Lipstick on Your Collar (1959)

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By: Connie Francis (born Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero, December 12, 1938 in Newark, New Jersey.)

Connie Francis is the prototype for the female pop singer of today, and still challenges Madonna as the biggest-selling female recording artist of all time.

"Lipstick on Your Collar" was recorded April 15, 1959 at the Metropolitan Studio in New York City, New York. Francis was only 20 years old at the time. It was produced and conducted by Ray Ellis. Veteran guitarist George Barnes contributed the guitar solo.

Connie Francis is known for recording her songs in different languages. She sang in over thirteen languages, including English, Greek, German, Swedish, Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Hebrew, Yiddish, Japanese, Latin and Hawaiian.

That all began with "Lipstick on Your Collar", which she also recorded in German (as "Lippenstift Am Jacket"), which reached #131 in Germany in April 1960. It was the success of the German version of that caused Francis to begin recording versions of her subsequent singles in other languages.

Chart position: #5 (US), in July 1959, #3 (UK).

The flip-side was "Frankie" (#9, US), which made it the most successful double-sided single of Francis' career.

"Lipstick on Your Collar" was the first uptempo Francis single to reach the US Top Ten. It was also Francis' first Top Ten hit in Australia at #4.

Chart position: July 13, 1959 (US Billboard Top 100).

1. "The Battle of New Orleans" (Johnny Horton)
2. "Lonely Boy" (Paul Anka)
3. "Personality" (Lloyd Price)
4. "Waterloo" (Stonewall Jackson)
5. "Lipstick on Your Collar" (Connie Francis)
6. "Dream Lover" (Bobby Darin)
7. "Tiger" (Fabian)
8. "Tallahassee Lassie" (Freddy Cannon)
9. "My Heart Is an Open Book" (Carl Dobkins, Jr.)
10. "Quiet Village" (Les Baxter)
    

Written by: George Goehring (music) and Edna Lewis (lyrics.)

George Goehring also composed the music for "Half Heaven Half Heartache", which was a #12 (US) hit for Gene Pitney in 1962.

Edna Lewis also co-wrote "Judy's Turn to Cry" with Beverly "Ruby" Ross, which was a #5 (US) hit for Lesley Gore in 1963.

Lipstick is known to have been used around 5000 years ago in ancient Babylon, when semi-precious jewels were crushed and applied to the lips.

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A Teenager in Love (1959)

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• Dion And The Belmonts - A Teenager In Love (MP3)

By: Dion And The Belmonts, led by Dion DiMucci (born July 18, 1939 in the Bronx, New York.)

The Belmonts were named after Dion's Bronx neighborhood of Belmont.

In 1959, the same year "A Teenager In Love" was released, Dion and the Belmonts were the fourth headliner on "The Winter Dance Party" tour, with Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson.

Dion was approached to join their fateful flight, but he thought the price of $36 was too much. Growing up, he had heard his parents argue for years over the $36 rent for their apartment and could not bring himself to pay a month's rent for a short plane ride.

After the success of "A Teenager In Love", Dion began a solo career in the early 1960s and continued to have hits (with songs like "Runaround Sue", "The Wanderer", and "Ruby Baby") until 1964 when changing public tastes and heroin addiction caused his career to decline.

After getting off drugs in the late 1960s, he switched to protest songs. In 1968 he recorded his best known song as a soloist, "Abraham, Martin & John", a response to the 1968 assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy.

In 1989, Dion was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In between his occasional current forays into music, Dion pursues prison ministry. He reaches out to those going through drug addiction recovery.

Chart position: #5 (US), #28.

The song held three positions in the British Top 20, the other two versions being by Marty Wilde and Craig Douglas.

The Top Ten Songs: May 18, 1959.

1. "Kansas City" (Wilbert Harrison)
2. "Sorry, I Ran All The Way Home" (Impalas)
3. "The Happy Organ" (Dave Baby Cortez)
4. "Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)" (Edward Byrnes with Connie Stevens)
5. "A Teenager In Love" (Dion and the Belmonts)
6. "Dream Lover" (Bobby Darin)
7. "The Battle Of New Orleans" (Johnny Horton)
8. "Quiet Village" (Martin Denny)
9. "Turn Me Loose" (Fabian)
10. "Pink Shoe Laces" (Dodie Stevens)

Written by: Doc Pomus (born January 27, 1925, died of cancer March 14, 1991) and Mort Shuman (born November 12, 1936, died November 2, 1991.)

Pomus and Shuman were one of the most important songwriting duos of the late 1950s and early 1960s, second only to Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, with more than 500 songs written between 1958 and 1965.

They also wrote/co-wrote such hit songs as "Youngblood", "Turn Me Loose", "Hushabye", "This Magic Moment", "Save the Last Dance for Me", "Sweets for My Sweet", "Can't Get Used to Losing You", "Surrender", "Little Sister", "Suspicion", "(Marie's the Name of) His Latest Flame", "Viva Las Vegas", "Little Children", and "She's Not You".

