VintageGent’s Menswear Daily

I’ve Got a Brand New Pair of….Roller Skates??

“I rode my bicycle past your window last night.
I roller skated to your door at daylight.
It almost seems like you’re avoiding me.
I’m okay alone, but you got something I need.Well, I got a brand new pair of roller skates,
You got a brand new key.
I think that we should get together
And try them out you see.
I been lookin’ around awhile,
You got somethin’ for me.
Oh! I got a brand new pair of roller skates,
You got a brand new key…”

Do you remember the song “Brand New Key” that was first recorded by Melanie and then covered a million times?  I think it was also on the Sony and Cher show.   I somehow don’t think the song will come back again as a hit because kids just don’t have any need for a roller skate key because they have wheelies.  Well, be on watch, wheelies:  There is a brand new mode of foot transportation that has been invented and they are called Orbit Wheels.

Do you know how some people answer those quizzes that ask you what animal you would want to be if you could pick?  This is for those people who answered “fiddler crab” and love seeing the world go by sideways.

Well, with those you certainly couldn’t enter the world roller skating championships. I doubt if that still goes on these days. Maybe it just happens in New Zealand. Who knows. At any rate, in 1981, Billy Richardson & Holly Valante were the world rollerskating champions.

I have been taken to task on my skepticism on the popularity of old school skating. There is actually an entire forum dedicated to skating. In fact, I stumbled upon it by searching for Richardson and Valente who gave their red jumpsuited and skating skirted all. People on the forum referred to it as “our sport,” so I guess I stand corrected. It is good to know that regular ol skating is alive and well and not everyone has been sucked in to the latest thing. Maybe when I have kids someday, metal skates will be big again and Melanie will get lots of royalties.