Hey Deanie

For some reason, Shaun Cassidy was on my FB feed last night. I clicked on the post, went to check out his profile, and started scrolling and reading. He is on tour at the age of 67 and still singing the songs I listened to when I was in high school. How nice, I thought, smiling. And I was still smiling when I exited his profile page a few minutes later to go back to my home feed. Hey Deanie was singing in my head and I couldn’t shake it off.

Shaun Cassidy was big during the second half of the 1970s. A poster of the cover of his Born Late album used to be taped on my closet door. After the image had discolored, I took it down but nothing ever replaced its spot. I was in college by then.

Yes, he was quite the dreamboat. I had copies of his first and second albums, and I listened to his songs too often and too much. And, of course, I watched The Hardy Boys every week without fail. I even watched the reruns. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who felt heartbroken when he married at 21.

Hours later, I played Shaun Cassidy’s songs on Spotify and discovered that I could still sing along with most of the songs (I did miss a few lines here and there).

Hey Deanie is the sixth track in Born Late. When I first listened to it, and every time I listened to it afterwards, I thought that Deanie was a strange name. I learned much later that it was inspired by Natalie Wood’s character, Wilma Dean “Deanie” Loomis, in Splendor in the Grass. I love that song — for the music and especially for the lyrics. Eric Carmen is the songwriter.