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Teddy Bear Song

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"Teddy Bear Song"
Single by Barbara Fairchild
from the album A Sweeter Love
B-side"(You Make Me Feel Like) Singing a Song"
ReleasedDecember 1972
RecordedJune 1972
GenreCountry
Length3:03
LabelColumbia
Songwriter(s)Don Earl
Nick Nixon
Producer(s)Jerry Crutchfield
Barbara Fairchild singles chronology
"A Sweeter Love (I'll Never Know)"
(1972)
"Teddy Bear Song"
(1972)
"Kid Stuff"
(1973)

"Teddy Bear Song" is a 1973 single written by Don Earl and Nick Nixon, and made famous by country music vocalist Barbara Fairchild. Released in December 1972, the song was Fairchild's only No. 1 song on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart in March 1973.[1] The song also became a modest pop hit, peaking at No. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1973.[2]

Song background

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In "Teddy Bear Song," the female protagonist expresses such dismay over poor choices in her life—most notably, a just-ended emotional love affair that ended badly—that she'd rather revert to the innocence of a department store-window teddy bear, as spoken in the song's main tag line, "I wish I was a teddy bear ..." . The song's lyrics depict the carefree, simple existence of the teddy bear she wishes she were: not having to dream, cry or express other emotion (except for a sweetly voiced "Hi, I'm Teddy. Ain't it a lovely day?" from its pull-string-wound internal phonograph,) have regrets, or feel sorry for herself.

"Teddy Bear Song" was the first in a series of Fairchild songs where childhood themes were used to express dismay over broken relationships and the male-dominated hierarchy of traditional relationships. For instance, the follow-up "Kid Stuff" (a No. 2 country hit for Fairchild in October 1973) plays upon the childhood game of house, where a young woman recalls a childhood memory of how she played the game with a little boy, who dominated the game and was uncaring of her feelings; those feelings are re-triggered when as an adult, she enters into a relationship where the man is the dominant figure and is either ignorant or uncaring when she objects.

Honors

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"Teddy Bear Song" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Female in 1974, but did not win.

Chart performance

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Chart (1972–1973) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles 1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 32
Australian (Kent Music Report)[3] 28
Canadian RPM Country Tracks 1
Canadian RPM Top Singles 42
Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary Tracks 24

Cover versions

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References

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  1. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 118.
  2. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits: Eighth Edition. Record Research. p. 217.
  3. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 107. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  4. ^ "Teddy Bear Song" at Allmusic.[1][permanent dead link]