This week’s theme is ‘Belonging’. In some ways this is a loaded term with implications. When you are dealing with songs from different eras they will inevitably reflect values that are challenging, even antithetical, to our modern values. Songs containing the word ‘mine’ implying ownership were very frequent in the fifties and sixties. Starting with the Small Faces sixties song’ Sorry She’s Mine’ to Jimmie Rodgers ‘Are You really Mine?’ and Pat Boone‘s ‘Remember You’re Mine’ we start to form a picture of how relationships were viewed. Songs containing the word ‘belong’ such as Jo Stafford‘s ‘You Belong To me’ and Aussie duo Bobby and Laurie‘s ‘I Belong With You’ also suggest togetherness with an underlying nod to ownership. But just as we were despairing along comes Lesley Gore in the sixties with her ‘antidote’ song ‘You Don’t Own Me’ which challenges all the conventions of ‘Belonging’.

PLAYLIST

* Sorry She’s Mine – Small Faces

* You’re My World – Cilla Black

* She’s My Baby – Johnny O’Keefe

* The Two Of Us – Jackie Trent & Tony Hatch

* You Belong To Me – Jo Stafford

* Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now – Starship

* You Don’t Own Me – Lesley Gore

* You Like Me Too Much – The Beatles

* Are You Really Mine? – Jimmie Rodgers

* I Belong With You – Bobby & Laurie

* Remember You’re Mine – Pat Boone

* Tonight You Belong To Me – Patience & Prudence