I'm astonished to learn that this extremely sappy song was written for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, a decidedly non-sappy film. I can imagine Miss Brodie herself dismissing the song with a dry "For those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like."
The gooey arrangement and breathy, halting vocal, as well as all that hooey about roses being red and leaves being green, puts this one well into sap territory for me.
-- SAPster Randi
I'm actually quite fond of the song , but I think for me what makes it a strong candidate is the halting "And run ... if you will ... to the top ... of the hill ..." It must have been written for William Shatner. He was probably otherwise engaged and couldn't put grooves to the wax, and the next thing you know it's another hit for Oliver (even his name is sappy -- but I won't speak too ill of him since he died last year).
Anyways, besides the delivery, all this running up hills and through fields -- is this "Jean" we're talking about or Julie freakin' Andrews?! Give me a break. One might also argue that simply having the word "bonny" in anything other than a drinking song increases the sap factor of said lyrics.
"Jean" was written by Rod McKuen for the movie The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie. Now those of you who have seen that movie with Maggie Smith's Academy Award winning performance knows that it is a fantastic, non-sappy movie. If you've seen it, it's very interesting to read the lyrics with the character in mind. I'm not sure I get it, but I think Miss Brodie was a woman hiding within herself and the singer is trying to get her to come out of her shell. Someone who needed to protect herself with layers and layers of psychological armor.
I don't even know where to start with Rod McKuen. Poetry, spoken word LPs, I mean here's a guy who made a carreer out of teetering on the brink of sap but probably pulled it off in most cases.
-- SAPster Jim