The fifth song on side one of “The Spanish Album” by the Sandpipers (no year given; post-1966 is all I can say, but most likely not far “post”), which I picked up at the most recent Canberra YMCA garage sale (along with several others in what I consider a good vinyl haul - about which, undoubtedly, more later), is a song called “Cancion de Amor”, or “Wanderlove”, written by Mason Williams, whose own version appears, according to IMDb, in the movie “The Kid Stays In The Picture”. Can’t say I know the original, or any of the numerous other versions of this song (Esther & Abi Ofarim, anyone?).
But what I can say is that, at the point when the Sandpipers get to the three-note descending sequence at the end of each verse, my brain can’t help but segue into the chorus of Nick Cave’s “The Weeping Song”: naturally, we are far from alleging anything untoward; it is a very fine turn of musical phrase, which sits well in both songs. And astute readers will recall that “The Good Son”, the Nick Cave album on which “The Weeping Song” appears, was recorded in Sao Paolo, so perhaps the similarity is less surprising than it initially seemed.
