You’ll never know dear/
How much I love you.

“Lovin’s For Fools” by Sarah Siskind has this unique quality that I have only experienced with a few other songs. I get the feeling that “this song has to be a cover because I swear I’ve heard it before”. It’s a type of Déjà vu. Paul McCartney described that he had difficulty completing Yesterday because he was certain that that melody must already have been written already. I get that feeling with Siskind’s Lovin’s For Fools—“I must have heard this before”. A couple other songs I experienced this with is Sea of Love and The Pretender’s I’ll Stand By You. It speaks to a song’s timeless quality.

“Lovin’s For Fools” tells the story of a woman who is experiencing her home for the first time without her ex in it. They built the house together, but he left her for someone else. All her memories of this place contain memories of him. This is a fresh start for her, and it is bittersweet. She recognizes that things were not working between them, however, once there was a strong love. Who would put themselves in the position to feel this pain? Only fools.

Siskind’s voice trembles slightly as she sings. Her voice very clearly betrays her feelings of hurt and confusion. She could have very easily belted out this song and made it sound more ‘pretty’: that would have been the wrong choice. This song is a country song: it has an acoustic guitar with a piano for background with a perfect amount of slide guitar. (Most songs that use slide guitar use way too much). I believe it would sound equally good with just an acoustic guitar and I would love to see her solo acoustic.

Lovin’s For Fools Lyrics

Crazy how I feel
Living without you
Inside this house that we built.
Seems like the window’s
Finally open
Letting the memories out.

Go on and love her,
Love her forever
I will not tell her
You told me too
You’ll never know dear
How much I love you.
Lovin’s for fools
Lovin’s for fools

Maybe you’ll find me
walking in the garden
Looking for something pure
Roots that are growing
deeper and deeper,
maybe you’ll pull them too.

Well go on and leave here
Leave here forever
No one can make you
Do what you do
You’ll never know dear
How much I love you
Lovin’s for fools
Lovin’s for fools

Written by Sarah Siskind

But I would give him anything he asked/
If my first love could be my last.

Kiki Dee’s Amoureuse is a beautiful love song—translated from the French song of the same name—written and performed by Veronique Sanson. Sanson’s version may be superior, but Dee’s translated lyrics really hit home for those of us who are not French speakers.

Kiki Dee is most well-known for being the co-singer on one of Elton John’s worst songs, “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”. It was a huge hit, so someone liked it. Amoureuse is Dee’s best song. In English-speaking countries Sanson is probably most well known for being married to Stephan Stills. Her work is quite good and connects even if you don’t typically listen to foreign music.

Amoureuse (translation: “lover“) tells the story of a woman who is looking back on her first love with regret. The relationship is long over, but she yearns for things to have turned out differently. She remembers lying in her lover’s bed and thinking “this is everything I ever dreamed it could be”; yet the relationship ended. She would do anything to change that, but it isn’t in the cards.

Why did the relationship end? We don’t get the full story, though we get the feeling the narrator took the relationship for granted. She thought, “If my first love is this great, imagine how great the next one will be.” But what if that greater love never comes? You are left with regret, heartache, loneliness and nights spent reminiscing.

The production and overall sound of Dee’s Amoureuse is very Carpenters-esque. Karen Carpenter was a superstar at the time this was released, so I can imagine all the record execs trying to find and create “the Next Karen Carpenter”. This is about as close as it comes-a pure voice that sings about heartbreak in a slightly too-cheery tune…with an overproduced soundtrack (except for the fact that she’s not a drummer…just go with it). Sanson’s version seems to capture the regretful tone more faithfully.

Amoureuse Lyrics

Strands of light upon a bedroom floor,
Change the night through an open door,
I’m awake but this not my home,
For the first time I’m not alone.

Reaching out, I touch another skin.
Breathing out as he is breathing in.
Deep inside I feel my soul aflame,
Can my life ever be the same?

I should have told him,
I’d do anything if I could hold him
For just another day, for just another day.
His love is something I will not forget.
When I am far away, when I am far away,
I feel the rainfall of another planet,
Another planet.

Close together in the afterglow,
I remember how his loving flow.
Turned the key into another world,
Made a woman of a simple girl.

Daylight comes as we both know it must.
Soon my fantasies will turn to dust.
But I would give him anything he asked,
If my first love could be my last.

I should have told him,
I’d do anything if I could hold him
For just another day, for just another day.
His love is something I will not regret.
When I am far away, when I am far away.
I feel the rainfall of another planet.
When I am far away, when I am far away,
I feel the rainfall of another planet, another planet.

written by Veronique Sanson