THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

98-Marlena Shaw-Yu Ma/Go Away Little Boy.

1977-It has never charted in the UK.

Best Bit-At 2.48. The heart 1 – The head 0.

‘Go Away Little Girl’ was written by the legendary songwriting team of Gerry Goffin, (1939-2014) and his then wife Carole King (see also best songs (1030 and 1021.) The song was written with the intention of giving it to Bobby Vee (1943-2016) as the follow up to his Billboard Number 1 ‘Take Good Care of My Baby,’ which was also a Goffin/King composition, but a last minute decision by the music producer Don Kirshner (1934-2011) meant the song was given to the American singer Steve Laurence instead. The song was a great success for Laurence reaching Number 1 on Billboard in 1963, and then in 1971 Donny Osmond (see also best songs 642) also took his version to Number 1, making it the first time on the American Billboard Hot 100 that a song has made Number 1 twice by different artists, at the time of writing it has happened on a further eight occasions since. In 1966 a recording by the American Pop group ‘The Happenings’ also made Number 12 on Billboard, while in the UK the song reached Number 6 for the English singer Mark Wynter in 1962.

Marlena Shaw was born Marlena Burgess on September 22nd, 1942, in New Rochelle, New York, United States, she has recorded in the genres of Jazz, Blues, Soul, and Disco. The music of Marlena Shaw is often sampled, particularly by Hip-Hop artists, and also is sort after by enthusiasts of ‘Rare Groove.’ ‘Rare Groove’ is music that is very hard to source or relatively obscure. and is primarily associated with Funk, R&B and Jazz funk, but it is also connected to sub-genres including Jazz rock, Reggae, Latin jazz, Soul, Rock music, Northern Soul, and disco. Vinyl records that fall into this category generally have high re-sale prices. Marlena Shaw has released 17 Albums between 1967-2004, and the closest she ever came to a hit single on Billboard was with her 1967 single ‘Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,’ which reached Number 58.

Yu Ma/Go Away Little Boy’ can be found on Marlena Shaw’s eighth Album release ‘Sweet Beginnings’ from 1977, which was produced by Bert DeCoteaux (1944-2005.) Although Goffin and King received the song writing credits, Marlena Shaw’s rendition is poles apart, and is given a complete overhaul. Her Soulful performance of the song starts off with a monologue, (the ‘Yu Ma’ part of the song, written by Shaw) where she tells her man that he had better shape up or get out of her life, but by the time the song reaches it’s climax, love and lust have taken over, and she is ready to forgive all of his misdemeanours, even promising to try to work harder herself to make the relationship work…..as long as he gets a job by Thursday.

‘Don’t, don’t kiss my eyelids like that, and please don’t suck my ear lobes like that, and don’t no baby, don’t, don’t! Well look, you think you can get a job by Thursday? You promise?