(Berry Gordy - Tyran Carlo)
New
Zealand
#13 NZ #18 Sydney #6 Melbourne #21 Brisbane #18 Perth
NZ chart data by Warwick Freeman.
Single on Viking (NZ), released in Australia on HMV.
With Max Merritt & his Meteors.
♫ Listen at YouTube
This powerful, energetic singer, known as ‘The Dynamic’ Dinah Lee (b. Diane Jacobs, 1943) was an admirer of Dee Dee Sharp and Millie Small. Her rocking versions of astutely chosen songs and her cutting-edge mod image made her extremely popular in New Zealand and Australia in the mid-1960s.
Essential reading: Dinah Lee pages at Milesago, at Bruce Sergent’s NZ music site, and at AudioCulture.
(Berry Gordy - Tyran Carlo)
USA
Original version
#6 UK #8 Sydney
Reissued in 1987 with animated video clip: #1 UK, #42 Sydney, #11 Melbourne, #17 Brisbane, #1 Adelaide, #29 Perth.
Songwriters: Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records, and Roquel "Billy" Davis using the pseudonym Tyran Carlo.
(Berry Gordy - Tyran Carlo)
USA
Influential version
On 1963 Cameo album Do The Bird on Cameo label.
This is the version that Dinah Lee was familiar with: see Milesago’s Dinah Lee page. Her version of Don’t You Know Yockomo was also inspired by a Dee Dee Sharp album track.
Dee Dee Sharp: singer from Philadelphia (b. 1945), real name Dione La Rue, initially a back-up singer, heard with Chubby Checker on Slow Twistin’ (#3 USA, 1962). Married soul/disco producer Kenny Gamble of Gamble & Huff fame.
See 1999 interview with Dee Dee Sharp by Doug Fuhrmann at The Lively Set.
Pop Archives
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Website by Lyn Nuttall. © Lyn Nuttall 2004-2024. Chart positions courtesy of Gavin Ryan’s Australian Chart Books and Dean Scapolo’s Complete NZ Music Charts. Special thanks to Terry Stacey for information, corrections and suggestions. Thanks also to Tony Watson, Philippe Edouard, Dave Overett.., More…