Ad Libs – "The Boy from New York City" (1964)

You ought to come and see

His dueling scar

And brand new car

Ad libitum – usually shortened to ad lib – is a Latin phrase that’s often translated as “as you wish.” 

In drama or film, it refers to something that an actor says on the spur of the moment – something that’s not in the printed script.

In music, when “ad lib” is written on the sheet music, the performer has permission to vary the notes or the tempo. 

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The Ad Libs were a vocal group from Bayonne, New Jersey, whose recording of “The Boy from New York City” made it all the way to #8 on the Billboard “Hot 100” not quite 57 years ago:

But if there’s a single instance of ad libbing on that record – which was produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller (who wrote dozens of hit singles, including “Hound Dog,” “Jailhouse Rock,” and Stand By Me”) – I missed it.  Every note sounds like it was executed exactly as written.

That’s not surprising given that “The Boy from New York City” was recorded in three separate sessions – the rhythm section went first, then the singers, and finally the horns were recorded.  In anyone had ad libbed along the way, the final recording would have been a bit of a show.

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John T. Taylor and George Davis wrote “The Boy from New York City.”  After an exhaustive research effort, I was unable to ascertain which one of them wrote the lyrics to the song.  (By “exhaustive research effort,” I mean that I spent about five minutes randomly poking around online, then decided I was too exhausted to continue.)

The first and third verses of the song are pretty conventional stuff – the singer describes the boy she is enamored of as “really fine,” “so sweet,” and someone who “can dance and make romance.”

But the second verse reveals that the girl is mostly a fan of the boy’s dough-re-mi:

He’s really down

And he’s no clown

He has the finest penthouse I’ve ever seen in town

And he’s cute

In his mohair suit

And he keeps his pockets full of spending loot

You ought to come and see

His dueling scar

And brand new car

Believe you me, a boy who’s not only cute and a good dancer but also has the finest penthouse in town, a brand new car, and “keeps his pockets full of spending loot” is going to have no trouble at all attracting hot chicks.

Which brings me to the one thing about “The Boy from New York City” that seems a bit odd – and that’s his dueling scar.

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It turns out most of the men who actually had dueling scars were upper-class German and Austrian university students who got their scars while engaging in fencing bouts with their classmates – not in potentially deadly duels of honor with opponents who had insulted them:

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, dueling scars were considered proof of physical courage – men who bore them had higher social status.  Most dueling scars were not terribly disfiguring – particularly those that were self-inflicted, or the result of a trip to a doctor who would slice one’s cheek up to order and then sew it up.

I had always assumed that “The Boy from New York City” was a prosperous young African-American male, but he may be a wealthy, middle-aged Prussian who got his dueling scar while fencing with a fellow Studentenverbindung (German for “fraternity”) member at Heidelberg University a hundred or so years ago. 

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Click here to listen to the Ad Libs’ recording of “The Boy from New York City.”

Click on the link below to buy that recording from Amazon: