Song 77: Doo Wop (That Thing)

In the futile and ludicrous list I made in 2014 of the 1001 Greatest Songs of All Time, 'Doo Wop (That Thing)' by Lauryn Hill was respectably ranked at 66. I remember at the time wondering if that was too low.

I am coming round to the view that it is the most all-together perfect song in all of pop music. When I think of other great songs, songs I've at times considered the benchmark, like 'Over the Rainbow', 'Be My Baby', 'God Only Knows', 'Crazy in Love', 'Like a Rolling Stone', I always hit a limit. There's nothing wrong with a limit - when people go outside their limits, that's when disaster happens.

'Be My Baby' is a vocal and production tour de force, it's three minutes of pure rapture, but it's just about being excited about meeting a boy. The limit on 'Like a Rolling Stone' is the verse-chorus structure, the vocal range, the fact that's it's basically just slagging  someone off.

But when I look at 'Doo Wop (That Thing)', I don't see the same limits. It's a song that has everything. For everyone.

How do you explain Lauryn Hill? 'Miseducation' was released in 1998 and the world still waits for a second studio album. How long ago is that? Destiny Child and Beyoncé have had their whole career since then. Lauryn Hill's a grandmother now.

It's not for me to second-guess the life and struggles of Lauryn Hill since, whatever people say about whether she's difficult, a perfectionist, strange, egotistical, whatever other odd tales have emerged. Barring a poorly reviewed live album in 2002, that's a long wait to follow up a debut album.

I bought 'The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill' at the time, which was unusual for me, as I was still pretty straightforwardly into rock music and hadn't particularly loved the Fugees, (though have warmed to them since). I liked it a lot, but whether because I was still holding too hard on to the dwindling returns of Britpop or because my flatmate Alex got into it a bit too much and that was off-putting (I think the latter!), I didn't over-listen to it. In recent years, I've got back into it. Wonderful as it is, nothing else is as immediate as 'Doo Wop (That Thing)'. It's not really a pop album, and none the worse for it. It achieved extraordinary acclaim to go with its sales.

Even so, to me 'Doo Wop (That Thing)' dwarfs it. It is nostalgic and futuristic, it is catchy and memorable, it is beautiful and pure, it is clever and funny, it is cutting and kind, it is lyrical and musical, it is verse and chorus, ebb and flow, male and female, personal and political, it is everything.

I found myself in my mid-30s, living in Sevenoaks of all places, listening to it over and over again, trying to learn the lyrics, saying them to myself (and to irritate others!) - "Lauryn is only human, don't think I haven't been in the same predicament", "Don't be a hard rock when you really are a gem" etc etc Utterly ludicrous, but I was completely enraptured by it.

So maybe it was as simple with Lauryn Hill as the inability to get past perfection. All the success, all the acclaim, and something completely impossible to improve upon.

To go back to Beyoncé, with whom there are pretty good comparisons, in terms of coming from a great pop group to being a great solo artist, the versatility and completeness of the talent, the mass appeal, you could say Lauryn Hill achieved everything in 3 years that's taken Beyoncé 20 years. Still, seems a shame - I think the world would rather have had 20 years of it ...