What is it about the word “Cherish” that has compelled pop music audiences so? Both Madonna and Kool & the Gang delivered massive smashes with songs of that title in the ’80s. But a band named The Association beat them to the punch by about two decades with their “Cherish” in 1966, a song that went to the top of the Billboard charts.
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What did the song mean? Why did the song’s structure and length cause some issues? And why have people been mishearing the song for so many years? Let’s go back to one of the greatest ballads from the golden age of pop music.
A Vocal Success
The Association formed in California, where talented vocal groups seemed to grow on trees in the ’60s. This particular group stood out somewhat in that they had two talented songwriters in Terry Kirkman and Russ Giguere to help steer the band’s artistic course. On their debut album And Then… Along Comes The Association (released in 1966), they also benefited from outside material, including their debut hit single “Along Comes Mary,” written by Tandyn Almer. Producer Curt Boettcher also helped to shape the sound of the band on that debut thanks to his vocal arrangements.
In terms of “Cherish,” Kirkman wrote the song relatively quickly. When he brought it to the band, he imagined it being sung at a luxurious pace, something along the lines of “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin'” by The Righteous Brothers. But that led to some issues.
Kirkman had constructed a somewhat unusual song, in that it featured two bridge sections. That meant that the running time was longer than the three minutes preferred by radio programmers. The band played it fast and even had it sped up after the fact in the studio, and it still ran a bit long. The simple solution: lying. Boettcher listed the song’s running time at exactly three minutes, even though it was more than a few seconds longer than that in actuality.
Misunderstanding the Meaning
“Cherish” is one of those songs that has often been misunderstood by listeners over the years. Fans tend to hear those lovely harmonies and the title word and believe that it’s a happy love song. They miss out on some of the lines that reveal that the narrator is actually singing about someone with whom he’s not actually romantically involved. Kirkman marveled at this phenomenon in an article he wrote for Huffpost in 2012:
“Another strange aspect of the “Cherish” story—one that has particularly baffled me—was that it became such a huge favorite for weddings. Couples by the thousands called it “their song,” in spite of the fact it is so very much about love lost, not victorious love. But who knows? Maybe it was that stirring youth march tempo that did them in.”
The Meaning of “Cherish”
You can forgive those that miss the meaning of “Cherish,” but a close listen to the lyrics reveals what Kirkman had in mind. Note that the second line of the song mentions the feeling that I have hiding here for you inside; this love is both unspoken and unrequited. He then explains that her heart doesn’t belong to him: You don’t know how many times I wished that I could mold you / Into someone who could cherish me as much as I cherish you.
The picture gets clearer when the narrator mentions that he won’t be the one to share her dreams and schemes. In the first bridge, he pontificates on vocabulary, insisting that maybe “cherish” actually doesn’t cut it as being representative of his true feelings. The second bridge is where matters get particularly intense, as Kirkman gets more and more desperate in his search for the magic word. Not even love cuts it, because too many others have spoken it to her with all the rest of their lies / When all they wanted was to touch your face, your hands / And gaze into your eyes.
That leads into a thrilling key change, before the song culminates with The Association in multipart harmony insisting, And I do cherish you / Cherish is the word. Yes, it has indeed been the word for many a successful pop song. The Association got their first, in truly memorable fashion.
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Photo by Don Paulsen/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
