Tears on My Pillow and Ave Maria

Guilty Pleasure Saturday

Not a great song, but a goofy and catchy one.

The song is filled with place-specific lyrics that underscore a point in time when the zeitgeist was stretching and seemed like it could go in any of a number of directions (the waterfall at Paramus Park, "I said hi, she said 'yeah, I guess I am,'" a sax solo that sounds like it's channeling a Big Bopper song, and the idea that TV stations sign off at night after playing the National Anthem).

And while it's certainly all over the place, it has its charms... and in today's fragile world, sometimes that's enough.



This would be Dean Friedman's only hit -- and it appeared on Cashman & West's Lifesong label (which also had a huge hit with Henry Gross's "Shannon," possibly the best and sappiest ode to a lost dog ever).

Also, according to Wikipedia (which must be right cuz it's on the internet), this is the only song ever to appear on Billboard's Top 40 singles chart that contains the word "Paramus."

And, thanks to the interwebs, here's a little ditty from Half-Man Half-Biscuit, 1987's "The Bastard Son of Dean Friedman":



And Dean Friedman's answer, "The Biscuit Song":