wheeeeeee

During most of my teenage years I much prefered old classics to the modern pop music. There were some exceptions, but the cassettes and vinyls I was purchasing mostly contained hits from Fred Astraire, Bing Crosby, or Gene Kelly. I used to watch mostly the old movies that starred these singing actors, also. Singing' in the Rain was a great favorite of mine, though the title track was not my ultimate tune. I much preferred the Gene Kelly version of All I Do. I originally heard this outtake on an old wax original disc my Mother owned, but later purchased it in a more modern format.

The song depicted the romantic pleasures that I wanted to surface in my life at the time and I preferred Gene's version to the chorus shown in the actual movie. Although I heard it many years before, my main memory stems from 1984. I was a church bell ringer and finally old enough to ride my push bike to neighboring towns to indulge further in this unusual for a teen hobby. It was exciting to be alone, cycling through the nighttime streets of England at that age, but far less dangerous than it would be today in either America or Australia. The cycling was usually accompanied by my singing. I could not help myself, the two simply fit together so well. On the way into Arundel, the A27 highway took a dip. One of my favorite moments for several months of my life was to ride my bike down this steep descent singing All I Do at the top of my voice. Noone could hear me, but it felt fine.