by (admin) » Sat Apr 07, 2012 3:21 pm
Roy, thanks for shining the spotlight on this innocent tale of a school boy's early love and concerns surrounding it's permanency.
This sleepy song, which has a tempo that just moves it forward, has enough minor chords to make it touching and enough sevenths to keep the audience interested. While soothing, it is almost going in reverse in places but the Four Pennies have enough magic going for them to make it work. Young love is short and the brevity of this song is just as well.
The lyrics while perhaps heart felt could have used a bit more work "Juliet don't forget the promise you made." But fortunately the pleasing tremolo and a little too much reverb fills in the pauses.
I do like this side far better than the A side vocals which are rather weak and the melody weaker.
What I found to be most interesting, however, is that Juliet was sandwiched between the recordings of two Liverpool groups namely The Searchers with Don't Throw Your Love Away and Cilla Black's You're My World. you will recall that Don't Throw Your Love Away was an Orlon's B side in the beginning.
I also found it intriguing that Juliet was the only number one in the UK in 1964 did not become #1 in the US. I suspect that this was due in part that the American audience was used to the harmonies of The Everlys, a tough act to follow.
