Will you still love them tomorrow?

Happy New Year, everybody.

My son sent me an MP3 of Amy Winehouse's version of "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow." This is a classic song by the Brill Building geniuses, Gerry Goffin and Carole King, originally recorded by the Shirelles in 1960. It made the Rolling Stone list of 500 Greatest Songs. It was banned by some radio stations because it was "sexually charged," but what I hear in the song is a girl plaintively asking a sweet-talking guy she likes, if she sleeps with him tonight how's he going to feel about her in the morning? I find the live version of the Shirelles singing it in 1964 to be a bit uptempo for the theme expressed in the song.





Of the four versions I've included here, I find Lorrie Morgan's the closest to how I think the song should be expressed, and that even includes the version by the song's co-writer, Carole King.



This is actually a different version than the one my son sent me, included on Winehouse's posthumous album, Lioness. The version from the album is very dramatic, with a military-sounding drum tattoo throughout the song, which I think is an odd choice by the producer. Amy Winehouse will probably be remembered, like Janis Joplin, for a short playlist in a short life. The cynical old adage is, "Death was a good career move," and for some artists it creates a mystique or aura around their memory.



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