My Boy Lollipop

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Singles

My Boy Lollipop   DE 5 06/01/1964 (24 weeks)   UK 2 03/14/1964 (23 weeks)   US 2 05/23/1964 (12 weeks)

My Boy Lollipop is a title made famous by Millie Small in 1964, which is considered the first commercial hit of Ska and is one of the most successful singles of this music style with over six million copies sold.

History of origin

Barbie Gaye - My Boy Lollypop

The original, which is still largely unknown today, dates from 1956 by the then 17-year-old white singer Barbie Gaye, who wrote the rhythm & blues title My Boy Lollypop / Say You Understand (the spelling of the original title contained a "y" ) sang on the newly founded insignificant record label DARL Records (# 1002). The lyrically simple song about love for a boy could not be placed in any of the official music charts , but was only listed in November 1956 at the last place 25 on the radio station WINS / New York City in a hit parade compiled by the well-known radio DJ Alan Freed .

The song was probably composed by Bobby Spencer, a member of the doo-wop formation Harptones at the time , and their manager Johnny Roberts. These names also appear on the original label. However, record mogul Morris Levy later claimed that Bobby Spencer was a pseudonym under which he composed the song himself. Johnny Roberts was therefore no longer listed as a composer, but replaced by Morris Levy's name after 1964.

Hit version

British record producer Robert Blackwell brought Jamaican Millicent "Millie" Small and guitarist Ernest Ranglin to London in July 1963. Both were featured in the Island Records catalog, owned by his brother Chris Blackwell . 17-year-old "Millie" Small won a talent competition in her home country and was made famous in 1962 by a local number one hit in Jamaica. Blackwell introduced the girl to Jack Baverstock, the A&R boss at Fontana Records . He was convinced of her self-confident sounding child's voice and got her a record deal. The first single Don't You Know / Until You're Mine was also one of the first titles on the now British record label Island Records, which was relocated from Jamaica to London in May 1962. The title was still ignored.

Millie Small - My Boy Lollipop (UK)

Then, however, Blackwell came across the forgotten title of Barbie Gaye. In January 1964, Jimmy Powell's band Five Dimensions was commissioned to take over the instrumental accompaniment during the recording. It was under the musical direction of the Jamaican Ernest Ranglin, who had been on a tour of England since December 8, 1963 and also played guitar during the recording. However, the other occupation is controversial in the professional world. It starts with accordion player Peter Hogman, who played the instrumental part, as Bob Marley confirmed in his autobiography. The often mentioned Rod Stewart has always denied his participation, while Millie Small said in 2016 that she can clearly remember the recordings with Stewart. Hogman had joined the Five Dimensions in early December 1963 to replace Stewart . The other line-up was recruited from the core of Jimmy Powell's Five Dimensions , namely Rod Goodwin (guitar), Tony Lucas (bass), Alan Shepherd (saxophone) and Tom "Duke" Russell (drums). Then there was Pete Peterson (trumpet). It is unlikely that Jon Hiseman - who later played in the Graham Bond Organization and Colosseum - was on drums.

Ranglin arranged a ska-beat cover version of the original with this formation . My Boy Lollipop / Something's Gotta Be Done , produced by Chris Blackwell in London's Olympic Studios , was first released in the UK in March 1964 (Fontana TF # 449). Fontana had taken the title under license from Island Records . On March 12, 1964, the title came into the British charts, where it remained in second place for two weeks on May 9. The record achieved sales of 600,000 copies, in the USA (also listed in second place) 500,000 singles were sold within five weeks, and a total of between 6 and 7 million copies were sold worldwide.

In June 1964, Millie's English-language version hit the German charts, where it finished fifth. Millie couldn't add a hit to her million seller, so My Boy Lollipop is one of the one-hit wonders .

Cover versions

BMI has registered Johnnie B. Roberts, Robert Spencer and Morris Levy as authors and presented the million seller with a BMI award. A total of 31 versions of this title are registered. In July 1964, a German version by Heidi Bachert came out under the title of the same name with a text by Kurt Hertha (Polydor # 52 348), but only made it to 32nd place. Maggie Mae was able to occupy 17th place in August 1976.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Chart sources: Millie Small. chartsurfer.de, accessed on May 7, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Earthlink via the WINS charts from November 1956 ( Memento of the original from October 28, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ^ Jay Warner, American Singing Groups , 2006, p. 216
4. ^ Rob Finnis, in the booklet of the CD "You Heard It Here First", Ace Records CDCHD1204, 2008, page 14f.
5. ^ Timothy White, Catch A Fire - The Life of Bob Marley , 2006, p. 19
6. ^ Stewart Maconie, The People's Songs: The Story of Modern Britain in 50 Records , 2013, p. 65
7. ↑ Ben Beaumont-Thomas: Millie Small, My Boy Lollipop singer, dies aged 73 . In: The Guardian . May 6, 2020, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed May 7, 2020]).
8. ↑ Jimmy Powell and The Five Dimensions website by Bruno Ceriotti
9. ^ Gordon Thompson, Please Please Me: Sixties British Pop, Inside Out , 2008, p. 303
10. ^ The Independent, May 1, 2009, Iceland: The Record Label That Changed the World
11. ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 194
12. ↑ Der Spiegel 44/1975 of October 27, 1975, Hits aus dem Ghetto , p. 237 ff.
13. ↑ BMI entry for My Boy Lollipop ( memento of the original from December 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.