The Billboard Hot 100 Number Ones

[Sheriff John Stone]

Connie Francis is a survivor, no doubt about it. I can see some similarities with her and Brian Wilson. They both endured a lot of tragedy in their personal lives and their careers. As Kapitan mentioned above, Connie Francis is now 86 years old. This is a photo of her from two weeks ago:

I was recently listening to some Christmas music stations on the internet, and I came across one which played a lot of Connie Francis' Christmas music. I didn't know Connie recorded a Christmas album, but she did! In 1959, Connie released Christmas In My Heart. Her voice on that album is incredible. I've heard Connie sing a lot of "pop music", but this was the first time I heard her sing some deeper, serious music, and there are several sacred Christmas songs on her Christmas album:

Now, onto "Don't Break The Heart That Loves You". I'm not really a fan. Connie's vocal is fine, excellent as usual, but the song is indistinguishable from several other ballads of that era. Nothing really stands out; it doesn't do anything for me. I never heard the song before, and yes, it falls into that category...again...that I'm surprised it hit #1.

[Rob]

Hope I didn't dampen this thread with a comment I made uptopic about Connie Francis. I apologize and I've deleted the comment.

[Kapitan]

”Johnny Angel,” by Shelley Fabares
April 7-14, 1962 (2 weeks)

Shelley Fabares may have only had one No. 1 hit, but she was no one-hit wonder. And that’s not just because she scored two more Top 50 hits in 1962, either: it’s because she had a five-decade career as a television and movie actress that included several recurring roles in successful shows, most notably 191 episodes of The Donna Reed Show in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s and 199 episodes of Coach in the late ‘80s through most of the ‘90s.

One could argue she was a stereotypical example of the not-quite-true (but not-quite-not-true) trope of the sanitization of rock and roll in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. Fabares, by her own account, “can’t sing.” She was an actress, and during her time on The Donna Reed Show, the producers told her and co-star Paul Peterson (her brother on the show) that they would each be given songs to record and release, with the songs being used in the show’s scripts as well. She says she and Peterson (who also said he couldn’t sing) were given an ultimatum when they resisted: sing and stay on the show, or find other employment…

The song given Fabares was, of course, “Johnny Angel.” Lee Pockriss (whom we met before, with “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini”) co-wrote the song with Lyn Duddy. The song was released twice in 1960, by Georgia Lee and Laurie Loman, respectively. The third time was the charm.

Producer Stu Phillips in late 1961 assembled a group of musicians including Hal Blaine on drums, Carol Kaye on bass, and Glen Campbell on guitar. The record also included a vocal group called the Blossoms, who had released music on Capitol and RCA and backed Sam Cooke in 1959; later in 1962, they would score their biggest hit—although it would be credited by their producer, Phil Spector, to another group name. It was the Crystals who scored a No. 1 hit with “He’s a Rebel.” Yes, the Blossoms were led by none other than Darlene Love.

As a non-singing actress forced into the situation, Fabares claims to have felt extremely uncomfortable with the entire situation, but (thanks in large part to studio technology such as editing) she eventually completed the tune. “Johnny Angel” was released in February 1962 and became a No. 1 hit in early April.

She reluctantly “performed” the song on occasion to promote the record, saying every such instance involved lip synching. In fact, she says (in the interview linked above) she had a Milli Vanilli/Ashlee Simpson moment at one such performance, when a record player was being used for the music and it skipped while she was “singing.”

While the studio continued to promote Fabares as both an actress and a singer, she never had another Top 20 hit. (She did reach No. 21 with a sequel to “Johnny Angel,” “Johnny Loves Me,” and No. 46 with her rendition of “The Things We Did Last Summer.” She had a couple of solo albums and appeared on a few soundtracks and compilations through the middle ‘60s before focusing exclusively on her chosen profession, acting. She continued to work steadily until the new millennium.

[kds]

When I was a kid, I actually used to watch Donna Reed reruns on Nick at Nite. It was one of those old sitcoms I'd put on at night because I didn't really have many other viewing options. I probably could not recite one moment or plot now (I can probably say the same for Make Room for Daddy or Dobie Gillus), but I had no idea the show ran for that long.

