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"Why Do Fools Fall in Love" is a song that was originally a hit for early New York City-based rock and roll group Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers in 1956. It reached No. 1 on the R&B chart, No. 6 on Billboard's Pop Singles chart, and number one on the UK Singles Chart. The song was ranked #307 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The song helped to make Frankie Lymon a household name and would make him a rock and roll pioneer.
In late 1955, The Teenagers (at that time calling themselves The Premiers) auditioned a song called "Why do Birds Sing So Gay?" for George Goldner, recording producer and owner of Gee Records. Jimmy Merchant, tenor of the group, had written the song based on a line from some love letters given to the guys by a tenant in bassist, Sherman Garnes', apartment building. One of them featured the words "Why do birds sing so gay?," which fit in with lyrics of other songs that Jimmy had been writing based on a 1-6-2-5 chord pattern. So Jimmy worked with it, creating a song for Herman Santiago to lead, and adjusting the harmony to take advantage of Frankie Lymon's high tenor/soprano. Along the way, Herman changed some of the lyrics. During the audition Frankie's voice stood out and, at Goldner's suggestion, the lead in subsequent recording sessions was given to Frankie. Frankie did some improvising and re-created the melody to match his own style. According to Jimmy Merchant, what happened at the recording session was a combination of "Frankie's singing ability coupled with George Goldner's special ability to bring out the best in Frankie."
Although early vinyl single releases of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" credit Frankie Lymon, Herman Santiago, and George Goldner as co-writers of the song, later releases and cover versions were attributed only to Lymon and record producer George Goldner. Goldner's name was later replaced by Morris Levy when Levy bought Goldner's interest in Gee Records, the Teenagers' record company.
After a lengthy court battle, song-writing credits were awarded to original Teenagers members Herman Santiago and Jimmy Merchant in December 1992.
However, four years later in 1996, this ruling was overturned by the Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit under the statute of limitations and authorship, because Santiago and Merchant did not bring the case to court soon enough. This gave the song rights back to Lymon and Levy. The current publisher of the song is EMI Music Publishing, which still lists these as the songwriters.
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"Why Do Fools Fall in Love" is a song that was originally a hit for early New York City-based rock and roll group Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers in 1956. It reached No. 1 on the R&B chart, No. 6 on Billboard's Pop Singles chart, and number one on the UK Singles Chart. The song was ranked #307 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The song helped to make Frankie Lymon a household name and would make him a rock and roll pioneer.
In late 1955, The Teenagers (at that time calling themselves The Premiers) auditioned a song called "Why do Birds Sing So Gay?" for George Goldner, recording producer and owner of Gee Records. Jimmy Merchant, tenor of the group, had written the song based on a line from some love letters given to the guys by a tenant in bassist, Sherman Garnes', apartment building. One of them featured the words "Why do birds sing so gay?," which fit in with lyrics of other songs that Jimmy had been writing based on a 1-6-2-5 chord pattern. So Jimmy worked with it, creating a song for Herman Santiago to lead, and adjusting the harmony to take advantage of Frankie Lymon's high tenor/soprano. Along the way, Herman changed some of the lyrics. During the audition Frankie's voice stood out and, at Goldner's suggestion, the lead in subsequent recording sessions was given to Frankie. Frankie did some improvising and re-created the melody to match his own style. According to Jimmy Merchant, what happened at the recording session was a combination of "Frankie's singing ability coupled with George Goldner's special ability to bring out the best in Frankie."
Although early vinyl single releases of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" credit Frankie Lymon, Herman Santiago, and George Goldner as co-writers of the song, later releases and cover versions were attributed only to Lymon and record producer George Goldner. Goldner's name was later replaced by Morris Levy when Levy bought Goldner's interest in Gee Records, the Teenagers' record company.
After a lengthy court battle, song-writing credits were awarded to original Teenagers members Herman Santiago and Jimmy Merchant in December 1992.
However, four years later in 1996, this ruling was overturned by the Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit under the statute of limitations and authorship, because Santiago and Merchant did not bring the case to court soon enough. This gave the song rights back to Lymon and Levy. The current publisher of the song is EMI Music Publishing, which still lists these as the songwriters.
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