R&B

The golden oldie “A Lover’s Question” was McPhatter’s first Top 10 hit after leaving the Drifters. The song was written by Brook Benton and Jimmy T. Williams. Benton sang the demo version of “A Lover’s Question,” which his producer Clyde Otis then presented to Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records. They liked it so much that they invited Benton and Otis to come into the studio and recreate that feel for McPhatter before he recorded his version. That’s Benton doing the finger snaps. In 1958, “A Lover’s Question” went to #6 on the Billboard Pop Chart and #1 on the R&B Chart. It seems that the lover has a lot of questions, but poetic license is accepted for narrowing it down to just one.

Here are the lyrics (with bum bum bum bah bums throughout):

“Does she love me with all her heart?
Should I worry, when we’re apart?
It’s a lover’s question, I’d like to know

Does she need me as she pretends?
Is this a game, well, then will I win?
It’s a lover’s question, I’d like to know

I’d like to know when she’s not with me
If she’s still true to me?
I’d like to know when we’re kissing
Does she feel just what I feel?
And how am I to know it’s really real?

Oh, tell me where the answer lies?
Is it in her kiss or in her eyes?
Well, it’s a lover’s question, I’d like to know

I’d like to know when she’s not with me
If she’s still true to me?
I’d like to know when we’re kissing
Does she feel just what I feel?
And how am I to know it’s really real?

Oh, tell me where, the answer lies?
Is it in her kiss or in her eyes?
It’s a lover’s question, I’d like to know
I’d like to know, I’d like to know I’d like to know”

For a song by Clyde McPhatter and The Drifters: “Money Honey.”

For a comprehensive collection of songs by Clyde McPhatter, click on the photo below:

For More Golden Oldies Music       

The Daily Doo Wop Rec Room has daily featured doo wop, rock and roll, R&B, or rockabilly songs that were hits during the first era of rock and roll (that is, from about 1952 until the British invasion in 1964). After a song is featured, it then goes into the juke box. You are welcome to listen to any of the 40+ selections there. Every weekend, there is a Golden Oldies Juke Box Saturday Night, and the juke box is full of song requests from the 1950s and 1960s.

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