" Hushabye" is a song that was written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman in 1959 for the Brooklyn doo-wop quintet the Mystics.[
] The group's recording of the song was a Top 20 hit.
Background
In the spring of 1959, the Mystics recorded the modern South African folk song "Wimoweh" to serve as their debut release on
Laurie Records. After Laurie shelved the track as lacking hit potential – the song would in fact become a 1961 #1 hit for
the Tokens as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" – the Mystics were set to record the
Doc Pomus/
Mort Shuman composition "Teenager in Love". According to Al Contrera of the Mystics, the day after the Mystics had first heard "Teenager in Love", Laurie Records president Gene Schwarz advised the group that "their song" would instead be given to Dion & the Belmonts who had recorded three Top 40 hits, Schwarz's position being that "Teenager in Love"'s potential to be a smash hit was more likely to be realized via a recording by an established act. ("Teenager in Love" as recorded by Dion & the Belmonts would indeed rise as high as #5 on the
Billboard Hot 100.)
(Al Contrera quote:)"We were very disappointed. And Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman were disappointed too, because they wrote 'Teenager specifically for us. So Doc says: 'We’re gonna write another song for you.'
...And Gene Schwartz said to Doc and Morty: 'Could you write something in the flavor of "Little Star" by
the Elegants?'”.
"Little Star", a #1 hit in the summer of 1958, had been an uptempo song built around lines from the
nursery rhyme "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star": with "Hushabye", Pomus and Shuman accommodated Schwarz's request by similarly building the song from the opening lines of the traditional
lullaby entitled ""Hush-a-bye".
Personnel on the recording session for the Mystics' "Hushabye" included Al Caiola and Bucky Pizzarelli on guitars and Panama Francis on drums. Released in April 1959, the record would spend sixteen weeks on Billboard Hot 100 (nine of those in the top 40), peaking at #20.
The Beach Boys version
Overview
"Hushabye" was covered by the Beach Boys on their 1964 album
All Summer Long, featuring
Brian Wilson and
Mike Love on lead vocals. In 1993, two new versions of the song appeared on the Beach Boys'
box set, one live version and the other a split track with vocals in one channel and instruments in the other.
Personnel
Partially sourced from Craig Slowinski.
The Beach Boys
Additional musicians
Other versions
In 1969, Jay and the Americans released a version that reached #62 on the
Billboard Hot 100 (lead vocalist Jay Traynor had been a latterday member of the Mystics) and #42 in Canada.
also reached #99 on the
Billboard Hot 100 in 1972.
See also
-
List of 1950s one-hit wonders in the United States
External links
