Fifty for Fifi

When I looked for this song, I found it didn’t qualify. Yes, I’m sure there are some few October babies that are born the year before – the longest pregnancy lasting 375 days – but while I haven’t checked dates with Fi’s mother, given her family’s fondness for storytelling I’m sure I’d have heard about an abnormally delayed delivery at some point. I was thus disappointed when I looked up this song and found that it was from 1974 – in my dream it would have been published a year later and would be a great launch.

So I cheated and here we are with one more extra having already given two songs away for free.

1974’s (You’re) Havin’ My Baby by Paul Anka was… controversial when it came out. Like all Anka songs, it’s catchy and well written but even then it was seen as, well misogynistic and creepy. If you take the time to listen to this one, you’ll very likely find the lyrics full of cringe with lines like “Whoa, the seed inside ya, baby, do you feel it growin’?” and of course the repeated description of the upcoming child as “my” rather than “our” baby. Then there’s the line referenced from the post title, in which Anka references in song form the then-recent Roe V. Wade decision. Anka represented himself as an ally supporting a woman’s right to choose (but choose to keep), Ms. Magazine voted him as Male Chauvinist Pig of the Year.

Fi and I discovered it, or rediscovered it while she was pregnant with our daughter. Making each other cringe heavily has always been a sport in our relationship, and this particular song during that particular time turned into a lethal weapon. We’d sneak it onto playlists, spring it out as driving music, you name it. We’re neither of us quitters, so there was no fast forwarding to bypass the song.

Politics and cringy lyrics aside, it is a hell of a catchy tune.

Another of the lyrics – which really underestimates the commitment that pregnancy and childbirth represent – is “what a lovely way of sayin’ what you’re thinkin’ of me”. Well I’m thinking of my wife, and what I am thinking is the best way to start this is by bringing the cringe back.