Love Potion No. 9

To this very day, I find this catchy tune thumping & bumping in the background of my mind. It always makes me think about my mom.

My mother has an off-white case which holds 45 r.p.m. records.  I remember flipping through those records as a kid and playing them on a little rinky-dink record player (not my father’s Telefunken hi-fi).  There were at least 20 records in the case, but I can only remember two of the tunes: “Blue Suede Shoes” by Elvis Presley, and “Love Potion No. 9.”

Moms 45 Record Case

While writing these blogs, I am finding several activities quite enjoyable.  One of those activities is doing a little background research into these songs and artists.  For “Love Potion No. 9,” it took me a while to find the version that my mom had in her case.  Specifically, I was listening for a very deep voice singing the line, “I took a drink.”  Most versions of the song have a tenor singing that line.

According to the song’s Wikipedia page, there are over 30 different versions covered by well known artists like: Robert Plant and Neil Diamond.  So, it took me a while to find the original 1959 version recorded by The Clovers.

To this very day, I find this catchy tune thumping & bumping in the background of my mind.  It always makes me think about my mom and wonder what she was doing when she first heard this song back in the late 1950s.  On Saturday, April 15th 2017, my mother suffered a massive subarachnoid brain hemorrhage due to an aneurysm; miraculously, she’s in guarded condition and recovering.