Neither rock & roll nor a waltz, Starr's song is a wry comment on the ever growing generation gap that was starting to yawn between parents and their teenage offspring. Bold as brass Starr has been out late on a date and on coming home she finds her parents trying to dance to one of her 'jump' records: "And while they danced, only one thing was wrong. They were trying to waltz to a rock and roll song". An unlikely scenario maybe, but no less prescient than seeing the endless parade of fortysomethings at my local 'nightclub' trying to dress twentysomething years younger. Starr herself was 34 when she recorded this and so perhaps seeing herself as square as the oldies she was lampooning, she's nothing less than enthusiastic with her last roll of the dice vocal pitched somewhere in the hinterland between big band and Broadway. Though age has long since diluted any humour to a trace, 'Rock And Roll Waltz' is not a bad song as novelty songs go. It's verve and gusto remain intact, but as we've been spoiled by some of the number ones just recently I'm less disposed to give an unqualified thumbs up to something that jumps on the brakes and tries to put the machine into reverse by pandering to the very audience it was having a dig at.
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