The vinyl record has remained in excellent condition.Īudio quality is very clear and strong throughout.īoth record centre labels are clean, unmarked, and free from tears, stains or stickers. ![]() Chart positions Chart (1960)Ĭonnie Stevens with the big sound of Don Ralke - Sixteen Reasons / Little Sister "Sixteen Reasons" was a popular song on the American Forces Network in Germany that summer. The sheet music for the song was also a bestseller in both the US and the UK. Total sales for Connie Stevens' "Sixteen Reasons" single are estimated at two million units. After reaching #9 - its overall UK peak - in May 1960, Stevens' single re-entered the top 20 at #17 that June, spending 12 weeks on the chart in all. "Sixteen Reasons" also afforded Stevens a hit in the UK over the spring and summer of 1960 despite at least three cover versions. "Sixteen Reasons" crossed over to the Hot R&B sides chart, where it went to #10. It was as "Sixteen Reasons" that Stevens' single debuted at #89 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated 1 February 1960, peaking at #3 on the chart dated. It would be a little silly for me to do it now." Chart performance It was really a kids' song aimed at 12-year-old girls. Professionally Stevens has downplayed her identity as the singer of a "golden oldie", stating in 2005: "I never did 'Sixteen Reasons' in my stage act. handicapping her promotion of the single: as the song was not published by MPHC the label refused to allow Stevens to perform the song on Hawaiian Eye and also prevented her from singing it on The Ed Sullivan Show.Īlthough Stevens would continue to record for Warner Bros until 1972 - with a brief tenure at MGM Records in 1968 - none of her singles subsequent to "Sixteen Reasons" would reach the Top 40 her last appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 would be in 1965. Stevens had her success with "Sixteen Reasons" despite her label Warner Bros. "Sixteen Reasons" was Stevens' second Top 40 hit, the precedent being a duet with Edd Byrnes: "Kookie Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)", a novelty spoken word number which reached #4. The Connie Stevens single with arrangement and accompaniment by Don Ralke was issued in December 1959 with the Robert Allen composition "Little Sister" being the intended A-side - another version of the last-named song by Cathy Carr was issued as a single at the same time. The ultimately favorable responses that she garnered from Connie Stevens As Cricket in 'Hawaiian Eye' would secure her third and final long-player for Warner Bros., a lushly orchestrated affair recorded in Germany called From Me to You (1962).The composers, Bill and Doree Post, were a husband-and-wife team from Kansas who had several single releases on Crest Records but their own version of "Sixteen Reasons" was not released until 1963: Doree Post was then deceased having been claimed by stomach cancer on 24 July 1961. So popular were Stevens' singing appearances on Hawaiian Eye that "Let's Do It" from this disc was included on the show's soundtrack album. These tunes are lightweight efforts when compared to the truly affective performances that Stevens gives on the remainder of the LP. On the other side of the pop music spectrum are the kitschy and somewhat dated "A Little Kiss Is a Kiss Is a Kiss" and "Apollo," which were among the five tracks on this LP to also be featured as subsequent 45 rpm singles. ![]() Stevens' facilities as an actress are most fully incorporated into the traditional pop tunes such as "Slow Boat to China" and "Too Young," giving her renditions an emotive and almost noir jazz edge. ![]() Another tale of teen romance is "Why Do I Cry for Joey?." Both tracks feature Stevens' vocals swaddled in heavy orchestration complete with chorus - somewhat typifying the Johnny Ray-esque balladry here. Opening the album is the typically languid '50s love ballad "Sixteen Reasons," which would become one of Stevens' biggest singles, ultimately selling millions as well as scoring her a Top Five hit. Another sign of the times is that the record company chose to borrow a quarter of the album - "The Trolley Song," "Why Try to Change Me Now," "Slow Boat to China," and "Too Young" - from her first LP, Conchetta (1958). Through an onslaught of cross promotion, she quickly became - as unabashedly proclaimed on the cover art - "the new singing sensation of television." Under the direction of noted Hollywood and Los Angeles arrangers/conductors Carl Brandt, Warren Barker, Don Ralkle, and Hal Hidey, Stevens' vocals are scored in a number of settings which reflect the moods and temperaments of the pop music-buying public in the late '50s and early '60s. This is Connie Stevens' second long-player and perhaps the one most directly associated with her tenure as nightclub singer Cricket Blake (1959-1963) on the television spy drama Hawaiian Eye.
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