What's most striking about this song, which was originally written in 1958, is how much, to modern ears, it should be retitled as An Insecure Lover's Question. I can't imagine how infuriating it must be for the subject of the track to find that, in their absence, their partner is in an endless stew of paranoia and developing jealousy about them. I’d like to think that either of the song's authors, Brook Benton and Jimmy T. Williams had read or seen The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan and based their protagonist on one of the characters in it, Faulkand, who spends the majority of the play professing reciprocated love to Julia, only to drive her to distraction with his constant need for reassurance that her feelings towards him are genuine. Even the title sounds like an 18th Century poem.
The song has had many cover versions. It first came to prominence as a doo-wop hit for Clyde McPhatter, while Otis Redding had a posthumous hit with it in 1969. Oneil Shines reggae version was a Sly and Robbie production, the second one in that 2\1\93 programme and is as exquisitely tuneful as you might expect. Indeed, A Lover's Question seems to be a song which inspires its arrangers and producers to go that extra mile. But regardless of the prettiness or funkyness of the arrangements, none of them are able to remove that canker of poison which sits at the centre of the song's heart.
Video courtesy of O'Neal Shines - Topic. (I've gone with the spelling on the Discogs page though)
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