Oh yes! It even contained the followup single "Dance The Kung Fu", which I have. "Kung Fu Fighting" was a huge and popular single in late 1974. But, I guess it's one of those polarizing songs. You either love it or hate it. Until this forum, I never knew there were people who hatyed it. I don't know why, but, there you have it. It has a funky groove. Since this was a #1 single, we are about 12 years ahead of ourselves. I'm sure we'll get back to it in three years. Back to 1962.
I remember "Roses Are Red" being all over the radio, but it was a later Bobby Vinton record that became one of my favorites: "I'll Make You My Baby" in 1971. It just missed making the Hot 100, but was played on Adult Contemporary stations which is where I heard it. Great arrangement:
Me either. Doesn't compare to Barbara Lewis IMO. I eventually bought one of the Collectable 2fers of Mr Vinton's work - the one with some country songs. Didn't do a lot for me.
"Roses are Red" was a monster hit - I've seen one source that lists it as the number one song for the year, and the Wikipedia Billboard Hot 100 for 1962 that I've referenced earlier in the thread has it at number 4. I like it - the "Is that your little girl? She looks a lot like you" verse gets me.
Living in the UK at the time, we got the Ronnie Carroll version. I always liked the song, and I think it has more nostalgia value than almost any other song. There were three major hits of 1962 for which different versions became big hits on either side of the Atlantic. The other two were Bobby's Girl by Marcie Blane (Susan Maughan in the UK) and Venus in Blue Jeans by Jimmy Clanton (Mark Wynter in the UK). For all of them I had to get used to hearing the North American versions on the radio (as "flashbacks"), but eventually came to prefer them. I would say that Bobby's Girl is the most different between the two versions and Roses are Red is the most similar. In 1991 I had a couple of weeks in the UK, and I found one CD that had all three UK versions on it! Here's the Ronnie Carroll UK hit:
Roses Are Red never really did too much for me, his final #1 which will come along in 2 years I liked much better... but my favorite BIG hit of his, was this collaboration with Bacharach and David..
Interesting to hear those 'foreign' versions. Don't think they called it High School over there though
One of my favorite teen idols, although he was well out of his teens by the time this was a hit. I love that he later had a decent run of "adult" hits, too. "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" was the first, and for years the only, of his singles that I owned. I now have several others. My favorite is "Little Devil," which gets on oldies stations every now and then even though it didn't quite make the top ten. Does anyone know what Carole King did to him to inspire "Oh Carol"? I've always heard he wrote it for her, and, well, it does not portray its subject in a pleasant light.
A record that was a big influence on 14-year-old Richard Carpenter and his 12-year-old sister. They did a near note-for-note remake in the '70s, probably looking for the "oldies" lightning to strike twice, but it went nowhere, and wasn't even released as a single in the US. It *was* however, a single in Japan. The irony here is that Richard Carpenter arranged the strings on that second and slow version by Sedaka. THAT version would have been a knockout for Karen to sing.
Concerning the production style, I always am reminded of Skeeter Davis' I CAN"T STAY MAD AT YOU. It was a hit in 1963. Was Neil Sedaka involved in that, or an influence?
Interesting that you brought this up. I'm not sure I ever made the connection until I started thinking about the Sedaka record after it was posted and thought how much it sounds like this Skeeter Davis record. The only connection I can think of right off is that they both recorded for RCA at that time.
There was also a release by the Partridge Family in 1972. I babysat an 11 yr old who was a David Cassidy fan at the time, that's how I know this. Upon looking it up, I see it reached #3 in both the UK and Australia!
Down doobie doo down down - in any language! Here's Neil Sedaka doing his hit in Italian Hmmm, pizza for lunch?
Before you give too much credit to Sedaka et al for the 1975 reboot of this song, take a listen to Lenny Welch's mini-comeback single from 1970. It peaked at #34 pop and #8 adult contemporary, though it failed to reignite Welch's career.
