John Edward Cooper’s Notes
“Rag Doll”
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Early Days
• 1965, the year that changed my life Chris Woodhead, February 1962 Perhaps November 1964 One day, Chris, Peter Gooding and I were in the rear downstairs living room at my house, listening to records. Chris was sitting in one of the two wooden-armed easy chairs that were in that room, the one in the corner of the room diagonally opposite the doors to the hall and kitchen. Peter and I were probably standing in the middle of the room or just loafing about.
 As the Four Seasons’ record Rag Doll was being played, Chris’s expression changed, and his mouth turned down at the corners, almost as if he was going to do an impression of Jones being angry.But he didn’t do anything like that; he simply got up from the chair and went straight across the room past us into the kitchen, where he remained. Some seconds passed, and Peter and I looked at each other in puzzlement; then one or both of us went into the kitchen to see what was amiss, and found that Chris had got upset about his Grandma, who had not long before died.[1] It seemed, Chris told us, as if she had been in the room there, right in front of him. Chris had been fond of his Gran.[2] [1] His Grandma… had not long before died: Chris’s grandmother died during the first week of September 1964. “Rag Doll” hit the UK pop-music charts on 27 August 1964 and remained in the charts for 13 weeks. A date in November 1964 seems reasonable for when this story happened. |
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