Music has been a part of my life for all of my life.

It started with my mother playing all the songs by Hank Williams as well as Eddie Arnold’s’s “Lonesome Cattle Call” tune.

My older brother introduced me to Jazz with “Take Five” by Dave Brubeck and then the most famous Rock & Roll singing group who gave us “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

I contributied to the 1960s music as a 17-year-old who harmonized with a Doo Wop group called the Five Jaunts that sang two songs on a Rock & Roll dance show. The recording was preserved by the lead singer’s future wife and still gets lots of smiles when I hear it.

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But none of the music ever made me feel so shockingly sad until I listened to three songs. They were “Teen Angel,” “Last Kiss” and my favorite “Tell Laura I Love Her.”

Teen Angel

 “Teen Angel ” is a 1959 tragedy song about a girl and her boyfriend in a ride together. He pulls her from their car as it stalls on a railroad track in the path of an oncoming train. But she runs back to the car, and is killed in the collision.

     When her body is recovered, the boy’s high school class ring is in clutched in her hand, which was apparently the reason she ran back. The last verse ends with the lyrics: “I’ll never kiss your lips again. They buried you today.“

Tell Laura I Love Her

  “Tell Laura I Love Her” tells the tragic story of Tommy who is in love with Laura and wants to marry her, so he enters a stock car race, despite being the youngest and most inexperienced driver, hoping to win and use the prize money to buy Laura a wedding ring.

     The second verse of this 1960 tune tells how his car overturns and bursts into flames, although nobody knows what had happened. Tommy is fatally injured and his last words are “Tell Laura I love her… My love for her will never die.“Last Kiss

Last Kiss

     Debuting in 1964. “Last Kiss” tells of a teenager who borrows his father’s car to take his girlfriend on a date, and comes upon a stalled car in the road. Unable to stop, the boy swerves to the right to avoid it, loses control, and crashes, knocking his girlfriend and himself unconscious.

     The singer regains consciousness and then finds his girlfriend, still lying unconscious. She regains partial consciousness, smiles, and asks the singer to “hold me, darling, for a little while.” The singer then gives her a last kiss as she dies.

     In the song’s chorus, the singer vows to be a good person so that he may reunite with his love when he dies, believing she has made it into Heaven.