Cartwheels

Album: The Radical Light (1992)
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Songfacts®:

  • Vonda Shepard was 10 years old when her mother left the future singer and her three sisters to be raised by their father. On her Radical Light album, Shepard reconciles with her mother through the song "Cartwheels." When Songfacts spoke with Vonda in 2012, she explained the special memory the song title evokes: "It's about the memories of sitting on the lawn with my mom, with my sisters and I doing cartwheels on the lawn and longing for the days when my mother was still there sitting on the lawn watching us play. Things were so different back then. Kids just played outside on the front lawn. And it's about wanting to go back, and it's about forgiving my mother for leaving, for going on her journey."

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