This is a post about a song and about a person's changing musical perspective. Recently YouTube brought up a video of the Platters singing "Only You" in 1955. I thought it was beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/cNdCyjcRk1k

In 1955 I was ten years old and I thought it was just another irritating pop song inflicted on me by my brothers, who always had to have the Top 40 station going. Lord, how I disliked the scratchy voices, the whiny voices, the electric guitars and the amateur saxophone interludes. In 1959 we moved, and I thought, "How great! I won't have to listen to WJJD anymore." Within two hours my brothers located WOKY and the beat went on.

But first, is "Only You" traditional? I say yes. It has a melody and a regular beat and the chord names have at most three characters in them. That's my definition of traditional.

In 1955 I was listening to music on a cheap radio. But mostly I didn't understand at all that the soloist was singing falsetto (or countertenor I suppose.) Now I appreciate the purity and strength in what he's doing.

Another thing that happened is that a few years ago three elderly folky guys in my circle started singing corny old Top-40 songs, but doing it with their good voices. With good voices singing I realized that a lot of those old tunes were actually good. Who knew?

Anybody else have any thoughts or memories to share about changing musical reactions?