The Shirelles' "Soldier Boy"

(Referenced in the "P.S. I Love You" post)

In my view, a fairly unremarkable song. I don't care for its very deliberate, almost dragging pace, and the vocal doesn't seem to go anywhere.

Part of the problem I have in assessing R&B pop tunes from the early 1960s is that many of them just call to mind one of the half-dozen or so classics that I've already firmly latched onto, like "Then He Kissed Me" let's say, and suffer mightily by comparison. Of course, it's not a sound method of criticism. But hey, I'm sorry that the combination of Phil Spector and the Crystals was so gangbusters on that 1963 smash. I doubt that the Beach Boys, Sonny and Cher, Martin Scorsese, and I are alone in this opinion.



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