Wedding Bell Blues

Album

The Age of Aquarius

Label

Soul City

Genre

Pop Soul

Media Type

45s

Composer(s)

Laura Nyro

Entered Chart

Sep 27, 1969

Peak Date

Nov 8, 1969

Released

September 1969

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Soul City 779

B-Side

Lovin' Stew

Laura Nyro wrote this song when she was just 18, and released it on her first album in 1967. The song finds the singer letting her boyfriend (Bill) know that although she loves him, she's becoming frustrated waiting for him to propose to her (Beyonce updated this theme with her hit "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It))." So, was there really a "Bill"? Alan Merrill would know - the son of Jazz singer Helen Merrill, he grew up with Laura, and they thought of each other as cousins, since her uncle married Alan's aunt. Alan, who became a rock star in England with his band The Arrows, explained to Songfacts: Around 1958 or so my mom was dating a married man named Bill Carter, a b-film actor. He was married to Trink Wiman, heiress to the John Deere fortune. My mom and Bill co-owned a jazz club named The Night Owl (not the Greenwich Village rock venue) and were having a very passionate and public relationship. The club was quite possibly funded by Ms. Wiman's money. The affair was so serious in fact that Trink had private detectives invade our apartment at 800 Grand Concourse (Bronx) in 1958, I was there and remember it. The ensuing newspaper scandal was the reason we left to reside in Europe for many years. This was big family gossip of course, and Laura listened to it as a child and later wrote about it. My mother could never marry Bill, and didn't. Her timing was bad. Seeing a married man was a big deal in the '50s, but that the wife was such a wealthy heiress upped the ante. My mother seethes at the mention of his name now and refuses to discuss him, although she did confirm the story of the affair (and Laura admitting to her that it was the inspiration for the song) when interviewed in Michele Kort's book about Laura's life - Soul Picnic. My mom was not amused at Laura's incisive lyric, but in fact Laura was an investigative journalist as an artist and got the story spot-on in the song. A zinger from my mom's perspective, but a big winner in terms of sale for Laura! Laura Nyro, who died from cancer in 1997, was a popular singer, but other artists had far more success with her songs. This song, along with "And When I Die" by Blood, Sweat & Tears and "Eli's Coming" by 3 Dog Night, were all Laura Nyro compositions in the US Top 10 at the same time for a few weeks in the fall of 1969. Alan Merrill told Songfacts: "I watched Laura write all of her first songs. I'd go, 'You can't speed up like that, you'll never have a hit. You can't slow down, speed up, slow down, speed up.' And she just smiled at me, like, 'I know what I'm doing.' I said, 'Listen to the Byrds and the Beatles, they don't slow down and speed up.' A year or two later I was looking at the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 songs on the Billboard charts and Laura had written them all!" (Merrill was a member of The Arrows and co-wrote the song "I Love Rock And Roll." The 5th Dimension had hits in 1968 with Nyro's songs "Stoned Soul Picnic" and "Sweet Blindness." The group's producer Bones Howe was good friends with Nyro and loved her songs, so he encouraged them to record another one for their Age Of Aquarius album. The song was exceptionally fitting for the group, as members Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. were engaged at the time, but had not set a wedding date. This played well on television appearances, as Marilyn would sing to "Bill" and Davis would put on that look guys get when they're being hassled about getting married. McCoo and Davis did get married later in 1969, and remained together. "Wedding Bell Blues" became a common phrase in pop culture after this song became a hit. The title has been used for several books, a 1996 movie, and episodes of television shows. "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" was the first single released from the album and the first #1 hit for The 5th Dimension. "Wedding Bell Blues" was released next, and also topped the charts. Herb Bernstein worked as an arranger and conductor on Nyro's debut album, which featured the tune. "What I wanted to do was incorporate all her thoughts into my arrangements," Bernstein explained in Michele Kort's book Soul Picnic: The Passion and Music of Laura Nyro. Making changes to any of Nyro's songs was a difficult task because the singer was adamant about maintaining the integrity of her music, which featured unusual melodies and chord changes not often found in hits of the time. "She was very artsy-fartsy," said Bernstein. "If you heard 'Wedding Bell Blues' the way she first played it for me, you wouldn't believe it was the same song. She had that little riff - dah bah buh DOO buh DOO - that she used a lot, but she'd stop every sixteen measures and go into another tempo. I said, 'Look, I'm as artistic as the next person, but you have to think of the commerciality of these things. If you're gonna change tempo every thirty seconds, you're gonna lose the average listener.'" Nyro's version features harmonica playing from Buddy Lucas, a jazz saxophonist and bandleader who did session work for several artists, including Nina Simone, Roberta Flack, and Aretha Franklin. The 5th Dimension's rendition did not feature the harmonica. In the 1991 movie My Girl, about a girl coming of age in the early '70s, Vada (Anna Chlumsky) sings this to a photo of the teacher she has a crush on.

Bill
I love you so
I always will
I look at you and see
The passion eyes of May (eyes of May)
Oh, but am I ever gonna see
My wedding day? (Wedding day)

I was on your side, Bill
When you were losin' (when you were losin')
I'd never scheme or lie, Bill
There's been no foolin' (there's been no foolin')
But kisses and love won't carry me
'Til you marry me, Bill

I love you so
I always will
And in your voice I hear
A choir of carousels (carousels)
Oh, but am I ever gonna hear
My wedding bells? (Wedding bells)

I was the one came runnin'
When you were lonely (when you were lonely)
I haven't lived one day
Not loving you only (loving you only)
But kisses and love won't carry me
'Til you marry me, Bill

I love you so
I always will
And though devotion rules my heart
I take no bows (take no bows)
Oh, but Bill, you're never gonna
Take those wedding vows (wedding vows)
Come on, Bill
Oh, come on, Bill

Come on and marry me, Bill
I got the wedding bell blues
Please marry me, Bill
I got the wedding bell blues
Wedding bell blues
(Blues)
Marry me, Bill
I got the wedding bell blues