Why Juice Newton Rocks

Long before Shaggy sang “Shorty, you’re my angel, you’re my darling angel, closer than my peeps you are to me, baby…” Juice Newton performed a similar ditty. Well, except for the “shorty” part. Oh, and I don’t think she had any peeps.

But if she did have peeps, do you know who would be one of them? A four-year-old Writinggal. Yep. Juice's was my first record (besides “The Muppets Take Manhattan”). I played that 45 on my Fisher-Price record player over and over again. And sometimes I would flip it over to “Playing with the Queen of Hearts.” But mostly I played “Angel of the Morning” because, you know, those lyrics about a one-night-stand were really relevant to my life as a pre-schooler.

Just call me angel of the morning ANGEL
Just touch my cheek before you leave me, baby.
Just call me angel of the morning ANGEL
Then slowly turn away...from me.

Oh, and I really turned it up when she sang:

If morning's echo says we’ve sinned,well, it was what I wanted now.
And if we're the victims of the night,
I won't be blinded by light.

Ah, the good old days--before they started putting “explicit lyrics” warnings on records.

But back to why Juice Newton rocks:

This is still one of the catchiest, most moving songs ever. And I don’t even care that the Juicer remade it too; it rocks. And Queen of Hearts is a total classic. In fact, Jaime and I used to jam to a Chipmunks’ remake of that one. Alvin, Simon and Theodore did a nice cover but Juice really rocked it.

Besides that I liked her really long hair and big teeth.

But then again, what four-year-old could resist a singer named Juice?