The fifth day of Christmas: Tammy

Just to buck the trend a little, here's one that's not from 1978 and has no backing vocals!

Debbie Reynolds - Tammy

This got to number 2 in the UK charts in 1957, but was number 1 for several weeks in the USA. It's sung by Debbie Reynolds, who was always most notable to me as being the mother of Carrie Fisher, but she was also the girl in Singin' in the Rain and more recently she was Grace's mum in Will and Grace. The song itself originally appeared in the film Tammy and the Bachelor, which was not only the first in a series of Tammy films but also featured Leslie Nielsen as a non-comic leading man and Fay Wray as his nothing-to-do-with-King-Kong mother!

Apparently Debbie Reynolds' performance of this song in the film was Olivia Newton John's inspiration for Hopelessly Devoted to You in Grease, and you can certainly see some similarities. The song, as with so many of my favourites, is very simple, and one of my very favourite ones to sing (I even invented some cheesy backing vocals so we could do it with the band!) There's really nothing more to say - just listen and wallow in its wonderfulness. (It always makes old ladies cry when I sing it to them - I hope it's tears of joy they're crying!)