100 Proof (Aged in Soul) – "Somebody's Been Sleeping" (1970)

Fee-fi-fo-fum

I can feel the presence of someone

I was very surprised to learn recently that “Somebody’s Been Sleeping” made it all the way to #8 on the Billboard “Hot 100” in 1970.

I listened to top-40 radio constantly back then, and I would swear on a stack of Bibles that I never heard “Somebody’s Been Sleeping” on the local stations. 

I remember all the other songs in the top ten the week that “Somebody’s Been Sleeping” hit #8:

  1.  “I’ll Be There” (Jackson 5)

  2.  “We’ve Only Just Begun” (Carpenters)

  3.  “Fire and Rain” (James Taylor)

  4.  “I Think I Love You” (Partridge Family)

  5.  “Indiana Wants Me” (R. Dean Taylor)

  6.  “Green-Eyed Lady” (Sugarloaf)

  7.  “The Tears of a Clown” (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles)

  9.  “Gypsy Woman” (Brian Hyland)

10.  “It Don’t Matter to Me” (Bread)

Is it possible that my local top-40 radio station never played “Somebody’s Been Sleeping”?  (If so, why?  I don’t think that the song’s lyrics – which explain why the singer thinks his wife is having an affair – would have been considered objectionable for radio airplay in 1970.)

Or is my memory playing tricks on me again?

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Click here to listen to “Somebody’s Been Sleeping,” which was clearly inspired by “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” but which throws in “Fee-fi-fo-fum” from “Jack and the Beanstalk.”

Click here to buy “Somebody’s Been Sleeping” from Amazon.