Songs Mentioning the Beatles: The Perfect Stranger

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While in search of the Jimmy Buffett license plate I’m having lunch at Chuy’s and ready to spring another song on you that gives a reference to the Beatles. In this case, just one Beatle, and the one I’m celebrating this month. Here’s today’s song, complete with a “Linda? NO!!” warning. The Perfect Stranger - Freddy Weller What do I mean, “Linda? NO!!!”? To the guy who co-wrote Tommy Roe’s classic “Dizzy”?? Life’s funny that way, isn’t it. So’s music. Freddy Weller was the guitarist in Paul Revere and the Raiders. As a session man, he played on Billy Joe Royal’s hit “Down in the Boondocks.” And, as mentioned, he co-wrote “Dizzy” (and “Jam Up and Jelly Tight”). In the late 60s Weller started releasing country songs. Some were covers of rock hit (like “Games People Play,” “Indian Lake,” and “The Promised Land” [his version was the first rendition of that Chuck Berry classic that I ever heard]), and others were originals. This is one of the latter. It’s funny enough (“that organ player must have spent his daytimes working funerals ‘cause every song he played was kinda dead;” “I’m not perfect but I’ll have to do”) to overlook the male sleaze stereotype (“I practiced some old lines that I had said”). And there’s the reference to Sir Paul. Weller is 82 and mostly retired now, but he made enough money off the covers of “Dizzy” to live comfortably. The Perfect Stranger Written by Freddy Weller Recorded by Freddy Weller From Too Much Monkey Business, 1973 BEATLE REFERENCE LYRICS: She said that in the shadows I looked just like Paul McCartney