1969 Bobbie Gentry: I'll Never Fall In Love Again

Songs from the shows are there to be interpreted rather than covered. Just as we don't consider a Symphony Orchestra as 'covering' Beethoven, neither should we talk about (for example) Elaine Paige "covering" 'Memory' Not within the context of the show anyway. It's a point I could have made regarding no small number of the singles we've already encountered, and I'm only raising it here because I've literally this minute learned that 'I'll Never Fall In Love Again' is actually a showtune from a musical ('Promises Promises') and not simply another stand alone song in the Bacharach and David canon.

Does that make any difference? I think so - context is important; it's more convenient to judge an interpretation of such a song by reference to its context. Take (for another example) Steven Sondheim's 'Send In The Clowns'. In the context of it's parent musical 'A Little Night Music' it's a bitter song of jealousy and regret. The opening lines "Isn't it rich? Are we a pair?" were written to be hissed and spat staccato rather than have the syllables stretched out in an attempt to make them rhyme and scan pub singer style. Which virtually every singer who tackles this great song in isolation tries to do (check out the Martin Jacque's vocal in The Tiger Lilies version to hear how it should really be done).

So how is 'I'll Never Fall In Love Again' meant to be sung? Well not with bitterness for a start - how could what is one of my favourite rhymes in all popular music ever be bitter?* "What do you get when you kiss a guy? You get enough germs to catch pneumonia. After you do, he'll never phone ya": there's a good natured pissed off-ness about it, a self aware humour that suggests the narrator has been here before and that it's par for the course ("So far at least until tomorrow, I'll never fall in love again" anyway) and my views on any version always depends on how well the singer nails it - that 'ya' is as vital as Sondheim's 'rich' - 'I'll Never Fall In Love Again' isn't a song for the eloquent.

Gentry does ok, albeit in a humour-lite kind of way, but my reaction to this remains the same whenever I hear it; I like it a lot up to a point, after which it simply stops being enjoyable. Her take opens with a husky vocal of cracked soul that reminds me Dusty Springfield behind frosted glass. But then it gains confidence in its telling with the fragility replaced with a dry urgency that suggests Gentry can't wait to get to the end.

Whereas she invests the initial "What do you get when you fall in love?" question with a genuine wry confusion, by its final go round they've become just words on the page as she loses interest in their meaning both within the context of the song and as an artist. The playfulness evaporates and leaves nothing in its place. Maybe a certain indifference is to be expected - Gentry is a talented songwriter in her own right working outside her usual genre on this - but its an indifference that makes this a good version rather than a great one.


* For a prime example of how to make a total balls-up of 'I'll Never Fall In Love Again' then look no further than Ricky Ross's quivering lip delivery on Deacon Blue's angst soaked 1990 misinterpretation. Though on second thoughts, don't - instead, make a bargain with your god that you'll happily die four minutes before your allotted time in exchange for never having to sit through the four minutes of that song for as long as you live. It's a fair exchange, trust me on that one.