Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)

"Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)"
Single by Buzzcocks
from the album Love Bites
B-side "Just Lust"
Released 8 September 1978
Genre Punk rock
Power pop
New wave[1]
Label United Artists
Writer(s) Pete Shelley
Buzzcocks singles chronology
"Love You More"
(1978)
"Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)"
(1978)
"Promises"
(1978)

"Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)" is a 1978 song written by Pete Shelley and performed by his group, Buzzcocks. It was a number twelve hit on the UK Singles Chart.

Contents

Background and writing

Sometime during November 1977, the band watched the musical Guys & Dolls in the TV lounge of a guesthouse in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was the dialogue "Have you ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn't have" from the film which inspired the song. The following day Shelley wrote the lyrics of the song, in a van outside a post office, with the music following soon after.[2]

Music and lyrics

The music and lyrics, as well as the singing, belong to Pete Shelley.[3] The song uses the verse-chorus formal pattern and is in the key of E major. However, both the verse and the chorus start with C# minor chords (sixth degree in E major), which "give [the song] a distinctly downbeat, edgy feel."[3] The minor chords and the D major to B major move in the chorus are rather unusual for a 1970s punk song, yet they contribute to its ear-catching nature, along with the vocal melody. The verses feature a guitar riff and a double stroke tom-tom drum pattern over the E chord. The vocal melody ranges from G#3 to baritone F#4 in the verses and chorus; in the ending, Shelley hits a tenor G4 and then a G#4.

The lyrics consist of two verses (of which one is repeated) and a chorus. According to music critic Mark Deming, "the lyrics owe less to adolescent self-pity than the more adult realization of how much being in love can hurt – and how little one can really do about it."[3]

Critical reception

Critic Ned Raggett describes the song as a "deservedly well-known masterpiece."[4] Mark Deming notes, "Pete Shelley's basic formula in the Buzzcocks was to marry the speed and emotional urgency of punk with the hooky melodies and boy/girl thematics of classic pop/rock. When he applied this thinking to that most classic of pop themes, unrequited teenage love, he crafted one of his most indelible songs, 'Ever Fallen in Love?'"[3]

Covers

References

External links