🎶 Bong bong bong bong 🎶

Earworms come and go. For me, recent ones include Comment te dire adieu, the finale of Beethoven Op.109, and the Debussy trio, but at present they’re being outranked by Mr Sandman.

Written by Pat Ballard in 1954, it’s one of the dreamiest songs “like, ever“—instant nostalgia (in a good way), ambivalent but utterly irresistible. It was soon recorded by Vaughn Monroe, making a pleasant enough jazz ballad. But later in 1954 came an enchanting version by The Chordettes—full of quirky details in harmony, rhythm, and orchestration. Here they sing it live in 1958:

Later that year the Four Aces recorded it too; despite its classy arrangement and snappy rhythms, I find this version more slick, but this was the version chosen for the 1985 movie Back to the future, when Marty is transported back to 1955:

While the sandman references the figure of European folklore, the lyrics suggest, more mundanely, that the (American) dream they want to be brought is closer to a “dreamboat” (m’lud):

Mr Sandman, bring me a dream
Make him the cutest that I’ve ever seen
Give him two lips like roses and clover
Then tell him that his lonesome nights are over
[…]
Give him a pair of eyes with a come-hither gleam
Give him a lonely heart like Pagliacci
And lots of wavy hair like Liberace

Male and female alternatives of the lyrics were offered all along (Make her complexion like peaches and cream…), though the male gaze doesn’t stretch to a version of the inspired Pagliacci/Liberace couplet.

Among various later versions, Emmylou Harris made an affectionate tribute in 1981:

For some very different dream songs, try Dream a little dream of me, and Australian Aboriginal songs.