In “Inside Llewyn Davis” there’s a scene where Llewyn Davis records a novelty song, “Please Mr. Kennedy (Don’t Send Me Into Outer Space).”
Today The Hollywood Reporter published a fascinating piece about that song, asking the question: who really wrote it?
Here’s some of the story:
[T Bone] Burnett’s rep explains that the music maestro and the Coens adapted their song, “Please Mr. Kennedy,” from another novelty song of the same name that came out on the 1962 album Here They Are by The Goldcoast Singers. That tune depicts a comical draft-board scenario where some shaggy rock & rollers beg President John F. Kennedy not to induct them into the army. Since these lyrics were modified for the film, the new songwriting credit shows original writers Ed Rush and Ed Cromarty now accompanied by T Bone Burnett, The Coens, and Timberlake.
That’s interesting, because before that song there was a 45 single release of “Please Mr. Kennedy (I Don’t Want To Go)” by Mickey Woods in December 1961 on the Tamla-Motown label, and you can easily hear the similarity between that war-phobic plea and the Coen creation. Credits for that particular tune actually list Berry Gordy, Loucye Wakefield and Ronald Wakefield as the song’s composers — no trace of Messrs. Rush or Cromarty here.
Read the entire story here.
Please Mr. Kennedy from The Goldcoast Singers on Myspace.
— A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post —
