One of my favorite all-time songs is an obscure Hall & Oates tune called “Georgie.”
The song is insanely unknown. Like, even Hall & Oates fans haven’t always heard of it. “Georgie” is off of the duo’s first album, “Whole Oates,” and is about a young boy who dies in a lake. These are the lyrics, in case you’re interested.
Anyhow, I started singing “Georgie” to my daughter when she was just a babe. One day, after hearing me go through the words, the wife said, “Maybe you should change the dying part. It’s sort of deep.” So I did—in the two portions of the song where death is evoked, I say that he sneezes instead of dying. It actually fits in quite well. Not a beat out of place.
A couple of weeks ago, I sang “Georgie” to my 4-year-old son. Casey, my daughter, looked at me and said, “That makes no sense.”
Uh-oh.
“What makes no sense, Casey?”
“The sneezing,” she said. “Why does he sneeze.”
“Well,” I said. “I changed the words when you were little.”
“Really?” she said. “What really happens.”
So I explained to Casey that instead of sneezing, Georgie actually breaks his arm.
She bought it.
