I grant you, Sedaka made the song fit the time he released it, so his words weren't expressed properly. It was the early sixties and the future was all bright and joyful, so a depressing song about a man pleading his departed love to return to him was unlikely to bring in the dollars! Therefore, Sedaka threw in some up tempo music and a lot of “down dooby doo down downs” and the off “camma camma” to make it a bouncy sing-a-long number.
But last week I was listening to the radio and heard a slowed down version of this classic. I don’t remember the singer, but the track had a very melancholy feel to it. It was as if the singer was a person that had just been torn apart and they were singing to try and win back their lover. Yet not a word was changed from the Sedaka original (except for the omission of all the dooby doobies) and the power of the original lyric was released from the song. This all goes to show that if you look at the raw materials of something, and rejigged them, you get a totally different end product.
Take Tequila. Most people will throw it into cocktails or down it in copious quantities on a hen night in Newcastle with the bride to be wearing a neon yellow tutu and ‘L’ plates. Tequila is used purely for fun. It is the Neil Sedaka version of the song, fun, simple and not particularly serious.
But then there are some serious tequila drinkers taking the same raw ingredients, getting rid of the pop music element and sipping tequila and savouring the flavour. There is not a dooby down in sight, and there is certainly no beer chaser. These people have made the drink serious, the exact opposite of the hen party drink.
Whisky drinkers tend to inhabit this latter camp. They sit, savouring their whisky. Sipping their malt, sniffing it occasionally and swirling it around the glass. But why can’t they inject the fun into the product, making it a cocktail rather than a sipping whisky? Adding the odd ‘dooby dooby’ isn’t going to ruin whisky, and introducing it to the inebriated hen party will only do the industry good. This is why we are going to do a “not so naff drink makeover on whisky”!
Hoots Mon
1 ½ oz Scotch Whisky
¾ oz Sweet Vermouth
1 tsp Benedictine
Pour the Scotch whisky, vermouth and Benedictine into a mixing glass half-filled with cracked ice. Stir well. Strain into a cocktail glass, garnish with a twist of lemon peel, and serve.
Aberdeen Angus
2 oz Scotch whisky
1 oz Drambuie Scotch whisky
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp lime juice
Stir all but the drambuie into a coffee mug. Warm the drambuie, ignite it and pour the burning liqueur into the mug. Stir rapidly and drink.
Old Moorhen's Shredded Sporran recipe
1 oz Scotch whisky
1/2 oz Drambuie® Scotch whisky
1/2 oz Mandarine Napoleon® orange liqueur
1 tsp Parfait Amour® orange liqueur
2 oz pineapple juice
1 oz guava nectar
1/4 oz lemon juice
1 tsp almond syrup
Shake briefly with a glassful of crushed ice. Garnish with a slice of lemon and a cherry, and serve in an Old-Fashioned glass with straws.
All Cocktails from Drinks Mixer
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