Andrea Carroll-Singles - A's and B's (1961-66)

 

1. Young And Lonely

2. I’ve Got A Date With Frankie

3. Please Don’t Talk To The Lifeguard

4. Room Of Memories

5. Gee Dad

6. The Charm On My Arm

7. Fifteen Shades Of Pink

8. Miss Happiness

9. It Hurts To Be Sixteen

10. Why Am I So Shy

11. The Doolang

12. This Time Tomorrow [Stereo Mix]

13. Sally Fool

14. Mr. Music Man

15. The World Isn’t Big Enough

16. She Gets Everything She Wants

17. Hey, Beach Boy

18. Why Should We Take The Easy Way Out

19. Play Me A Sad Song 

20. That Boy I Used To Know 

21. When People Are Around

22. Only My Friend

23. This Time Tomorrow [Demo]

1961-66

People throw around the phrase "one-hit wonder," but most of the time it doesn't quite apply to the artists who get branded with it. The Shocking Blue, for example, pop up on various "one-hit" lists, yet they had two other Hot 100 hits besides their #1 smash "Venus." Similarly, the Lemon Pipers made the Hot 100 twice beyond "Green Tambourine." A-Ha also had two more hits besides "Take On Me" in the 1980s.

But '60s-era teen singer Andrea Carroll is an artist who truly deserves her one-hit wonder status. The Cleveland native, who was born Andrea Lee DeCapite, placed only a single Top 100 hit in her five-year recording career. But it's an unforgettable one. "It Hurts To Be Sixteen" is a jangly, bittersweet girl group-styled number that's mighty catchy. The song, in which a young girl laments being too old for kid stuff but not quite old enough for dating, got to #45 in the summer of 1963 (see the Billboard Hot 100 book entry above -- click for larger size).

Since Carroll has since gone on to earn a Ph.D. and become Dr. Andrea Hill, I'm sure being known as a one-hit wonder isn't too bad a thing for her. I personally wouldn't complain. Plus, her hit was allegedly penned by Neil Sedaka under the pseudonym "Ronnie Grossman." With this tune, Sedaka (or Grossman) tapped into a theme that looked ahead to other, less innocent coming-of-age songs like Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen" and Britney Spears' "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman."

Had "Sixteen" been a bigger hit for Carroll, she might have been able to score another one on its coattails. But Carroll's "It Hurts To Be Sixteen" stalled out before it hit the Top 40 and the reason for that is probably because a competing version was released by a fellow teen singer named Barbara Chandler. That version hit the pop charts exactly a week after Carroll's record made its chart debut (see graphic above). Chandler was herself a one-hit wonder who only managed to get to #114 on the Bubbling Under chart with a more upbeat version of "It Hurts To Be Sixteen." But that was probably enough to cause Carroll's single lose chart momentum.

Which is a shame, because Carroll's version is by far the superior one. It's hard to imagine a more natural marriage of singer and song. Carroll gets "inside" the lyric and comes off as believably wistful, hurt, and even a bit pouty. She gets the point across so well, in fact, that even if you're years beyond sweet sixteen, you're likely to relate to the song because it's the emotion, not the details, that Carroll puts across. This is a hallmark of a great singer.

Unfortunately, Carroll's distinctive vocal style didn't result in much success, and she never released an album. But she did cut a bunch of other great single sides. These songs have not been served particularly well by the (bootleg) CD collection that's been circulating for the past decade or so. It's great that someone took the time to put that set together, but not so great that the sound quality ranges from below average to very poor.

This collection is my attempt to remedy that. It presents Carroll's first nine singles in chronological order with above-average-to-excellent sound and at the correct speeds. From 1961 to 1966, she recorded for four labels: Epic, Bigtop, RCA Victor, and United Artists and info on each record is in the track tags. For bonus tracks, I also included five other recordings she made (although it's questionable whether one of them is actually her).

More than 50 years on, it's clear that not all of Carroll's singles were chart-worthy. That especially goes for some of the boilerplate plate pre-Beatles-era ballads she recorded. She also cut the original "Please Don't Talk To The Lifeguard" which was made into a hit two years later by Diane Ray who did a better version. But some of Carroll's records are excellent and there are at least three that I'd call genuine under-the-radar classics.

First and foremost among these is "The Doolang," a song about a would-be dance craze that was written by Neil Sedaka's lyricist Howard Greenfield and Helen Miller ("Don't Say You Don't Remember"). It's got a rockin' beat, a sassy lead vocal, and a gritty sax solo. It's also got an additional sax solo on its fade out and I think that if they'd repeated the opening line in that space, they'd have had a much more commercial record. But that's just me.

To my ears, the standout track is "Gee Dad," which has to be one of the weirdest tunes in pop music history -- and I'm saying this as someone who owns virtually everything Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart ever recorded. The lyric of "Gee Dad" is sung almost entirely in a hilarious parody of the "teen lingo" of the early '60s that adults used to complain about. It's in the vein of the ridiculous "Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)," but the songwriters go so over-the-top with it that it almost sounds like Carroll is singing in a different language. In short, it's nearly incomprehensible, which makes it even funnier.

