The name Johnny Preston did not mean very much to me when his death was announced today. But the name of his big hit did.
Not just because it is one of those tunes which lingers in my memory but because it is linked with the only incident I can remember when our headmistress got furiously angry about her girls having to be educated alongside boys.
A list of This Week’s Hit Parade was being circulated surreptitiously – I got a glimpse of only No 1 & No 2: I wish I could Get You on a Slow Boat to China, and see you Running Bear.
My friends & I were secretly rather impressed – very clever, we thought.
But when it was confiscated by a teacher all hell broke loose. Two boys were caned & two separate special assemblies were held – one for girls, the other for boys; it was at this assembly that our head mistress, who was close to retirement age & so must have been older than the century, shaking with rage, told us that she was sorry we had to share classrooms with such disgusting creatures.
The thing which really took me aback on hearing the news today was that Running Bear was released in 1960. In my memory this incident happened much earlier, when we were only in the first or second form & so did not really understand fully the sexual implications. We definitely did not take the incident as seriously as did she.
But then even in 1960 there were still three years to go before Philip Larkin’s Annus Mirabilis
