reality. They are prevented from seeing one another and they cannot write; nevertheless they find countless mysterious ways of corresponding, by sending each other the song of birds, the scent of flowers, the laughter of children, the light of the sun, the sighing of the wind, and the gleam of the stars—all the beauties of creation.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“but you are not deaf,
you pick out
your own song from the uproar
line by line,
and at last throw back
your head and sing it.”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)