This week’s theme for Song Lyric Sunday has Jim setting us a potential banana skin. We’re asked to write about a song that reminds us of ourselves.

How to play this? Come up with something that smacks of – heaven forbid – self-aggrandisement and it’s just asking for trouble. And everyone will think you’re a bighead. On the other hand, excessive self-deprecation would seem like false modesty. And everyone will think you really are a bighead.

Either way, for me it certainly isn’t going to be “He’s The Greatest Dancer”.

But hopefully I’ve steered a safe middle course with this classic, written by the prolific Holland, Dozier and Holland. The ‘you’ in question is, of course, Madame.

How sweet it is to be loved by you. How sweet it is to be loved by you.

I needed the shelter of someone’s arms and there you were.
I needed someone to understand my ups and downs and there you were.
With sweet love and devotion, deeply touching my emotion,
I want to stop and thank you baby. I want to stop and thank you baby.
How sweet it is to be loved by you. How sweet it is to be loved by you.

I close my eyes at night wondering where would I be without you in my life.
Everything I did was just a bore, everywhere I went it seems I’d been there before.
But you brighten up for me all of my days with a love so sweet in so many ways,
I want to stop and thank you baby, I just want to stop and thank you baby.
How sweet it is to be loved by you, feels so fine. How sweet it is to be loved by you.

You were better for me than I was for myself,
for me, there’s you and there ain’t nobody else,
I want to stop and thank you baby. I just want to stop and thank you baby, yes I do,
how sweet it is to be loved by you. How sweet it is to be loved by you.
Feels so fine, how sweet it is to be loved by you.
Just like jelly baby, oh yeah, how sweet it is to be loved by you.
Just like honey to the bee, babe, how sweet it is to be loved by you.

Written by Holland, Dozier and Holland

Song Lyric Sunday 8 September 2024