When a song gets stuck in your head

I don’t like it when a song gets stuck in my head.

Not because I dislike the song; more often than not it’s a silly tune like The Day We Went To Bangor.

It’s the repetition that gets to me. It’s irritating and distracting.

The latest song to mess with my head is Sue Thompson’s James (Hold The Ladder Steady).

I first heard it on a kids’ CD and because my youngest son is James it caught my attention.

Semi-obsessed, I looked it up on YouTube and found it was a hit in the early 60s. At least the process has been informative.

According to Wikipedia, Sue Thompson was born Eva Sue McKee in 1925 in Nevada, Missouri. At the age of seven, she was already singing and playing the guitar on stage.

After her first marriage failed she married Hank Penny, a comedian and singer. Penny and Thompson hosted a TV show in Los Angeles together before eventually moving to Las Vegas. Thompson recorded separately and also with her husband for Decca Records. However, none of their songs ever gained any real success.

In 1960, Thompson signed on with Hickory Records. In 1961, “Sad Movies (Make Me Cry)” became a #5 hit on the pop charts, and she followed this up successfully with “Norman”, which reached #3. Both of these hit singles were written by songwriter John D. Loudermilk.

In 1962, “Have a Good Time” was a Top 40 hit and in 1963, “Willie Can” was a minor hit. With her lighthearted and breathy voice, Thompson became a favorite among the teenage crowd of the time, even though she was in her late thirties. Two further hits, also written by Loudermilk, were “James (Hold the Ladder Steady)” and “Paper Tiger”.

“Paper Tiger” in 1965 was her last Top 30 hit. In the late 60s, she went back to country music and released the album This Is Sue Thompson Country in 1969.

Here is James (Hold The Ladder Steady):