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• Dion And The Belmonts - A Teenager In Love (MP3)

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Beyond The Sea (1959)

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• Bobby Darin - Beyond The Sea (MP3)
• Charles Trenet - La Mer (MP3)

By: Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto May 14, 1936, died December 20, 1973).

His stage name came from him having been called Bobby since he a child, and (allegedly) that he walked by a Chinese restaurant called the "Mandarin Duck", only the sign's first three letters weren't lit, reading "Darin Duck". He thought that "Darin" looked good.

Darin was one of the most popular and versatile performers of the 1950s and 1960s, performing many genres, including pop, rock and roll, big band, jazz, folk, and country. He was an early example of what came to be known as the "singer/songwriter".

Darin was also an Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe-winning actor. He was a "Goodwill Ambassador" for the American Heart Association because of his lifelong rheumatic heart condition, from which he died, due to complications following a heart surgery, at the age of 37 in 1973.

Darin was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

"Beyond the Sea" is the English language version of the French song "La Mer" (which translates as "The Sea"). It has become a pop standard recorded by many artists, but Bobby Darin's version is the best known. A movie based on Darin's life (titled Beyond The Sea) was released in 2004 and starred Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey (who also wrote, produced and directed the film.)

Chart position: #6 (US), #8 (UK).

The Top Ten Songs: February 29, 1960 (US Billboard Hot 100).

1. "Theme From A Summer Place" (Percy Faith)
2. "Handy Man" (Jimmy Jones)
3. "He'll Have To Go" (Jim Reeves)
4. "Teen Angel" (Mark Dinning)
5. "What In The World's Come Over You" (Jack Scott)
6. "Beyond The Sea" (Bobby Darin)
7. "Running Bear" (Johnny Preston)
8. "Let It Be Me" (Everly Brothers)
9. "Baby" (Brook Benton and Dinah Washington)
10. "Wild One" (Bobby Rydell)
    

Written by: Charles Trenet (born May 18, 1913 in Narbonne, France, died February 19, 2001 in Créteil, France.)

Trenet was a French singer/songwriter most popular in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. "La Mer" is perhaps Trenet's best known song outside the French-speaking world. It has been recorded by over 400 artists.

The English lyrics were written by Jack Lawrence (born April 7, 1912 in Brooklyn, New York, died after a fall in his home March 16, 2009 in Redding, Connecticut.)

Lawrence also wrote/co-wrote songs such as "Play, Fiddle, Play", "If I Didn't Care", "All or Nothing at All", "Tenderly" and the English lyrics for another French song, "La goualante de pauvre Jean": "The Poor People of Paris".

In 1970, Lawrence was inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame.



Originally by: Charles Trenet, recorded in 1946. 


Also by: Harry James and His Orchestra (1948); Lawrence Welk (1960); We Five (1965); The Sandpipers (1966); Robbie Williams (2001); Barry Manilow (2006). Charles Trenet, recorded in 1946.

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• Bobby Darin - Beyond The Sea (MP3)
• Charles Trenet - La Mer (MP3)

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Dream Lover (1959)

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• Bobby Darin - Dream Lover (MP3)
• Ben E. King - Dream Lover (MP3)
• Anne Murray - Dream Lover (MP3)

By: Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Perciville Cassotto May 14, 1936, died December 20, 1973).

The name Darin (allegedly) came from when he walked by a Chinese restaurant called the "Mandarin Duck", only the sign's first three letters weren't lit, reading "Darin Duck". He thought that "Darin" looked good.

Darin was one of the most popular and versatile performers of the 1950s and 1960s, performing many genres, including pop, rock and roll, big band, jazz, folk, and country. He was an early example of what came to be known as the "singer/songwriter". Darin was also an Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe-winning actor.

He was a "Goodwill Ambassador" for the American Heart Association because of his lifelong rheumatic heart condition, from which he died, due to complications following a heart surgery, at the age of 37 in 1973.

Darin was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

The same year "Dream Lover" was released, Darin won the Grammy award for Best New Artist.

Chart position: #2 (US), #1 (UK).

It was kept from #1 in the US the week of June 8, 1959 by "The Battle Of New Orleans" (Johnny Horton).

"Dream Lover" was his third and, at the time, biggest Top 10 hit in the US, and the first to reach #1 in the UK. The biggest selling single of 1959, however, was another song by Darin: "Mack The Knife".

Written by: Bobby Darin.

Other songs written by Darin include "Wear My Ring", "Splish Splash", "Things", "18 Yellow Roses", "You're the Reason I'm Living", "If a Man Answers", "Simple Song of Freedom", "Somebody To Love", "That's the Way Love Is" and "Two of a Kind", which was a collaboration with lyrics by Johnny Mercer.

Also by: Duffy Power (1959); Ben E. King (1962); Anne Murray (1974); The Manhattan Transfer with James Taylor (1995).

Download MP3s from Amazon.com:

• Bobby Darin - Dream Lover (MP3)
• Ben E. King - Dream Lover (MP3)
• Anne Murray - Dream Lover (MP3)

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