Lucille

Marc Krebs writes a weekly column in the Basler Zeitung called "Pop von gestern auf dem iPod von heute" ("Yesterday's Pop on Today's iPod"; the column is unfortunately not available for free on the paper's website), in which he glosses a song from the Swiss hit parade from a while back. Today's gloss is about Donna Summer's "I Feel Love," but the column always includes the rest of the top 5 from the week in question, and one spot ahead of Summer at number 4 from October 8, 1977, is Kenny Rogers with "Lucille."

That was the time when I first began to seriously listen to the radio, and not knowing better, I listened to Top 40 radio (not that there was much else available in Toledo, Ohio, in those years). And the fact that Rogers sings about "a bar in Toledo" in "Lucille" got my attention.

Not that I ever bought the single or an album by Rogers, but I can still sing you the first couple lines if you want me to (as well as, of course, the unforgettable — but still not very good — chorus).

It probably helps that my cousin John knew a parody in the voice of a trucker. Its chorus went "You picked a fine time to leave me, loose wheel." :-)