Stupid Cupid

Last updated
"Stupid Cupid"
KGrHqRHJC4E7BcvhWyTBOzPkTMS4Q60 12.JPG
Cover for the Neil Sedaka version (Italy, 1959)
Single by Neil Sedaka
Released1959 (Italy)
Genre Brill Building [1]
Length2:16
Label RCA Italiana
Songwriter(s) Howard Greenfield, Neil Sedaka
"Stupid Cupid"
Single by Connie Francis
B-side "Carolina Moon"
ReleasedJune 1958
Recorded1958
Genre Pop
Length2:14
Label MGM Records
Songwriter(s) Howard Greenfield, Neil Sedaka
Connie Francis singles chronology
"Heartaches"
(1958)
"Stupid Cupid"
(1958)
"Fallin'"
(1958)

"Stupid Cupid" is a song written by Howard Greenfield and Neil Sedaka which became a hit for Connie Francis in 1958.

Contents

Recording history

After almost three years of failure, Connie Francis finally had a hit in the spring of 1958 with a rock ballad version of the standard "Who's Sorry Now?" Unfortunately, her next pair of singles were less successful. I'm Sorry I Made You Cry only reached #36 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Heartaches failed to chart at all. Francis recalls: "I knew I had to come up with a hit on the third record. It was crucial. I listened to every publisher's song in New York, but nothing was hitting me." [2] Eventually Don Kirshner of Aldon Music had Greenfield and Sedaka, who were staff writers for Aldon, visit Francis at her home to pitch their songs, but she and close friend Bobby Darin argued that the slow, dense ballads they were offering didn't appeal to the teenager market. Francis asked if they had something faster and bouncier. Greenfield asked Sedaka to play "Stupid Cupid", an uptempo number intended for the Shepherd Sisters. Sedaka objected that Francis, a "classy lady," would be insulted to be pitched such a puerile song; but Greenfield dismissed Sedaka's objection, saying, "What have we got to lose, she hates everything we wrote, doesn't she? Play it already!" After hearing only a few lines Francis recalls: "I started jumping up and down and I said, 'That's it! You guys got my next record!'" [3]

Francis cut "Stupid Cupid" on 18 June 1958 at Metropolitan Studio (NYC); LeRoy Holmes conducted the orchestra while Morty Kraft produced the session. Noteworthy in the recording is the uncredited bass guitar work; a complex and energetic riff that has survived the decades and has proven to be one of early rock and roll's best recorded bass guitar sessions. A version of "Carolina Moon" recorded at Metropolitan Studio that 9 June with Kraft producing and Joe Lipman conducting was utilized as the B-side. "Stupid Cupid" provided a reasonably strong comeback vehicle for Francis reaching the Top 15 that August with a Billboard Hot 100 peak of #14. Francis would have to wait until 1959 to make her return to the Top 10 with "My Happiness".

In the UK Singles Chart Francis had made more chart impact than in the US with both "Who's Sorry Now?" (No. 1) and "I'm Sorry I Made You Cry" (No. 11). This trend continued with "Stupid Cupid" which, as a double sided hit with "Carolina Moon", spent six weeks at No. 1. [4] Francis would remain a potent UK chart force for the next four years with fifteen Top Twenty singles, eight of them Top Ten, but she would never again reach the top of the UK Singles Chart despite topping the US charts three times in the early 1960s.

Neil Sedaka, one of the song's co-writers, recorded his own version in 1959, and it saw a single release in Italy on the RCA Italiana label.

Other versions

Patsy Cline sang the song on stage. The song is featured on her posthumous albums Live Volume 2 and Live at the Cimarron Ballroom .

Maureen Evans made her first known recording with a 1958 cover of "Stupid Cupid"/ "Carolina Moon" cut for the Embassy label which produced soundalike versions of current hits for Woolworths to sell at lower price than the original hit. Queen included "Stupid Cupid" in the rock 'n' roll medleys in their live shows during the 1970s, including the concert released on Live at the Rainbow '74 .

Japanese idol trio Candies covered the song on their 1973 album Abunai Doyōbi: Candies no Sekai .

In 1982, Taiwanese singer Fong Fei-fei released a version of the song which she entitled "Another Kind of Confession" (另一種表白).

"Stupid Cupid" has also been recorded by Wanda Jackson, by Jo Wyatt (of Minipops) whose 1982 version reached #1 in France [5] and #45 in the Netherlands, and by Mandy Moore for The Princess Diaries soundtrack, and in the motion picture, for her character Lana Thomas sings. Danny Mann (de) recorded the German language rendering "Sexie Hexy" in 1958 while the Portuguese rendering: "Estúpido Cupido", recorded by Brazilian singer Celly Campello, was the #1 single in Brazil for the year 1959. Arja Koriseva featured a Finnish rendering of "Stupid Cupid": "Tuttu juttu", on her 1990 self-titled album.

In 2003, Jordan McCoy performed the song on American Juniors .

The song was included in the Korean musical drama What's Up!, released in 2011. Kim Ji-won's character Park Tae Yi performed the song as she told Lim Ju-hwan's character the story of how her parents met. The song recurs several times more throughout the remainder of the episodes.

