57 Chevy

Frank Delaney

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I went to High School back in the '60s in Seattle, and then after I was in the Navy during Vietnam I went to college there on the G.I. Bill.

Many years later a friend who was from Seattle and I were talking about Fathers. My father died when I was a boy and I don't remember him much, but I always missed him. My friend told me a story about how much he loved his father, and that he had found and restored his father's 1957 Chevy, and given it back to him.

This was such a loving and beautiful story it brought me to tears, and I had to write a song about it.

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Nineteen and Fifty Seven, and that Chevy looked like Heaven, to that young man in that Seattle car lot,

And though it cost him all his money, he had to have it for his honey, and he put down all the cash his hard work had brought.

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Well, I was pretty young when I first saw the 57 Chevy, you might say I was born yesterday,

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my folks brought me home in it from the hospital, and it took us to our first home on that happy day.

Our family grew in the next few years, and the 57 Chevy brought home a sister and a brother too,

And my dad worked as hard as he could to support his young family and to just try to make do.

Things got real bad in the recession, and one Christmas when money was low and it was cold and snowing,

Dad had to sell the 57 Chevy, although it broke his heart, just to keep our family going,

He talked about it all the time over the years, how much it meant to him and Mom and to their hearts,

And I thought he was joking when he said that I might have even been created in the back seat of that car.

Parents of that time sacrificed everything to give their kids a better life and a good education,

And us kids all graduated from college, from one of the best schools in the nation.

And when I got out on my own, and experienced life and had to earn my own living,

I realized how much my Dad had sacrificed for us, and how great and loving was his giving.

I wondered if there could be a way I could ever show Dad how much us kids really cared,

And one day I was looking at an old family album, and saw that 57 Chevy sitting there.

With the license plate from that picture, and some old records from that same car lot,

I started my search for something that I sure knew would really mean a lot.

It took a couple years of searching, and help from folks at the DMV,

But one day we found it in a junk yard in North Idaho, and soon it was headed back to me.

My brother and I restored it, the JC Whitney catalog had a lot of parts,

A lot of hard work and sweat, I guess you'd call it a mission of the heart.

Father's day 1986 we drove it to our folk's house, and gave him the best gift he ever had,

And we all said "Here's your 57 Chevy back, and we love you, Dad."

Like 57 Chevies? Visit 57classicchevy.com

57 Chevy Song on my North Idaho Woods Blues CD 57 Chevy Song on my Friend and Lover CD