LITTLE PEGGY MARCH is still recording

Amongst my old 45s I found this by Little Peggy March. I bought it for "I Will Follow Him." It had a good beat and it was easy to dance to. I recall dancing to it at my 8th grade "graduation" party at a swim club. There was some dance at the time where you did a walk forward, pivot 180, then walk back to where you started. The person you were dancing with did the same moves towards you. So in unison you were dancing towards each other in a sort of stalking manner. One person always had their back to the other. I don't know if this dance had a name. I doubt it. I remember they did it on Bandstand and at all the dances in the cafeteria during lunch breaks.

Anyway, I bought this record on a day trip to San Francisco with my mother. We took the bus to the city and I remember walking into Woolworths and hearing "I Will Follow Him" playing. I HAD to have it. As I was buying it they started playing Little Stevie Wonder's "Fingertips." Yeah, I know...I should have bought "Fingertips" instead because that was some mean harmonica playing. Let's just call this my Little Pony moment. It was girlish and pubescent and it was pre-Beatles and Stones. It was the days of records by Shelly Fabares, Lesley Gore, and even Paul Peterson. (If you don't recognize these names think the Donna Reed Show and It's My Party.)

The sad thing is that there are no versions online of "I Will Follow Him" to hear. Well, there probably is at iTunes, but all youtube videos have been removed because of copyright infringement.

I did find "I Wish I Were a Princess" at youtube. This song was in the original John Water's Hairspray.

So if you were born after the early 60s you probably have no idea who Little Peggy March is. I say "is" because she's still alive and still recording.

From Wikipedia:

Peggy March (born Margaret Annemarie Battavio, March 8, 1948, Lansdale, Pennsylvania is an American pop singer. She is primarily remembered for her 1963 million-selling song "I Will Follow Him"

She was discovered at age thirteen singing at her cousin's wedding and was introduced to the record producer partnership Hugo & Luigi. They gave her the nickname Little Peggy March because she was only 4 ft 9 in (1.45 m) in height, she was only thirteen, the first record she did with them was "Little Me", and her birthdate was in the month of March.

On April 24, 1963, her single "I Will Follow Him" soared to number one on the U.S. charts. Recorded in early January 1963 and released January 22, March was only 14 at the time. March became the youngest female artist with a number one hit, a record that still stands for the Billboard Hot 100. The recording also took the number one spot in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan, and Scandinavia. It was a translation of the French song "Chariot" recorded a year earlier by Petula Clark.

March's success also came with financial trouble. She was a minor and the Coogan Law prevented her parents from managing her money. The responsibility was placed on her manager, Russell Smith. It was discovered in 1966 that he had squandered the fortune away, leaving her with $500. Peggy graduated from Lansdale Catholic High School in 1966. She soon had a new manager, Arnie Harris, who later on became her husband. They had one daughter, Sande, born in 1974.

Although she is remembered by some as a one-hit wonder, her singles "I Wish I Were a Princess" and "Hello Heartache, Goodbye Love" made the Top 30 in the United States, with the latter also reaching #29 on the UK Singles Chart. She recorded 18 singles for RCA between 1964 and 1971 and several albums as well, none of which charted in any serious way in the United States. She began making a strong presence in the European and Asian music markets, and she moved to Germany in 1969. Her commercial success in Germany continued through much of the 1970s and she also tried her luck in representing Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1969, only to be placed second in the national final with the song "Hey! Das ist Musik für Dich". March made another Eurovision attempt in 1975, when she performed the Ralph Siegel composition "Alles geht vorüber" in the German national contest. Again she was placed second. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

To see what Peggy March is doing these days go to her website: http://www.peggymarch.net/

UPDATE: Thank you Anonymous!