| Teddy Bear Song | |
| Cover: | The Teddy Bear Song.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Barbara Fairchild |
| Album: | A Sweeter Love |
| B-Side: | (You Make Me Feel Like) Singing a Song |
| Released: | December 1972 |
| Recorded: | June 1972 |
| Genre: | Country |
| Length: | 3:03 |
| Label: | Columbia |
| Producer: | Jerry Crutchfield |
| Prev Title: | A Sweeter Love (I'll Never Know) |
| Prev Year: | 1972 |
| Next Title: | Kid Stuff |
| Next Year: | 1973 |
"Teddy Bear Song" is a 1973 single written by Don Earl and Nick Nixon, and made famous by country music vocalist Barbara Fairchild. Released in December 1972, the song was Fairchild's only No. 1 song on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart in March 1973.[1] The song also became a modest pop hit, peaking at No. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1973.[2]
In "Teddy Bear Song," the female protagonist expresses such dismay over poor choices in her life—most notably, a just-ended emotional love affair that ended badly—that she'd rather revert to the innocence of a department store-window teddy bear, as spoken in the song's main tag line, "I wish I was a teddy bear ..." . The song's lyrics depict the carefree, simple existence of the teddy bear she wishes she were: not having to dream, cry or express other emotion (except for a sweetly voiced "Hi, I'm Teddy. Ain't it a lovely day?" from its pull-string-wound internal phonograph,) have regrets, or feel sorry for herself.
"Teddy Bear Song" was the first in a series of Fairchild songs where childhood themes were used to express dismay over broken relationships and the male-dominated hierarchy of traditional relationships. For instance, the follow-up "Kid Stuff" (a No. 2 country hit for Fairchild in October 1973) plays upon the childhood game of house, where a young woman recalls a childhood memory of how she played the game with a little boy, who dominated the game and was uncaring of her feelings; those feelings are re-triggered when as an adult, she enters into a relationship where the man is the dominant figure and is either ignorant or uncaring when she objects.
"Teddy Bear Song" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Female in 1974, but did not win.
| Chart (1972–1973) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles | 1 | |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 32 | |
| Australian (Kent Music Report)[3] | 28 | |
| Canadian RPM Country Tracks | 1 | |
| Canadian RPM Top Singles | 42 | |
| Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary Tracks | 24 |
. The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Joel Whitburn . 2004 . Record Research . 118.
. The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits: Eighth Edition . Joel Whitburn . 2004 . Record Research . 217.
. David Kent (historian). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. illustrated. Australian Chart Book. St Ives, N.S.W.. 1993. 0-646-11917-6. 107.