Tommy James and the Shondells – "Ball of Fire" (1969)

 

And the ball of fire in the sky

Keeps watching over you and I

Note to Tommy James: it should be “over you and ME,” not “over you and I.”

You don’t believe me?  “I” is the first-person singular subject pronoun.  “Me” is the first-person singular object pronoun.  Here, “I” is being used as the object of the preposition “over,” so it should be “me.”

You still don’t believe me?  Leave out the “you” for a moment.  Would you say “keeps watching over ME” or “keeps watching over I”?

I rest my case.

*     *     *     *     *

Speaking of grammar, I recently came across a reference to Joan Didion’s 1970 novel, Play It as It Lays – which was later made into a movie with the same title.

It never hit me before that the name of the book and the movie should be Play It as It Lies.  

“Play it as it lies” is also a golf expression – the golfers got it right, while the fancy-pants Ms. Didion got it wrong.

*     *     *     *     *

So did Bob Dylan – “Lay, Lady, Lay” should be “Lie, Lady, Lie.”  (And “Lay across my big brass bed” should be “Lie across my big brass bed.”)  

Grammatical niceties aside, “Lay, Lady, Lay” is a better choice, of course, because “Lie, Lady, Lie” could be understand as meaning that the singer wanted the lady to tell untruths.

*     *     *     *     *

“Ball of Fire” is the opening track on the 1969 album, The Best of Tommy James and the Shondells.

But the song had never been released previously – so it really shouldn’t have been on a “Best Of” album, right?

However, it subsequently became a top twenty hit – which makes it sort of an ex post facto “Best Of” song.

Click here to listen to “Ball of Fire.”

Click on the link below to buy “Ball of Fire” from Amazon: