3/12/11

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.

Little Peggy March_tatteredandlost

Little Peggy March_bk_tatteredandlost

I Wish I Were a Princess_tatteredandlost

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!

11 comments:

  1. Try Pandora Radio on the web. I listen to 30s,40s and 50s tunes, but I'm sure you'll find it. ;o)

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  2. Anonymous3/12/2011

    They didn't get them all removed :)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JVhbusBDi4

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  3. Until I heard the song at the end, I'd have said I didn't know it. Wrong! I was at art college in 1963, and more into Trad Jazz and Acker Bilk, but I do remember the song, even though it wasn't one of my favourites. Ah,me ! memories! :)

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  4. Just listened to the link - wonderful! Same era as one of my favourites - Rhythm of the Rain by the Cascades. Oh joy!

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  5. Fun stuff. I remember the days of Bobby Rydell and Ricky Nelson, before the British invasion. I loved I Will Follow Him when I was a kid, too!

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  6. Little Peggy Marsh didn't make it over to the UK or at least not to my knowledge. Those singles were such fun though. I have my 'Matthew & Son' by Cat Stevens which was the first record I bought. I have to say it stands the test of time and also has quite a political message which pleases me no end!!

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  7. This did have an appeal to me during it's heyday, more as a nascent music producer because I loved the SOUND of the record as much or more than the song.
    As stated in the article, she did have a second ( and third) chapter to her career after initially 'disappearing'; I've noticed many postings of her foreign language hits (mostly German as noted ...there's even German and French and Italian versions of 'I Will Follow Him' if I'm not mistaken) usually on Dutch or German Music Blogs or the Usenet. You'd have to be way more than just a casual music fan to have traced her career (which reminds me a lot of Connie Francis in it's longevity).

    Obviously, the SONG has had a revival, thanks to the use in Whoopi Goldberg's movie 'Sister Act' where it is transformed to a gospel-like rouser that's sung by nuns to the POPE (!) in the climactic finale. I'm sure that Peggy March was as surprised as anyone else to see it revived.

    Non sure, but I think it was written by those famous rippoff con-artists Hugo & Luigi, producers from the late 50s-early 60s for RCA & Roulette Records legally responsible for putting their names on an original song by Solomon Linda from South Africa called 'Mbube' (a/k/a 'Wimoweh') and calling it "The Lion Sleeps Tonight' and then reaping untold wealth for 40+ years from it's continued success as a copyright (first by the Tokens, then Robert John, several others and especially in the Lion King) until a suit in the early 21st century FINALLY brought some royalties to Solomon Linda's descendents.

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  8. Oops! BTW, forgot to mentioned, I loved seeing both sides of the EP; I don't think I've EVER seen that one in all my years (50+) of collecting and working in record stores (new & used). Is THAT scan from YOUR original copy? Pretty cool if it is!

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  9. Indeed the back is a scan of the EP. And yes, Hugo & Luigi have their logo on the actual record too. Click on the image of the record and you'll see they are credited with writing "...Princess."

    Thanks for the info about the song.

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  10. Anonymous3/18/2014

    www.peggymarch.info

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