I was listening to the Kinks sing Lola and drinking a wild cherry cola when the obsession began.
My wild cherry cola tasted like champagne
Champagne that tasted like cherry cola.
I gazed at my half finished can of wild cherry cola.
The next song after Lola was You Really Got Me. I started singing along. When they got to the chorus…instead of singing You Really Got Me…I sang Wild Cherry Cola.
It fit right.
Same amount of syllables.
Try it.
You Really Got Me
Wild Cherry Cola.
If you can do that, you can do the rest so proceed with caution.
And thus it began. Often, too often, when I sing/sang along with records, I would/will drop the actual words and substitute wild cherry soda changing the pronunciation and syncopation according to the rhythm of the song.
One day, I told my daughter Mary about wild cherry cola.
I said pick a song.
She picked I wanna Hold Your Hand.
I said listen to this
The song begins with an Oh Yeah, which means it’s in media res (in the middle of things). so I felt justified in starting at the end of wild cherry cola rather than at the beginning.
I substituted Cola for Oh Yeah
and then went on
Wild cherry cola (I’ll tell you something) Wild cherry coalah (I think you’ll understand) wild cherry, cherry cola (when I say that something) wild cherry coahalah (I wanna hold your hand) etc ad infinitum.
Try it but be careful, it becomes addictive as wild cherry cola syncopates with many Beatle songs.
I warned Mary. She tried it. She’s addicted. When she can’t fall asleep at night she sings Beatle songs to herself and instead of the words she sings “wild cherry soda” until she falls asleep.
I do too.
It’s been years now.. Try it with She Loves You…I’ll start you off
Wild cherry coahala (you think you lost your love?) Wild cherry coahalahahah ( I saw her yesterday) wild cherry coahala (it’s you she’s thinking of) wild cherry coahalahaha. (and she told me what to say) WI:D CHERRY COLA (She says she loves) etc.
Got it yet.
Go ahead.
Try it.
If you've got it...here's one last warning.
As with all kinks, It's a little risky to describe the behavior to a wife, a husband or a partner for fear of being considered a "weirdo" It might be better to demonstrate.
I described and demonstrated my addiction by singing Hide Your Love Away to my wife in Wild Cherry Cola. Before I got to HEY...You've got to hide your love away (WILD cherry coaloalah), she had had enough.
"it's bullshit. There's nothin' special about wild cherry cola. You can do it with any three words that have five syllables. You're out of your mind."
With that she burst into the house and began a half hour of anger vacuuming.
Based on past experiences with unusual requests, I sorta knew what the reaction would be but hope springs eternal.
So there I was, dumbfounded in the patio.
I needed to regain my composure before our next encounter.
I needed to sing to myself.
I started singing I Wanna Hold Your Hand but instead of Wild Cherry Cola, I substituted the words "you're out of your mind".
It worked.
For a moment I was tempted to enter the house singing it but I was wise enough to put that thought behind me to avoid an additional fifteen minutes of rage dusting.
I understood my situation perfectly and I knew just what to do and how to do it.
Ya wanna know what I did?
Wild cherry, cherry coalaha.