There was a song recorded by Connie Francis at the end of '63 which paid tribute to JFK. 'In The Summer Of His Years'

Jim replies...

You're absolutely right, and as usual I was not making myself clear.

(As I get older, I get less and less coherent)

The point I was trying to make was that I did not know of any American songs about JFK, whereas there were quite a number about Martin Luther King and I just wondered why.

"In The Summer Of His Years" was indeed about Kennedy, but was not an American song - it was originally written and recorded in London for the UK market.

What happened, if I remember rightly and I may have some of the names and dates wrong, was that on the 23rd November 1963, the usual edition of the UK BBC television show "That Was The Week That Was" was cancelled due to the death of Kennedy, amd because it was to include a humorous segment on JFK and LBJ.

Rather than see no version of the show being ransmitted, the five series writers Ned Sherrin, David Frost, Christopher Booker, Bernard Levin and Caryl Brahms sat down to write a tribute edition to JFK.

They also asked Herbert Kretzmer and David Lee to write a song to replace the very bouncy theme tune, which they did, titled "In The Summer Of His Years".

They actually wrote it, arranged it, and recorded it all in the space of three hours!

Millicent Martin, who normally sang the theme tune each week, did the vocals, and the Beatles producer, George Martin, produced it.

The TV show was shipped to New York and shown that weekend, and Millicent Martin's recording was released on UK Parlophone the next day.

ABC-Paramount picked it up in the US, and released it about a week after the fimera;, and it initially got a lot of airplay, reaching the "Bubbling Under" section of Billboard.

There were than a raft of cover versions (I think there were 12 or 13), but the only ones I remember were by Connie Francis (MGM), Mahalia Jackson (Columbia), Kate Smith (RCA Victor), Sarah Vaughn (Vernon) and The Chad Mitchell Trio (Mercury).

The only one that charted in the US inside the Hot 100 was by Connie Francis, and if I remember rightly, that made the Top 40 around the end of December.

Given that the song was written in about 60 minutes - it was pretty good I thought and although Millicent Martin did a great job (she actually broke down on live TV singing it), I still think the best and least schmaltzy version is by Chad Mitchell.

Incidentally, you never hear it nowadays on radio, but a very playable song is Chad Mitchell's 1962 Top 40 hit "Lizzie Borden", with these immortal words:

Elizabeth Bordon took an axe
And gave her Mother forty wacks
And when the job was nicely done
She gave her Father forty-one

Yesterday in old Fall River
Mr Andrew Borden died
And he got his daughter Lizzie
On a charge of homicide
Some folks say she didn't do it
And others say of course she did
But they all agree Miss Lizzie B
Was a problem kind of kid

'Cause you can't chop your Papa up in Massachusetts
Not even if it's planned as a surprise (a surprise)
No, you can't chop your Papa up in Massachusetts
You know how neighbors love to criticize

She got him on the sofa
Where he'd gone to take a snooze
And I hope he went to heaven
'Cause he wasn't wearing shoes
Lizzie kinda rearranged him
With a hatchet so they say
Then she got her Mother
In that same old-fashioned way

But you can't chop your Mama up in Massachusetts
Not even if you're tired of her cuisine (her cuisine)
No, you can't chop your Mama up in Massachusetts
You know it's almost sure to cause a scene

Well, they really kept her hoppin'
On that busy afternoon
With both down and up-stairs chopping
While she hummed a ragtime tune
They really made her hustle
And when all was said and done
She'd removed her Mother's bustle
When she wasn't wearing one

Oh, you can't chop your Mama up in Massachusetts
And then blame all the damage on the mice (on the mice)
No, you can't chop your Mama up in Massachusetts
That kind of thing just isn't very nice

Now, it wasn't done for pleasure
And it wasn't done for spite
And it wasn't done
Because the lady wasn't very bright
She'd always done the slightest thing
That Mom and Papa bid
They said, Lizzie, cut it out
So that's exactly what she did

But you can't chop your Papa up in Massachusetts
And then get dressed and go out for a walk (for a walk)
No, you can't chop your Papa up in Massachusetts
Massachusetts is a far cry from New York

No, you can't chop your Papa up in Massachusetts
Shut the door and lock and latch it
Here comes Lizzie with a brand new hatchet
Can't chop your papa up in Massachusetts
Such a snob, I've heard it said
She met her Pa and cut him dead
You can't chop your Papa up in Massachusetts
Jump like a fish, jump like a porpoise
All join hands and habeas corpus
Can't chop your Papa up in Massachusetts
Massachusetts is a far cry from New York

They don't write songs like that anymore.