La La means I love you

It started as baby talk. William Hart got the idea for “La-La (Means I Love You)” from the babbling of his young son — a sound that means nothing and everything at once, which is more or less the whole thesis of the song. He and Thom Bell built a love ballad around it, the Delfonics released it on Philly Groove at the end of 1967, and by 1968 it was at number four on the pop chart and number two R&B.

This is Philadelphia soul arriving nearly fully formed: Bell’s strings and horns draped over a slow, patient beat, and Hart’s falsetto floating above it all, so light it barely seems attached to a body. The lyric is honest about its own trick — the singer admits he may not have a lot of fancy words, so he offers syllables instead, and somehow the syllables say more.

Next time someone asks what soul music does that plain speech can’t, skip the explanation. Just play them the first ten seconds.