Girl From Ipanema was another natural, and popped into my head immediately!

And one of my other “most favorites:” Downtown, sung by Petula Clark

When you’re alone and life is making you lonely
You can always go – downtown
When you’ve got worries, all the noise and the hurry
Seems to help, I know – downtown
Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city
Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty
How can you lose?

The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
So go downtown, things’ll be great when you’re
Downtown – no finer place, for sure
Downtown – everything’s waiting for you

Don’t hang around and let your problems surround you
There are movie shows – downtown
Maybe you know some little places to go to
Where they never close – downtown
Just listen to the rhythm of a gentle bossa nova
You’ll be dancing with him too before the night is over
Happy again

The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
So go downtown, where all the lights are bright
Downtown – waiting for you tonight
Downtown – you’re gonna be all right now

[Instrumental break]

And you may find somebody kind to help and understand you
Someone who is just like you and needs a gentle hand to
Guide them along

So maybe I’ll see you there
We can forget all our troubles, forget all our cares
So go downtown, things’ll be great when you’re
Downtown – don’t wait a minute for
Downtown – everything’s waiting for you

Downtown, downtown, downtown, downtown …

Finally, Dionne Warwick singing just about anything — particularly anything by Burt Bacharach, is just the thing to send me back to a time and place I remember as special (even if I was then just an itty bitty thing thrilled to take ANYTHING my most revered neighbors –all the really cool older kids!) bequeathed to me…when their parents demanded pre-college closet clean outs!

Fun post, neo…

Pitney, aka “The Rockville Rocket” was one of the few pop stars from central Connecticut where I grew up. He had a number of memorable hits from the era including “Town Without Pity”, “It Hurts to be in Love”, “Half Heaven, Half Heartache”, “Every Breath I Take” and many others.

“Walk Away Renee” and “Pretty Ballerina” by the Left Banke were two indelibly magic songs of that era whose album went out of print fast.

When I was younger, I searched in vain for an affordable copy in the used record stores. It’s only recently a reasonably priced Left Banke in MP3 format became available.

Rickie Lee Jones has a transcendent live version of “Walk Away Renee.”

“If they don’t like him that way
They won’t like me after today
I’ll be standing right by his side…”

The late Gene Pitney wrote this, and it still enchants, all these years later, despite the total absence of actual Crystals on the record. (Phil Spector hurriedly cut this with the Blossoms – that’s Darlene Love on lead – in an effort to beat a rival version by Vikki Carr to the charts.)

But how could we all have missed, “Walkin’ After Midnight” by Patsy Cline?

Somewhere along the road
Someone waits for me
Beyond these present storms that blow
Waiting patiently
No secrets held in an open heart
A spirit that soars over mountains
Somewhere along the road
Someone waits for me

— Somewhere Along the Road, Maddy Prior