Poetry in Motion (song)

The song was written by Paul Kaufman (1930–1999) and Mike Anthony (born 1930),[1] who said that the inspiration for it came from looking up from their work and seeing a procession of young ladies from a nearby school pass by on the sidewalk outside each afternoon.[2] Bill Porter supervised the recording session in Nashville, Tennessee, which featured saxophonist Boots Randolph, pianist Floyd Cramer and bassist Floyd "Lightning" Chance.

In the US Billboard Hot 100, "Poetry in Motion" peaked at number 2 in November 1960, kept out of the number 1 by Georgia on My Mind by Ray Charles.[3] In the UK Singles Chart it hit No. 1 in January 1961,[1] and also made the charts on reissue in 1979.[4]

"Poetry in Motion" was also recorded by Bobby Vee on his 1961 album Bobby Vee and was also recorded by Chilean singer Pat Henry. There was another cover version made titled "Pejskové se koušou" ("Dogs Bite Each Other") by the Czech singer Marie Pojkarová.[5]

The song was covered by Swedish pop group Ola & the Janglers in 1966 and went to no 1 in the Swedish voted chart "Tio i Topp" but only reached no 7 in the sales chart "Kvällstoppen".

The song was covered by Mud in 1982.

Ralf Arnie wrote German lyrics. Entitled "Deine roten Lippen" it was recorded by Gerd Böttcher and released on single in 1960.

The song was covered by honeyhoney in season 1, episode 5 of the anthology comedy series The Guest Book

In 1977, a Finnish band called Kontra covered the song in Finnish titled as "Mainoksennus" in their debut album "Ei kontrollia" (Love Records LRLP 258).[6]

An alternative version, with King Curtis on saxophone, was recorded some weeks earlier and published by Bear Family Records in 2011.

• List of number-one singles from the 1960s (UK)