THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

515-Barry Ryan-Eloise.

1968-Number 2 single.

Best Bit-At 3.38. File this one under ‘Baroque Pop.’

‘Baroque Pop’ is the fusing together of Classical Music, and Rock Music,’ which emerged in the mid 1960’s, as artists experimented with new sounds. Harpsichords figure prominently, as do oboes, French Horns, and string quartets.

‘Eloise’ was written by Paul Ryan (1948-1992) ans performed by his twin brother Barry Ryan (1948-2021.) The twins were born on October 24th, 1948, in Leeds, England, their mother was the singer Marion Ryan (1931-1999) who had had a 1958 UK Number 5 hit single with ‘Love Me Forever’. Prior to his solo career Barry and his brother Paul had performed as a duo, scoring five UK top 40 singles between 1965-1967. Due to the pressures of performing, Paul took a backseat in order to concentrate on song writing, among his other best known compositions are ‘Who Put the Lights Out,’ a 1972 UK Number 14 hit for the Irish singer Dana, and ‘I Will Drink the Wine,’ which Frank Sinatra recorded for his 1971 Album ‘Sinatra & Company.’ Paul retired from the music industry in 1976, he died of lung cancer, at the age of 44, in 1992. As a solo artist Barry Ryan released 23 singles between 1968-1989, six of which have charted in the UK top 40. He died on September 28th, 2021, at the age of 72.

‘Eloise’ was written by Paul Ryan who said that his inspiration for the song came after hearing a ‘demo’ version of ‘MacArthur Park’ by Richard Harris,(see also best songs 119) two notable session musicians who played on the song were Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones, who would later go on to form Led Zeppelin. The song has sold in excess of 3 million copies worldwide, and topped the charts in 17 countries. There are two notable cover versions of the song, in 1986 the English Rock band ‘The Damned’ took their cover to Number 3 in the UK, and in 1988 a ‘Techno-Pop’ version by the Spanish singer Tino Casal (1950-1991) reached Number 1 in Spain for several weeks.

‘Eloise’ is probably a song with dark subject matter.It appears unclear whether Eloise is a real person who has left the narrator, or it could be possible that she is a figment of his imagination, that he fantasises over.

‘My Eloise I’d love to please her, I’d love to care, but she’s not there, and when I find you, I’d be so kind, you’d want to stay, I know you’d stay.’