Saturday 9

 Saturday 9: Goodbye (1969)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

This song was chosen because it's time to say goodbye to 2024.

Thanks for participating in Saturday 9 this year.

1) In this song, Mary Hopkin asks her lover not to let her sleep too late. Did you wake up this morning on your own, did someone wake you, or were you jangled awake by an alarm clock? I'm battling a bad cold and am letting myself sleep as much as my body wants to as I recover.

2) The lyrics reference "a lonely song." Can you name a song about loneliness? "Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles. Paul asks, "All the lonely people, where do they all come from? All the lonely people, where do they all belong?"

3) "Goodbye" was written for Mary by Paul McCartney. He was the one who signed her to her first record contract and produced this and all her Apple Records, including her first big hit, "Those Were the Days." Looking back on 2024, who is someone who gave you a helping hand when you needed it? My former boss at the card shop, Ceecee, made me feel like she wanted me to succeed. Her support gave me confidence. She's a very good supervisor.

4) This video shows Mary performing on The Ed Sullivan Show while wearing a miniskirt. Minis were very popular in 1969. Did you embrace a fashion trend in 2024? If we expand this to makeup, yes. I began wearing light blue and violet eye shadow again, something I hadn't done since the 70s. But I like it.

5) Also in 1969, the Colts lost to the New York Jets in Super Bowl III. The game is famous because of all the hype leading up to it, including Joe Namath "guaranteeing" the underdog Jets would win. Do you have a special sports memory of 2024? In September, my favorite-most ball player returned to Wrigley Field for the first time since he was traded. It wasn't just the 41,000 fans in the park who celebrated him. There were signs all around town welcoming him home. I hope Anthony Rizzo realizes how much he is loved here.

6) What's the farthest from home you traveled in 2024? ORD to LAX is about 2,000 miles.

7) What was the biggest purchase that you made in 2024? I spent about (gulp) $4,000 on dental work this year.

8) What was your favorite book of 2024? Camera Girl is a biography of Jacqueline Bouvier, before she became Mrs. Kennedy or Mrs. Onassis. It concentrates on her life after high school and before marriage. It's about the choices women had (or didn't have) in the 1940s and 1950s and made me wish I knew more about my own mother's life after high school, before she left my grandparents' home for her husband's.

Read about it here

9) What are you looking forward to most in 2025? I'm going to Hollywood!