Today’s post was written by Paul.
A while back for Old Timey Tuesday, I sang, “Keep It a Secret from Me,” a song I sometimes heard Pap sing part of when I was a kid. As often happens, that song reminded me of the song I’m sharing today, probably because they both deal with an ignorance-is-bliss situation of the romantic variety.
Though I thought of “I Really Don’t Want to Know” back then, I’ve been dodging it ever since because of the difficult vocal range required to sing it. In my first take of the song, I sang the wrong line in the first part of the first verse. Just after the line “how many arms have held you,” I should have sung, “and hated to let you go,” not “and set your soul aglow.” When I noticed the mistake, I sang it again, moving the song down to C. I think the second take is better, but I’m not sure.
Several months ago, for Old Timey Tuesday, I sang a couple of songs that I heard Bugs Bunny sing when I was a kid. In that video, I mentioned checking out records from the Murphy Public Library, specifically, records from Slim Whitman, Hank Locklin, Sonny James, and Eddy Arnold.
“I Really Don’t Want to Know” was on the Eddy Arnold record that I checked out from the library. Though I had heard Pap sing a fragment of it, I really didn’t know the song as a whole until I checked out that record.
My memory told me that Eddy sang it in A major. I tried it there and found it was far too low for me, which wasn’t a surprise. I next tried D flat, then settled on C. It amazes me that Eddy Arnold sang those low parts four frets lower than D flat, while I can barely hit them in D flat. Much like Jim Reeves, Eddy Arnold could have easily sung bass in a quartet, if he had wanted.
After I shot this video, I played Eddy’s recording from YouTube. To me, it sounded higher than A, but according to Google AI, it was indeed A. If you’ve never heard it, you should check it out, not only to hear Eddy’s incredible vocal but to hear Little Roy Wiggins (not to be confused with Little Roy Lewis) play some truly exquisite steel guitar licks. I would almost describe it as pinched harmonics.
Back in the 30’s and on through the 50’s, country music singers often had handles or titles (in addition to their names). For example, Jimmie Rodgers was “the singing brakeman.” Hank Snow was “the singing ranger.” Gene Autry was “the singing cowboy.” Johnny Horton was “the singing fisherman.” I could keep going, but you get the idea. Eddy’s most well known moniker was “the Tennessee plowboy.” However, a few times, I heard Ralph Emery and others introduce him/refer to him as “the wandering boy.” I assumed that the title might have been derived from this song, since the song features the phrase “I wonder” several times. I only heard the title on the radio. I didn’t see it written, so I didn’t know if they were saying “wandering” or “wondering.”
As I mentioned to Doyle Dykes on our Branson Trip, I came across an Eddy Arnold album on YouTube about a month ago, with the title “Wandering Boy” (see it here). After seeing that, I am guessing that the title or moniker may have been a temporary one in connection to the album that he released, but I still don’t know for sure. It’s a good album.
Eddy Arnold is one of the most successful country singers of all time, having sold over 80 million records. According to Google, he released “I Really Don’t Want to Know” in 1953. I don’t know for sure, but I think strings (an orchestra) might have been added at a later date, either that or he re-recorded it and released it again during the “Nashville Sound” era.
According to Google, Don Robertson wrote the music and Howard Barnes wrote the words. It apparently reached number one on the charts for Eddy and was later covered by Elvis and Dolly Parton (individually).
I won’t say that present day “country” singers cannot sing, but I think if they tried to sing this song (especially in the key Eddy used), they might have a new appreciation for the amazing vocal talent that their predecessors possessed. Of course, back then, there was no pitch correction.
Thanks for watching and for reading all of this!
Paul
Original singles released on Spotify.
Shepherd of My Soul (Album released in 2016).
The Wilson Brothers Words of Life Album released in the 70s.
I glean a little insight to what I don’t know about music reading this post as well as others of yours. When it comes to singing, I might ought to be called a “plowboy” if that means taking a “C natural” (?) and just plowing through without any finesse. As Henry Ward Beecher wrote, “As a singist I am not a success. I am saddest when I sing. So are the people who hear me. They are sadder even than I am.” I just barely am able to see that music is a grand world of complexity that my place is on the furthest edges of. If I were to listen to Eddy Arnold, I don’t think I would get an inkling that his voice range was so wide. So of course I would under-appreciate his talent. Always the way I reckon. Those who are masters make their mastery appear easy which can cause their not being rightly appreciated. I don’t want to do that to anyone and regret to realize it later.
Hi Paul. Thay isn’t the link to Eddy singing the song you are singing. It links to the full album to the photo at the beginning of the blog post though and it is a great album. The song can be searched for on youtube by title. I Love Eddy Arnold. TY
Thank you Barbara! I fixed it 🙂
As usual Paul I live reading your posts, there is so much to learn from them. By the way one of my favior musicals is “Oklahoma” and Eddy Arnold plays the lrad and sings wonderfully. By the way I bought “Living to Never Die” and it is unbelievable. It sounds like it was recorded yesterday but I know it wasn’t. My favorites are tracks #16 and the last track. To hear Pap sing that song is beautiful. I play it over and over again while driving in my car. The last track interested me before I played it because one of my favorite Hawaiian songs is “Aloha Oe” or “Till We Meet Again.” When I saw the title of the last track I wondered if Pap had borrowed that song but he did and he didn’t. The song is the same but different. I think of all our loved ones who have gone home to the Lord and when I listen and sing along to that song I picture myself being with those loved ones. One of the joys of my life was just hours before my brother passed two weeks ago he accepted Jesus as his Savior. My years of praying had come to fruition. His battle over cancer is over and he won because he is with the Lord. Thank you Paul for another wonderful posy. Have s blessed day.
Thanks for keeping the old country around. They sure knew how to tell stories through their music.