New Year's Eve -- The "Crazy" Heart's Desire

 

What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?

By The Orioles

When the bells all ring and the horns all blow
And the couples we know are fondly kissing
Will I be with you or will I be among the missing?

Maybe it's much too early in the game
Ah, but I thought I'd ask you just the same
What are you doing New Year's, New Year's Eve?

Wonder whose arms will hold you good and tight
When it's exactly twelve o'clock that night
Welcoming in the New Year, New Year's Eve

Maybe I'm crazy to suppose
I'd ever be the one you chose
Out of the thousand invitations you received

Ah, but in case I stand one little chance
Here comes the jackpot question in advance
What are you doing New Year's, New Year's Eve?
Oh, what are you doing New Year's, New Year's Eve?

"What Are You Doing New Year's Ever” was first recorded by Margaret Whiting with Frank De Vol and His Orchestra (1947).

However, the Orioles, a pioneering doo-wop group from Baltimore, Maryland, were the first to have a hit recording with Frank Loesser's 1947 love song, landing at #9 on the R&B chart. Loesser was a Broadway legend known for writing and composing music for shows like Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. In addition to “What Are You Doing New Year's Eve, he also penned the wintry classic "Baby It's Cold Outside" (1944) and an American patriotic song "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition” (1942).

The Orioles were an American R&B group of the late 1940s and early 1950s, one of the earliest such vocal groups who established the basic pattern for the doo-wop sound. Their string of hits included three #1 R&B singles in the late Forties and early Fifties: “It’s Too Soon to Know,” “Tell Me So” and “Crying in the Chapel.”

The Orioles are generally acknowledged as R&B's first vocal group. Baltimore natives, they blended rhythm with group harmonies. Dubbing themselves after Maryland’s state bird, the Orioles started the trend of bird groups (The Cardinals, The Crows, The Flamingos, The Larks, The Penguins, The Ravens, The Wrens, etc.).The original five members of The Orioles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.

Note on the Doo-wop Sound:

“From the outset, singers gathered on street corners, and in subways, generally in groups of three to six. They sang a cappella arrangements, and used wordless onomatopoeia to mimic instruments since instruments were little used: the bass singing 'bom-bom-bom,' a guitar rendered as 'shang-a-lang,' and brass riffs as 'dooooo -wop-wop.'

“For instance, 'Count Every Star' by The Ravens (1950), includes vocalizations imitating the 'doomph, doomph' plucking of a double bass. This art dates to The Mills Brothers, who first came to fame in the 1930s with their mimicking of instrumental music. Radio, gramophone, and cinema inspired imitation in many U.S. cities.”

(Denise Oliver Velez . “'What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?' What's your favorite version?” Daily Kos. December 31, 2016.)

What's Up on New Year's Eve?

In “What Are Youu Doing New Year's Eve,” the narrator has just fallen in love (evidently with a very beautiful and popular woman) and poses the title "jackpot question in advance," hoping to ring in the New Year with the object of his affection.

The song has been included on many holiday collections, which proves that nearly everyone misses the point. "It is early spring," Loesser's daughter Susan wrote in A Most Remarkable Fella: Frank Loesser and the Guys and Dolls in His Life. "The singer, madly in love, is making a (possibly rash) commitment far into the future. ('Maybe it's much too early in the game. Ah, but I thought I'd ask you just the same - What are you doing New Year's, New Year's Eve?') It always annoyed my father when the song was sung during the holidays."

The song has been recorded by many other artists including Lena Horne, Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler, Harry Connick Jr., Seth Macfarlane, Andy Williams, Ella Fitzgerald, Donny Osmond, Katharine McPhee, Kacey Musgraves, Azealia Banks, The Carpenters, Sykamore and Vic Damone.

Missing the point on a song that is assumed to occur on New Year's Eve? On this holiday, shouldn't we expect some confusion anyhow? After all, New Year's Day, the first day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as the Julian calendar, is the federal holiday, not New Year's Eve. But, most people do their celebrating on the eve – attending parties featuring drinking, music, and dancing – all of which culminates at midnight. As far as New Year's Day, those folks who properly celebrated New Year's Eve can barely make it out of bed the next day to recover and nap while watching an endless string of college bowl game.

How about the history of a New Year's kiss at midnight? Historians trace New Year’s Eve smooching back to three historic eras: the Romans’ celebration of Saturn, an old Scottish festival called Hogmanay, and English or Germanic folklore. Our current New Year’s Eve parties are a modern twist on all three.

According to Britannica.com, Saturnalia was the biggest and rowdiest of Roman festivals. Even enslaved people were free to party, and those who participated in festivals all year long relaxed about normal moral and social rules. Drunken rule-breaking likely led to a romantic tryst or two, thus spreading the notion that Saturnalia – the end of the year – is a great time for kissing.

The pagan and Viking roots of Hogmanay parties suggest it was a pre-Christmas winter festival focused on friendship and togetherness with the people you love. According to Scotland.org, “An important element of Hogmanay celebrations is to welcome friends and strangers, with warm hospitality and of course a kiss to wish everyone a 'Guid New Year.'” Though the Scots of old kissed everyone on New Year’s Eve, our modern celebrations have narrowed down the subject of our smooches to romantic partners.

According to Entertaining from Ancient Rome to the Super Bowl: An Encyclopedia, edited by Melitta Weiss Adamson and Francine Segan, English and German folklore spread the belief that the person you first contact in a new year will have a direct influence on that year’s destiny. It makes sense that anyone superstitious enough to believe this would make physical contact with someone familiar and likable. Kissing a loved one or romantic partner is the perfect way to keep superstition and old folklore on your side.

(Leandra Beabout. “Why Do We Kiss at Midnight on New Year’s Eve?” Reader's Digest. December 12, 2019.)

In Frank Loesser's song, the speaker who hopes to hit the New Year's Eve romantic jackpot seeks an advance commitment to help him secure a lasting romance. The object of his affection evidently holds the winning hand – both the ownership of his heart and the power to choose – while the admiring speaker wants to affirm the special date “early in the game” of their courtship even if he has little chance of success.

You have to admire the guy for his spunk and initiative. His lack of confidence makes me wonder if any sparks have flown in the romance, but he puts his cards on the table. He's looking forward to that lucky kiss that keeps folklore on his side.

I can't help but wonder if his girl will see this as a sign he's “taking things too fast” or a sign that he is assuming too much control in the relationship. Those feminine wiles are firmly on her side as well as a lady's right to unchallenged prerogative. He's smitten even if this love is a one-way street. She is also liable to forget him. And, he just may be singing the blues as a forlorn suitor by the time New Year's arrives.

“Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And days of auld lang syne?”

Anyway, it's a hell of a song … “What Are You Doing New Year's Eve” is a tune of simple desire that will live once more with every waning December. My favorite version is the Orioles' rendition. I hope you like it, too.