Eternally
1969 · Number One 7778 · USA
- Artist
- Azie Mortimer
- Title
- Eternally
- Release
- That's That (Get Off My Back) / Eternally
- Year
- 1969
- Label
- Number One # 7778
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Songwriter
- A Mortimer / D. Clay
- Genre
- Soul, Gospel & Funk · Soul
- Primary theme
- Home Front Perspective / Soldier's Perspective
Annotation
The song "Eternally" (Number One Records # 7778) is one of the lesser known soul songs to directly reference the Vietnam War. This might be because it starts out as a slow jazzy / soul number, with a woman recalling the night that her man "whispered 'love' so tenderly". But the narrator tells us that he is gone, and that only the "memory of you will linger on", leaving her sad and lonely. About 30 seconds before the end of the song the listener discovers what happened, as Azie Mortimer screams out "lord, why did they have to send you to Vietnam?" The song was written by Azie Mortimer, and her manager Don Clay. Clay, and Mortimer's husband, Mort Kaplan, released the single on their Chicago label Number One.
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
About the artist
American soul/R&B and jazz vocalist active in the 1960s-early 1970s, a nightclub performer who cut the LP 'The Feeling of Jazz' (Bethlehem, 1966) and soul 45s later anthologized on Northern-soul compilations; 'Eternally' was the 1969 B-side of 'That's That (Get Off My Back)' on Number One Records. [Source: AllMusic; Discogs]