Won't Somebody Dance With Me

Though the Ivor Novello awards were first presented in 1955, it was not until 1974 that one was claimed by a member of the fair sex. Lynsey de Paul was that woman, and this was the song that won it for her. "Won't Somebody Dance With Me" has no question mark, one would imagine because the stunningly attractive Miss de Paul was asking a rhetorical question, but this ballad about a lonely wallflower was inspired by personal experience. In a January 1975 interview published in Melody Maker, the singer-songwriter told Caroline Coon that as a teenager she was really fat but that she lost a lot of weight when she was confined to a hospital bed for three months after being hit by a bus. She also suffered some facial damage in the accident, but although she made a full recovery this was clearly a traumatic experience at a time when most of her peers would have been enjoying their first relationships with the opposite sex.

At the end of the song, a male voice (belonging to BBC DJ Ed Stewart) asks "May I have the pleasure of this dance?"

"Won't Somebody Dance With Me" was recorded on MAM backed by "So Good To You." The sheet music, which sold for 20p, is copyright 1973 by ATV Music of London and published by ATV Music and Music Sales Ltd.