You and Me Against the World

Perpetrator: Helen Reddy
Highest chart position: #9, 1974(?)
Sap Elements: overweening emotion, children speaking/singing, spoken part, arrangement, religion (passing mention), death (potential)

Just the opening words, spoken by a child -- "Tell me again, mommy" -- is enough to induce a cringe. But yet, but yet... what gives this song its sap-chart-topping position? It has to be that, despite the our abhorrence of the song's vapid arrangement and Ms. Reddy's potentially-brassy-as-Shirley-Bassey delivery, we find ourselves sympathizing with her sentiment. She has touched a place deep in us, and our dislike of the song, and her, is the greater for it.

-- Sapster Half

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