After powerful new songs by Julia Jacklin about the body and personal space, a classic number from the 1960s that sung first by the Titusville performer with versions by other stars. This song was written specifically for Seely by her husband, the country singer-songwriter Hank Cochran the man behind Patsy Cline's I Fall to Pieces and Eddy Arnold's Make the World Go Away. But was this song conceived to be from a male or female perspective? Buck Owens of the country band Buckaroos wanted to use it, but Cochran insisted it was for his wife, and she recorded in Monument Studios, Nashville. It became a no 1 hit and won a Grammy in 1966. The potency, at that time, was for a woman to simultaneously express self-protection of feelings but also admit lust, with the rather fluid metaphor “I'm thirsty for you”. It was recorded by Tammy Wynette and Ella Fitzgerald over the next couple of years, and it’s interesting to compare their own emphases and phrasing, and there have been several other recordings by female singers.
Have any men sung it? Country singers Jamie Johnson and Emmylou Harris did a duet version in a 2012 tribute album to Cochran, but somehow the taking turns on verses and duet on the chorus neutralises the effect of the lyrics. There is however rather beautiful and gentle, but happily more upbeat rocksteady/reggae version by Nicky Thomas from 1970, also below for comparison.
Your hand is like a torch, each time you touch me
The look in your eyes pulls me apart
Don't open the door to heaven if I can't come in
Don't touch me if you don't love me, sweetheart
Your kiss is like a drink when I'm thirsty
And I'm thirsty for you with all my heart
But don't love me then act as though we've never kissed
Don't touch me if you don't love me, sweetheart
Don't give me something that you might take away
To have you then lose you wouldn't be smart on my part
Don't open the door to heaven if I can't come in
Don't touch me if you don't love me, sweetheart
No, don't touch me if you don't love me, sweetheart.
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