20160713

I WILL FOLLOW HIM

Inspired by Petula Clark's No. 1 French song, 'Chariot', in 1963, the 15-year-old, 4-feet-10-inches tall singer, Little Peggy March became the youngest artist to record a No. 1 hit, 'I Will Follow Him', in "a big-voiced, gospel-tinged mode". Little Peggy had been singing since she was 2. 

In the 1960s, Little Peggy told Lewis Taylor of 'The Register-Guard' in 2001, "It was a time of extreme excitement. There were things that happened at that time that I don’t even remember simply because there was so much going on." Little Peggy had sung in at least 6 different languages, "English is my own language and German is my second. Italian is beautiful, Spanish is beautiful. I did record in Dutch once and will not choose to do so again." 

"If you were alive in the early 1960s, you probably remember Little Peggy March singing this vow: 'I will follow him, follow him wherever he may go. There isn’t an ocean too deep, a mountain so high it can keep, keep me away, away from my love,'" the 'Orlando Sentinel' reminded readers in 1983. "It's a noble sentiment in its way, but for too long 'following' has been a conjugal hazard reserved primarily for women. 

"In the past, if a man wanted to move, his wife (or girlfriend) packed her bags and crossed states or continents, abandoning friends, extended family and everything familiar. In a world where more and more women work, however, 'following', like washing the dishes, can no longer be solely a female duty. Women who follow men to new jobs often forfeit jobs of their own and the money and esteem that a good job brings."

By 1983, "More and more, women are reluctant to uproot themselves simply because their male partner wants to move. More and more, they are refusing to follow or are asking men to follow them. Not long ago, in Orlando, Florida, a man with 2 children accepted a job in another state. His wife, who had just started a job she didn’t want to leave, immediately told him she wouldn't go.

"'Geez,' the woman's father told the man, 'I come from the generation where if the man wants to move, the woman moves.' The man said, 'You get used to thinking only of what's right for you, especially if you’re career-oriented but you have to reconcile it with what's best for the family.' Said another man,  'When you have 2 careers in a couple, there are basically only 2 options: somebody's going to follow somebody else or you’re going to break up.' He decided that the best thing for his family was to stay in Orlando, so he gave up the new job. He said he has no great regrets."

In September 1985, Roger N. Moss, a professor of sociology at California State University in Northridge, presented his research paper on 3 decades (1950s, 1960s, 1970s) of sexuality in pop music at the 28th annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex in San Diego. Roger told Karen Kenney of the 'Los Angeles Daily News' in 1985, "In the music of the 1950s, women were portrayed as dependent, helpless and, in some cases, promiscuous. Men were rescuers or saviors of women, but often exploitive. Their feelings were hidden."

By the 1980s, the professor observed, "The sexuality in pop music reflects changing sex roles. It's optimistic news that parallels the rising consciousness of society. There is more equality in the relationships. Men and women relate to each other as peers. Love empowers. It doesn’t drain. What I’m hearing is music that raises the consciousness of teenagers."

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