Remembering Momma Tess - You Belong to Me

 

You Belong to Me by the Duprees is one of the classic standards of the 50s. It was a Golden Oldie when I was a teen. I loved it then I love it now and today while I was listening to it, via Alexa, play See the Pyramids along the Nile… somehow it just struck a cord that I could look at some of our old pictures in the framework of this tune. I’ve often said I don’t know how young people fall in love these days with no romantic songs to fall in love to. This song brings back memories of going to the canteen as a teenager, waiting for your favorite song, the anxious moments of wanting to ask a girl to dance. These beautiful moments are precious; moments of holding her around the waist hand in hand, hers gently curled up under my chin, feeling the warmth of her body against mine and dancing a slow dance. This was it. This was Mecca. This was dancing with a girl where you could smell her perfume and breathe her essence. I remember the softness of her sweater, the softness of her cheek next to mine. To be really bold and maybe once you were going steady, you would dance with both your arms around her in a warm embrace. You would rock back-and-forth as the music played, and the sounds, the words and the music spoke the feelings you felt, the words that you wanted to say and romantic mood that you believed in made you also believe in and plan for the future. Yes when we were young, when we were falling in love, We wanted to fall in love, to grow up and to get married, to be together forever and have a family. When I was a teenager, this was just a dream. My biggest obstacle was having the courage to ask a girl to dance and then hoping maybe I’d get the next dance, be it fast or slow. Those were the two major categories, fast dancing, and slow dancing. You watch the teens on American bandstand and then you’d watch the kids at your church canteen and there were guys that seemed to have it all down and there were others, like me, who just kind of waited my turn… still all in all it was a very romantic time in life. And after 46 years of marriage, the romance of this song, You Belong To Me, rings just as true as it did 60 years ago. As for us… We grew up, found each other, we got married, raised our family and created a life together for 46 years… and now, for all of time in all our memories, Tess, you belong to all of us.

This song was originally  a country record...It was covered by many artists, including Jo Stafford, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, Gene Vincent...

The Duprees had a hit with it in 1958