And, while I do remember hearing this song as a kid, I never made any connection to the show since I didn't know the singer's name until today.

[jk]

Dec 2, 2024 18:03:11 GMT Kapitan said:

”Johnny Angel,” by Shelley Fabares
April 7-14, 1962 (2 weeks)

I believe the word to describe this song is "cute". I'm surprised it got as high as it did in the UK, as I can't recall The Donna Reed Show ever being shown there.

I'm getting "Video unavailable / This video is not available", so I'm posting a new one:



Actually there's a pretty direct Brian Wilson connection here, in the shape of the film Ride the Wild Surf, one of whose stars was Ms Fabares. Brian, Jan Berry and Roger Christian wrote the title song which was recorded by Jan & Dean and became a Top 20 national hit, reaching Billboard's #16 spot. And guess who wrote an endorsement on the back cover of Jan & Dean's parent album?



en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ride_the_Wild_Surf

[lonelysummer]

[lonelysummer]

Dec 2, 2024 20:39:32 GMT kds said:

When I was a kid, I actually used to watch Donna Reed reruns on Nick at Nite. It was one of those old sitcoms I'd put on at night because I didn't really have many other viewing options. I probably could not recite one moment or plot now (I can probably say the same for Make Room for Daddy or Dobie Gillus), but I had no idea the show ran for that long.

And, while I do remember hearing this song as a kid, I never made any connection to the show since I didn't know the singer's name until today.

I can't actually remember seeing Donna Reed, but I had a friend that was taping shows off of Nick at Nite, so I must have seen it at least once. What the song reminds me of is listening to a history of rock show on some radio station in the 70's; a lot of the songs they featured from the 50's and 60's were new to me, and I remember Johnny Angel being one of them. Blue Velvet by Bobby Vinton was another. My mom and dad knew all these songs, so they would talk about where they were when these songs played. 
Now that I listen to the song again, I can hear that, yes, Shelley was not a singer; but she's surrounded by singers and the backing kind of obscures her vocal limitations.
Later, she would star in three movies with Elvis Presley, and she didn't have to sing in them, but she did appear in a Herman's Hermits movie, Hold On, where she sang one song, Make Me Happy - posted above.

[jk]

Dec 2, 2024 21:33:18 GMT lonelysummer said:

I can't actually remember seeing Donna Reed, but I had a friend that was taping shows off of Nick at Nite, so I must have seen it at least once. What the song reminds me of is listening to a history of rock show on some radio station in the 70's; a lot of the songs they featured from the 50's and 60's were new to me, and I remember Johnny Angel being one of them. Blue Velvet by Bobby Vinton was another. My mom and dad knew all these songs, so they would talk about where they were when these songs played. 
Now that I listen to the song again, I can hear that, yes, Shelley was not a singer; but she's surrounded by singers and the backing kind of obscures her vocal limitations.
Later, she would star in three movies with Elvis Presley, and she didn't have to sing in them, but she did appear in a Herman's Hermits movie, Hold On, where she sang one song, Make Me Happy - posted above.

I wondered if that was Peter Noone -- and it was! I think "Make Me Happy" appeals to me more than "Johnny Angel", which I heard at the time. I could never understand its appeal.

[Kapitan]

Dec 2, 2024 21:21:54 GMT jk said:

Actually there's a pretty direct Brian Wilson connection here, in the shape of the film Ride the Wild Surf, one of whose stars was Ms Fabares. Brian, Jan Berry and Roger Christian wrote the title song which was recorded by Jan & Dean and became a Top 20 national hit, reaching Billboard's #16 spot. And guess who wrote an endorsement on the back cover of Jan & Dean's parent album?

Yep, I figured I'd mention some of that during the discussion if nobody else did. (I try to keep the initial write-ups more or less to themselves, without trying to find connections to BW/BBs.) You beat me to it. Of course, the musicians on "Johnny Angel" are another connection.

She was also married to a great fan of Wilson, producer Lou Adler, from 1964-1980.

kds - like you, I was exposed to The Donna Reed Show through Nick at Nite. And I saw her in real time on Coach, as well. But while I've known "Johnny Angel" my whole life, I never made the connection between the song and Fabares. It was only in reading up for the post that I found out it was by her. It had just been another anonymous song to me.