How Could I Let You Get Away

I know this is not tomorrow but day after tomorrow ........... sorry! Now here's the real definition and meaning of this song. " HOW COULD I LET YOU GET AWAY" was originally written by a woman named; "Yvette Davis". It was intended for a woman to sing about a man, or in this case, a boy to sing about a girl. The song was introduced to the Spinners and they song it just the way it was written ..... Now here is the full explanation. Howdy Doo was a popular children's show in the late 1950's. That show featured Tin Men and Clowns etc. In the lyrics a girl was singing to a boy. She was frustrated that the boy was slow to recognize that she was falling in love with him. You see it is a known fact that girls mature several years before boy on average. They both were probably around the ages of 8 or 9 years old at the time. The girl who is probably about 16 years old now, reminisces about her chances that were blown. She realizes by now that had she not given up on the slow maturing boy, she would have had him as her boy friend and not some other girl. She now recalls that even the Tin Men and Clowns the boy was playing with were laughing at how ignorant he was to her love advances. She even says that she too was/is laughing at him. The next stanzer says "Like basketball 5 fouls and that is all". That means that in the game of love she was playing with him, he only tolerated so many advances and then he would reject her as though she'd fouled out of the game. The games he knew how to play so well, she realized she couldn't beat him at. If she only could have beaten him she would probably have been able to resume playing the love game. All these games happened in the Middle of the Play Room. She was so intense, and intent on getting him to fall in love with her that she forfieted her sleep time which is what the phrase "Got no time to count my sheep today" means. Counting sheep is what people us as an exercise to get to sleep. In the Mother Goose nursery rhymes; Mother Goose would wind up toys and let them simply walk away. So the girl is saying she spent all this time winding him up of love like Mother Goose and simply let him walk away. Perhaps into some other girl's arms. As she watched him play make believe fighst with his ABC blocks she became frustrated. All she knew is that block number #10 was beating blovk #2. She recalls how young she was because she remembers that she didn't even know her colors. She said; " and I can't tell green from blue". Another game she couldn't beat the boy at was "Chase". That's what they often played instead of the game she wanted to play which was House". You know the cat chases the mouse! She would get so mad because he wanted to run and rip and she wanted to mimic life. She wanted to play kiss and hug in hopes that he'd feel the pangs of love and fall in love with her. Now she bops her hand upside her head for letting him get away. She knew that her needs would intensify with age and her cravings for love would even grow stronger, but in her anger she wound him up for love and let him go because he was slow to get the picture. However by now he's gotten the picture but, it is too late for her. The Spinners were singing the song from a girl's perspective; not a guys perspective! I HOPE THIS SONG MEANING IS A HELP TO THOSE WHO LOVE THIS SONG JUST AS MUCH AS I DO! Thank you !!!!!!!!!!!!

The only thing I can add to Footofmybed's comment, is Howdy Doo is short for Howdy Doody, a popular children's television series.

I really like this song, but the lyrics are really confusing to me. Most of them don't make sense. The only sense I can make is of the line "got no time to count my sheep today", and I think that means he didn't pay attention to the important things, so he lost them. Otherwise, I have no idea what the other lyrics are about.

Was doing random artist/song selection and came across what ever this is. As a 4 year coming reply, ""got no time to count my sheep today" I'm pretty sure the guy just couldn't get any sleep. The Best explanation is often the simplist. Other wise of course i agree that this is just crazy sentances mixed with PCP.

This song is a real gem.It was written by a lady named Yvette Davis and God knows what led her to write the lyrics. I have wondered if it could POSSIBLY be a song about a father or mother who lost their child in a custody case and thats why so many game references.Worth a thought.

I doubt it, considering the next line is "when I knew I'd need somebody soon" The lyrics are a little abstract for this type of song but I don't think they're that hard to decipher. But some of them don't make much sense and I think whoever wrote them didn't quite understand either. That's mainly just the first verse to me.

I think this entire song is about a guy who is now alone and wishes he had taken advantage of a perfect opportunity to fall in love and get the girl he loved and admired. However she wasn't ready at the time. She wanted to play games of chase but he wanted to play house and perhaps get a chance to kiss her. Like basketball means he likes basketball and would intentionally foul her so he could be next to her but all he was allowed was 5 fouls. She knew the game so well that he couldn't even cheat and get more times to be close to her.The tin soldiers are even laughing at her because she just couldn't catch on. He didn't want to take the noon knap because he wanted to be with her, but their parents made them knap. I'll write more tomorrow.

I think this song is simply a man singing about how he placed other priorities over the lady he loved and couldn’t even see her and her needs right there in front of him until it was too late. He didn’t “count his sheep” like a shepherd does to make sure that they are all accounted for and tended to. He exercised things like mother goose, and did just the opposite of pulling her closer, and instead pushed her away. He “fouled out” of the game of Love by not tending to his sheep, the one that got away, the “lost sheep”. Now everyone is laughing at him, including his own conscience, because he was so foolish.