This song is a period piece – a hit in 1982, but about, as the title says, 1965. Paul Davis turned 17 that year, and that's about right for the high school setting of the lyrics. It's all pretty straightforward – a man later in his life (Davis was 33 when the song was recorded) remembers, fondly, how his life was in 1965, and how he would gladly return to it, if he could, but he didn't appreciate it enough at the time.
"Doo Wah Diddy" was a hit in 1964, so this is a song channeling another song, and the slow rhythm made it sound appropriately anachronistic in 1982, when bands like Duran Duran were taking over the airplay. This was a song that MTV watchers' parents listened to and it reminded them of their youth.
I'm not entirely sure what "bad with your pom poms" means… dancing sexily, like a tease, or clumsy and inadvertently endearing? Otherwise, the song is almost entirely transparent. But as much as it tries to be a period piece, citing the specifics of the mid-60s, there's nothing too much in the setup that couldn't have applied in the Forties or today.
This song is a period piece – a hit in 1982, but about, as the title says, 1965. Paul Davis turned 17 that year, and that's about right for the high school setting of the lyrics. It's all pretty straightforward – a man later in his life (Davis was 33 when the song was recorded) remembers, fondly, how his life was in 1965, and how he would gladly return to it, if he could, but he didn't appreciate it enough at the time.
"Doo Wah Diddy" was a hit in 1964, so this is a song channeling another song, and the slow rhythm made it sound appropriately anachronistic in 1982, when bands like Duran Duran were taking over the airplay. This was a song that MTV watchers' parents listened to and it reminded them of their youth.
I'm not entirely sure what "bad with your pom poms" means… dancing sexily, like a tease, or clumsy and inadvertently endearing? Otherwise, the song is almost entirely transparent. But as much as it tries to be a period piece, citing the specifics of the mid-60s, there's nothing too much in the setup that couldn't have applied in the Forties or today.