When Green Shoe Studio advertised in Illinois for a singer-songwriter competition, it received an unexpected entry. An Illinois man wrote a song about his wife and when he sent the heart-wrenching ode into a singer-songwriter contest, they decided to produce it for him. When Fred Stobaugh talks about his wife Lorraine now, it's hard for him to hold back tears after the life they led together he says was 'like a dream.' After she died, he was sitting alone in the Peoria home they once shared and for the first time in his life he decided to write a song. 'She was the prettiest girl ya ever saw'. The 96-year-old Fred Stobaugh lost his wife of 75 years and wrote a song about her. It just fit her,' Stobaugh said.
After penning 'Oh Sweet Lorraine,' he saw an ad in the local paper for a singer-songwriter contest. Though he was neither of those things, he decided to send in the ballad. Fred Stobaugh never thought he'd get an answer but the contest runners could not ignore his touching ode. 'I'll just send a letter,' he remembered thinking, though the contest rules asked for a video of the songwriter entrants actually performing their song. 'Send it all in. Never thinking I'd get an answer or nothing.'
“Instead of a video, we received a very large manila envelop with the letter he [Stobaugh] sent us,” Green Shoe Studio producer Jacob Colgan said in the video. “It was just so heartwarming, and we said, ‘Fred, we’re going to record your song.” They never expected anything quite like what Fred sent them. 'In fact,' said Jacob Colgan, who ran the contest, 'on the actual envelope itself, it says "P.S. I don’t sing. I would scare people. Ha-ha!"' Nonetheless, the emotion behind the lyrics was enough convince the studio they wanted the song.
When Stobaugh talks about his late wife, he gets a faraway look in his eyes. 'She was the prettiest girl ya ever saw,' he said. 'She gave me 75 years of her.' Jacob decided his company would have 'Sweet Lorraine professionally recorded. When Colgan contacted Stobaugh to tell him the good news, the bereaved husband welled up with tears. 'Why would you want to do that,' he wondered. But to Colgan and his crew at Green Shoe, the answer was obvious. Your song touched us,' Colgan told Stobaugh.
“We met up with him a couple times and just kind of played some songs back and forth,” Colgan said of the process of turning Stobaugh’s lyrics into a professionally produced song.
“He decided to put it to a guitar so I brought my guitar and just messed with it for a week or so,” Colgan said. “He really wanted to do a good job and stay true to his original lyrics.”
Stobaugh met his wife, Lorraine, in 1938 when she was a car hop at the A&W root beer stand.
“She was just the prettiest girl I ever saw,” Stobaugh said. “I just fell in love with her right there.”
The couple dated for two years and then got married.
The music studio set Stobaugh’s lyrics to music and recorded the song with professional musicians and a professional singer. When Stobaugh heard the song for the first time, he cried.
“It was a wonderful 75 years,” he said. “I really, really miss her.”
When the song was finished, though, Colgan had reservations about letting Stobaugh have a listen. 'Because it meant so much to him it meant so much to me,' Colgan said. 'I was actually nervous.' He need not have been. Stobaugh could barely hold back his emotion as the songs final refrain, 'the memories will always linger on,' finished playing. 'It's wonderful,' he said. 'Just wonderful.'
“We met up with him a couple times and just kind of played some songs back and forth,” Colgan said of the process of turning Stobaugh’s lyrics into a professionally produced song.
“He decided to put it to a guitar so I brought my guitar and just messed with it for a week or so,” Colgan said. “He really wanted to do a good job and stay true to his original lyrics.”
Stobaugh met his wife, Lorraine, in 1938 when she was a car hop at the A&W root beer stand.
“She was just the prettiest girl I ever saw,” Stobaugh said. “I just fell in love with her right there.”
The couple dated for two years and then got married.
The music studio set Stobaugh’s lyrics to music and recorded the song with professional musicians and a professional singer. When Stobaugh heard the song for the first time, he cried.
“It was a wonderful 75 years,” he said. “I really, really miss her.”
When the song was finished, though, Colgan had reservations about letting Stobaugh have a listen. 'Because it meant so much to him it meant so much to me,' Colgan said. 'I was actually nervous.' He need not have been. Stobaugh could barely hold back his emotion as the songs final refrain, 'the memories will always linger on,' finished playing. 'It's wonderful,' he said. 'Just wonderful.'
Lyrics to Oh Sweet Lorraine :
Oh Sweet Lorraine
I wish we could do
The good times
All over again
Oh sweet Lorraine
Life only goes around
Once
But never again
Oh sweet Lorraine
I wish we could do
All the good times all over
Again
The good times
The good times
The good times
All over again
The good times
The good times
The good times
All over again
But the memories always
Linger on
Oh sweet Lorraine
No I don’t wanna move on
Oh the memories
always linger on
Oh sweet Lorraine
That’s why I wrote this song
Oh Sweet Lorraine
I wish we could do
The good times
All over again
Oh sweet Lorraine
Life only goes around
Once
But never again
Oh sweet Lorraine
I wish we could do
All the good times all over
Again
The good times
The good times
The good times
All over again
The good times
The good times
All the good times
All over again
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