The song is also a part of North America's version of Donkey Konga , released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2003-2004.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Connie Francis</span> American pop singer and actress (born 1937)

Connie Francis is an American pop singer, actress, and top-charting female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1960s. She is estimated to have sold more than 100 million records worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neil Sedaka</span> American singer and songwriter (born 1939)

Neil Sedaka is an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Since his music career began in 1957, he has sold millions of records worldwide and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and other artists, collaborating mostly with lyricists Howard "Howie" Greenfield and Phil Cody.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howard Greenfield</span> American lyricist and songwriter

Howard Greenfield was an American lyricist and songwriter, who for several years in the 1960s worked out of the famous Brill Building. He is best known for his successful songwriting collaborations, including one with Neil Sedaka from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s, and near-simultaneous songwriting partnerships with Jack Keller and Helen Miller throughout most of the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Keller (songwriter)</span> American composer, songwriter and record producer (1936-2005)

Jack Walter Keller was an American composer, songwriter and record producer. He co-wrote, with Howard Greenfield and others, several pop hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including "Just Between You and Me", "Everybody's Somebody's Fool", "My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own", "Venus in Blue Jeans" and "Run to Him". He also wrote the theme songs for TV series including Bewitched and Gidget, and later worked in Los Angeles – where he wrote for, and produced, The Monkees – and in Nashville.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Who's Sorry Now? (song)</span> 1923 song by Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby and Ted Snyder

"Who's Sorry Now?" is a popular song with music written by Ted Snyder and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. It was published in 1923, when Isham Jones had a major hit with it. Other popular versions in 1923 were by Marion Harris, Original Memphis Five, Lewis James, and Irving Kaufman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen</span> 1961 single by Neil Sedaka

"Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen" is a pop song released in 1961 by Neil Sedaka. Sedaka wrote the music and performed the song, while the lyrics were written by Howard Greenfield. The song is noted for being similar in musical structure to Take Good Care of My Baby by Bobby Vee, and additionally for its resemblance to the melody of the Chiffons' subsequent 1963 hit "One Fine Day". Both of these songs exhibiting similarity to "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen" were penned by the team of Carole King and Gerry Goffin. The song reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 3 on the UK Singles Chart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Everybody's Somebody's Fool</span> 1960 No. 1 hit song for Connie Francis

"Everybody's Somebody's Fool" is a song written by Jack Keller and Howard Greenfield that was a No. 1 hit for Connie Francis in 1960. A polka-style version in German, "Die Liebe ist ein seltsames Spiel", was the first German single recorded and released by Connie Francis, and it reached No. 1 on the single chart in 1960 in West Germany.

"Follow the Boys" is a 1963 romantic ballad written to serve as the theme song for the 1963 comedy film of the same name: the song was introduced in the film by its top billed star: Connie Francis, for whom "Follow the Boys" was a Top 20 hit single.

"Carolina Moon" is a popular song, written by Joe Burke and Benny Davis. Written in 1924, the song was first recorded in 1928 by American crooner Gene Austin whose version charted for 14 weeks, seven of them at #1.

"Breakin' in a Brand New Broken Heart" is a popular song written by Howard Greenfield and Jack Keller.

"If My Pillow Could Talk" was written by Jimmy Steward, Jr. of the Ravens and Bob Mosley, and was a hit single for Connie Francis.

"Fallin'" is a song written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, that was recorded by Connie Francis on 2 September 1958 at Metropolitan Studio (NYC) in a session produced by Morton "Morty" Kraft who also conducted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lipstick on Your Collar (song)</span> 1959 single by Connie Francis

"Lipstick on Your Collar" is a song written by Brill Building staff writers Edna Lewis (lyrics) and George Goehring (music) which was a 1959 hit single for Connie Francis.

"The Diary" is a song by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield. It was released in 1958 as Sedaka's debut single.

<i>Rock with Sedaka</i>

Rock with Neil Sedaka or just Neil Sedaka is the first major solo album of Neil Sedaka released in 1959 after two 1958 albums under the titles Neil Sedaka and The Tokens and Neil Sedaka and The Tokens and Coins. The album was released by RCA Victor and was produced by Al Nevins. The album contains 12 songs, all of them co-written by Sedaka and his friend Howard Greenfield. Two of the songs became successful singles for Sedaka from the album, namely "The Diary", his debut single that was a hit, reaching No. 14 on the US Billboard charts, and "I Go Ape", a single that was relatively successful in the United States reaching No. 42, but did far better in the UK Singles Chart, making it up to No. 9 and his debut single in the United Kingdom.

<i>Neil Sedaka Sings Little Devil and His Other Hits</i> 1961 studio album by Neil Sedaka

Neil Sedaka Sings Little Devil and His Other Hits is a solo album by Neil Sedaka released in 1961 immediately after the cover versions of earlier hits in Circulate.

<i>My Thanks to You</i> 1959 studio album by Connie Francis

My Thanks to You is a studio album recorded by American entertainer Connie Francis. The album features songs which had been popular on both sides of the Atlantic between the 1920s and the 1940s. It was recorded March 4–6, 1959, at EMI's famous Abbey Road Studios in London.

<i>Whos Sorry Now?</i> (Connie Francis album) 1958 studio album by Connie Francis

Who's Sorry Now? is the first studio album recorded by U. S. Entertainer Connie Francis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Where the Boys Are (Connie Francis song)</span> 1961 single by Connie Francis

"Where the Boys Are" is a song written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield for, and first recorded by, Connie Francis as the title track of the 1960 movie by the same name in which she was co-starring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Our Last Song Together</span> 1973 single by Neil Sedaka

"Our Last Song Together" is a 1973 song recorded by Neil Sedaka. It is a track from his LP The Tra-La Days Are Over, and was the third of four single releases from the album.

References

  1. Fontenot, Robert (November 1, 2015). "What is Brill Building Music?". About. Archived from the original on July 7, 2016. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  2. John Donatelli. "Interview with Connie Francis-Part 6". Freewebs.com. Retrieved 2014-04-04.
  3. "Discoveries interview with Connie Francis, part 7". Freewebs.com. Retrieved 2014-04-04.
  4. Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. pp. 89–90. ISBN   1-904994-10-5.
  5. Whatever Happened to the Minipops? Channel 4