"All's Quiet on West 23rd" - With a Legend Like This, Who Needs Facts?

If you're an American, and around my age, you probably remember "All's Quiet on West 23rd" - a song sung by quite a few singers, vocal stylists, and people who had a contract with a record company. The song was about as ubiquitous as "It's a Small, Small World." It felt like that, anyway.

"Everybody knows" about the cruel, heartless indifference with which apathetic people ignored the piteous cries of a helpless victim while - - - you get the idea.

That's the legend. Although Catherine 'Kitty' Genovese was killed, and did cry for help, the rest of what "everybody knows" leaves quite a few facts on the cutting room floor.

But that doesn't matter. As the legend of West 23rd spread across the land, "I don't want to get involved" became a catchphrase, apathy became a four-letter word, and people were worked up something fierce about being against crime and indifference and things like that.

We got "good Samaritan" laws out of that mix, I think - and being reminded to look out for your neighbors is, again I think, a basically good idea.

That March, 2009, post used some research that I'd done the year before: And pretty boring stuff it is, too. It's two discographies, telling about two performances of the song:

• The Jades
  (May 1967)
• Julie Budd
  (1968)
• The Jades
  (1970) (45, with Love of a Woman) (with Whistle A Tune)

Related posts:

• "Catherine 'Kitty' Genovese Did Not Die in Vain"
  (March 13, 2009)
• "Florida Teen College Student Online Suicide - No Joke, No Fake"
  (November 22, 2008)