They even included a "glossary" on the picture sleeve (at right). The use of the word "gassy" on that sleeve and the fact that this was on Bigtop Records makes me think it's somehow connected to another silly Bigtop release, Mad Magazine's Mad Twists Rock'N'Roll album from 1962. Carroll, to her credit, breezes through the wacky lyric and the disc definitely rocks. But it was probably too "out there" for DJs who hadn't yet heard "Wowie Zowie" or "Abba Zaba." Still, it's an undiscovered gem that should be heard by any fan of '60s music.

Way, way, way over on the other side of the musical spectrum is "The World Isn't Big Enough," a melancholy ballad with sociopolitical overtones that songwriters Bernice Ross and Lor Crane might not have intended. The duo, who co-wrote "Don't Just Stand There" for Patty Duke and "White On White" for Danny Williams, came up with a melody and lyric that sure sounds hit-worthy when you listen casually. But radio stations have to listen closely to lyrics and this one starts out with a couplet that insinuates the teenage singer might be pregnant, which was a definite no-no for 1966: "They're sending me away/they say our love won't stand the test of time/you by now they'd know/that out of sight's not always out of mind." .

Granted, the song doesn't come out and say that. But sending unwed teenage mothers to far away towns is exactly what parents did back in those days, so the idea is implicit. And also, what type of parents -- then or now -- would make their teenage daughter actually up and leave merely because they didn't approve of her boyfriend? Think about that: A few dates with the high school hood and it's time to turn the entire family upside down by giving li'l Andrea on a ticket to ride. That'll teach her!

Whatever the writers intended, this lyric couldn't have endeared Carroll to radio program directors in 1966. But it does make for a great tune. And it has a first-rate lead vocal. Carroll shows here that she had both range and skill and that she could handle adult ballads as well as she sang teenybopper fare.

This collection also concludes with five bonus tracks, all of which need some 'splaining.

The first two, "Play Me A Sad Song" and "That Boy I Used To Know" were recorded in '63 but not released until ten years later when they appeared on a super-obscure album by Carroll and girl group/demo singer Beverly Warren called Side By Side. The latter title was misprinted on label as "The Boy I Used To Know."

"When People Are Around" was the A-Side to Carroll's final single for United Artists (UA 50062). This 45 is so rare that it doesn't show up in either the Discogs.com or 45Cat discographies. But it's mentioned on several Web pages. If anyone has a copy, please get in touch because I don't have the B-Side, "Winter In My Heart," and would like to add it to this collection. (While I'm asking for things, I'm also looking for the original mono 45 mix of "This Time Tomorrow." All I have is the later stereo one that circulates.)

"Only My Friend" is a track that went unreleased in its day but turned up on YouTube decades later. The song was also released by the Chiffons as the B-Side to "A Love So Fine" in 1963 but unlike "Only My Friend," it uses a completely different backing track. Finally, this set concludes with the demo version of "This Time Tomorrow." It doesn't sound like it features Carroll on vocals, but I included it anyway just because.

We'll conclude this post with some words about teens and psychology, since Carroll is probably the only former teen singer to hold a Ph.D. in that field.

Recently, USA Today reported on a new study conducted by San Diego State University psychology professor Jean Twenge about how today's teens are taking longer to grow. Twenge also penned a book, "iGen," which looks deeper into the concept of "18 being the new 15" and the societal ramifications of that.

What makes this relevant for Carroll -- or Dr. Hill, as she's now known -- is that the theme of "It Hurts To Be Sixteen" has now come full circle. In the early '60s, its lyric about being allowed to date as a teenager clearly resonated with the public. But by the time of the "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" generation came of age in the '80s, the song seemed laughably quaint and old-fashioned.

Well, everything old is new again, as they say. And according to Twenge, teens are now putting off both dating and sex until they're older.

Some of this is due to the "helicopter parents" of today who got that nickname because they're always hovering around their kids' lives. The idea of parents being more than a little involved with their teenage children was something that would have been a complete embarrassment to teens from the "Ferris Bueller" era.

Back then, my folks had no friggin idea what I was up to when they'd leave me home alone and go on trips to New York and Florida. Actually, that's not quite true. They had a pretty good idea because they'd always warn me to "use protection!" when they left me and my girlfriend to engage in more teenage sex and nudity than John Hughes could have ever imagined.

But today's teens, it seems, don't live lives ripped from the scripts of "Risky Business" or "Fast Times." So maybe, somewhere, there's a teenage girl bemoaning her folks' ban on dating and finding a reflection of her life when she Googles her troubles and the half-century-old "It Hurts To Be Sixteen" comes up as a search result. If the song doesn't ease her mind, perhaps Dr. Hill might be able to help -- since she's definitely familiar with that whole scenario.