I've often thought that within every musical genre, there's a sub-genre known as 'the last dance song'. It doesn't matter if you're at a metal or reggae or rap or whatever bash, there's always a song to slow dance to at the end of the night while gazing into your loved one's eyes just before the lights come on. There's no doubt I'd class 'Little Things Mean A Lot' as a 'last dance' kind of song, albeit one from an unlikely source - Kallen was a forties big band singer on her second go round with a song that dampens the tempo on her usual pace both in tone and in lyrics with only an intermittent muted cornet acting as a signpost to her past.Kallen is no material girl, the little things in life mean the most ("Give me your arm as we cross the street, call me at six on the dot. A line a day when you're far away, little things mean a lot") and the clear as a bell yearning in her voice makes this a more touching affair than some lungbusting declaration of eternal love. More than pleasant yet less than great, 'Little Things Mean A Lot' has a timeless universality that still appeals but lacks the iconic spark to mark it out as a classic. A far bigger star in her native USA, Kallen never followed this up with anything in the UK and so gives us another first - the first one hit wonder.
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