Running Bear – Johnny Preston

I love this song. It's another one from my childhood, it sounds like a kids song, lots of chanting and takes a bit of imagination to get what's going on. It's actually a love song about two Indian's from different warring tribes, they're not allowed to be together. 

This is a proper story song, loads of words, total tongue twister. Songs like this were big in the 50's, it's not an obvious setting to write a song about, I guess Westerns were very popular around the time and Cowboys and Indians were a real hit with the public. All sounding very exotic to us over here in the U.K. anything that shouted American was fantasy. Even as a kid listening to this song as a 45 single on a record player 30 years later, it really caught my ear. It was like listening to a bedtime story in three minutes. Running Bear is a cool Indian name, it gives such a strong image of a powerful fast huge guy and Little White Dove gives the impression of a petite agile girl, don't they sound like the perfect pair. They are separated by the raging river, but that ain't going to stop them.

The backing is a simple chant with horns added behind the chorus, once heard never forgotten. This song was written by Jiles Perry Richardson, better known as the singer The Big Bopper, he was famously killed in the same plane crash as one of my heroes Buddy Holly. The Bopper had a massive hit with a song called Chatilly Lace, another one of those songs that the whole of Rock n Roll hangs on. Running Bear was released by Johnny Preston in 1959. 

Favourite lyric : As their hands touched and their lips met, the raging river pulled them down