Tell Laura I Love Her - Pay Peterson / Ricky Valance (cover-live by Bill Sharkey)

Tell Laura I Love Her (Ray Peterson, 1960; Ricky Valance, 1960). Live cover performance by Bill Sharkey, Home Studio, Hawaii Kai, HI. 2023-03-11. "Keeping the Oldies & Classics Alive"

"Tell Laura I Love Her," written by Jeff Barry and Ben Raleigh, was Ray Peterson's first top 10 and highest ranked hit on the Billboard Hot 100 hitting the no. 7 position in 1960 (Whitburn, 2013), while Ricky Valance's version hit the no. 1 position the same year in the UK (Kutner & Leigh, 2005). What is interesting, is that the BBC and a number of radio stations in the US originally banned the song for fear that it would encourage some listeners to commit suicide (C. Weston, hitc, 2021; songfacts, 2023). "Decca Records in England picked up the original [Peterson] recording and broadcast a sample on the BBC. An apparent moral panic ensued and Decca executives decided the record could not be released, saying it was 'too tasteless and vulgar for the English sensibility.' 25,000 copies had already been pressed, and were all destroyed. EMI-Columbia promptly recruited Valence, a Welsh RAF veteran recently signed to the label, to cover the song. The BBC immediately banned it, citing a recent series of fatal road accidents" even so, it rose to the no. 1 position in the UK (songfacts, 2023).

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Lyrics:

Laura and Tommy were lovers
He wanted to give her everything
Flowers, presents and most of all, a wedding ring

He saw a sign for a stock car race
A thousand dollar prize it read
He couldn't get Laura on the phone
So to her mother Tommy said

Tell Laura I love her, tell Laura I need her
Tell Laura I may be late
I've something to do that cannot wait

He drove his car to the racing grounds
He was the youngest driver there
The crowd roared as they started the race
'Round the track they drove at a deadly pace

No one knows what happened that day
How his car overturned in flames
But as they pulled him from the twisted wreck
With his dying breath, they heard him say

Tell Laura I love her, tell Laura I need her
Tell Laura not to cry
My love for her will never die

And in the chapel where Laura prays
For her Tommy who passed away
It was just for Laura he lived and died
Alone in the chapel she can hear him cry

Tell Laura I love her, tell Laura I need her
Tell Laura not to cry
My love for her will never die
Tell Laura I love her, tell Laura I need her