An open letter to Chris 'Boomer' McCann, from the town of Lurgan, in North Ireland’s County Armagh (aka Adele’s ex-boyfriend, who inspired the song “Someone Like You”).

Dear Chris:

Thanks so much for failing to recognize what you had, when you had it.

I suppose it’s just your bad luck that the young woman you did wrong happens to be the second coming of Dusty Springfield, imbued with the heart of Laura Nyro and the soul of The Shangri-Las (not to mention the authenticity of Johnny Cash).

As a result of your ability to move-on with your life, we were blessed with the year’s greatest tearjerker, “Someone like You” – a song that earned Adele one of her half-dozen Grammy nominations for 2011 (this one for ‘Best Pop Solo Performance’).

Furthermore, based in great part on the success of that song, her album 21 gained entry into the 2012 Guinness Book of World Records; became the most digitally downloaded album in UK history, and in less than a year since its release, the best-selling album of the century (a feat that took the previous record-holder, Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black, five years to accomplish).

But, perhaps the song’s greatest pop-culture accomplishment was the “it’s funny, ‘cause it’s true” moment that came on the November 13th episode of Saturday Night Live, when, after being asked by Nasim Pedrad if she can relate to the idea of crying to “Someone Like You” Kristen Wiig replies “Anyone with a heart and an iTunes account does – so I know it, I get it, and I want in.”

For this, Sir, you are one of the people I’m most grateful for in 2011.

Thanks!

SHULMAN