No One Richer Than

On Billboard's chart of bestselling 45 r.p.m.s, a record called Married Man appeared a fortnight ago in 104th place, between Bewitched and Somewhere.

Last week it had jumped to No. 80 in the so-called "Hot 100," and it is almost certain to keep right on rising. The song is from Baker Street, which has yet to reach Broadway. But the recording is already so popular with disk jockeys that every time a transistor is flipped on, or so it seems, out comes Married Man. This, without doubt, is because the recording artist, the nouveau ducktail of this display of flaming treacle, is none other than Richard Burton, who has no connection with Baker Street. He merely recorded the song to exploit his peerage in the aristocracy of love.

Tumescent strings fill the background with throbbing sound as Burton, with lips parlando, sounds something like Rex Harrison speaking from inside a marshmallow, or--vestigially--even a bit like himself declaiming the splendors of Camelot. He delivers the lines in a throaty whisper:

A lonely man, I took a wife

And added love and laughter to my life

And realized there's no one richer than

A married man.

With two to share each happiness

And two to bear each woe

And oh the woe seems so much less

And how the pleasures grow.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.