AUTHOR: Paul Evans
PUBLISHER: McNidder And Grace
"Seven little girls sitting
in the back seat (kissing and a-hugging with Fred)"... Remembering this
catchy little tune takes me back to my youth in the late 1950s, when I’d
listen to it on our wireless in the living room of our terraced house, with the
coal fire blazing in the hearth. Happy
times, the innocence of that time captured in the lyrics of Paul Evans’s hit which
charted at number 9 in the US pop charts. It was covered by The Avons, a British pop trio and it reached number 3
in the UK Singles Chart, remaining there for thirteen weeks, so maybe it was
their version I had listened to (?).
Paul Evans’s brief period of
recording spanned from the late '50s to the early '60s mainly with novelty
tunes, with three of them making the Top 20 before he all-but-disappeared from
the music-buying public’s attention with the exception of various hits on the
Country UK charts some years' later in the 1970s. He put his energy into songwriting instead
and was the writer of the very successful Bobby Vinton hit, “Roses Are Red (My
Love)” and many more.
This book's title takes its name
from Evans’s CD, "Happy-Go-Lucky Me" which entered Billboard’s Hot Top
100 chart at number 99 in April 1960, after which it peaked at number 10 for
one week and spent fourteen weeks in the charts.
He had three other records make
the Top 100 chart; "Seven Little Girls Sitting In The Back Seat" (No
9 in 1959), "Midnite Special" (No 16 in 1960), and "The Brigade Of Broken Hearts" (No 81 in 1960).
Evans was born on March 5th, 1938
in New York, USA. His songs have been featured in films such as Martin Scorsese’s ‘Goodfellas’ and
John Waters’s ‘Pecker’; TV shows ‘Scrubs’, the ‘Hulu’ series plus TV ads; the
1965 Clio-winning Kent commercial “Happiness Is” and campaigns for UK’s
Sainsbury’s and France’s Intermarché supermarkets. He also wrote an off-off
Broadway show ‘Cloverleaf Crisis’ and the theme for the original network
television show CBS This Morning.
Evans has produced music tracks
for recordings, industrials, jingles and television. He has also soloed and
sung in groups on many commercial jingles and has been seen and heard on The
Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O’Brien. His voice can
be heard in the Woody Allen films ‘Mighty Aphrodite’ and ‘Everyone Says I Love
You’. He was also a member of the world-travelling Jazz quintet, Group Five.
This autobiography contains
memories about Evans’s multi-talented musical family along with photographs of
him in his youth and during his musical career. He lists his musical heroes as Roy Orbison, Eddie Fisher and Frank Sinatra. He was one of the first young writers to work
in the Bill Building on Tin Pan Alley from where he did his first demos. This
is also where he was encouraged to change his name from Paul Lyle Rapport to
Paul Evans. He has enjoyed sixty-three music-filled years and this is his first
memoire.
The book is a tribute to the eras of the 1950’s
and '60’s, and Evans recalls his love of the Big Bands of the Swing Era such as
the Benny Goodman Orchestra, Glenn Miller and Jimmy Dorsey. It will warm the
heart of any readers who were discovering their love of the Big Bands during
that time.
Evans proudly recollects that
Elvis Presley recorded four of his songs and Cliff Richard recorded another. At
the time of Presley’s death on August 16, 1977, two of Evans’s songs ‘Quiet
Desperation’ and ‘Tender Moments’ (co-written with Paul Parnes) were in the
pipeline, ready for recording when Presley sadly passed away. Evans has enjoyed
more recent success with compilation record albums.
He cites that during his
lifetime, he’s been a soloist, group singer, pop and country music songwriter,
pop singer, country singer, jazz singer, demo singer, jingle producer, writer and singer,
off-Broadway show writer, television performer, stage performer, ship singer,
headliner and a film background performer. He began his book-writing career in March 2020, the year of the COVID-19
virus and reveals that writing ‘Happy Go Lucky Me’ probably saved his sanity
and perhaps his marriage.
The resulting autobiography is a
joy to read and a revelation of musical facts and personal anecdotes.
If, like me you were a child of
the 1950s, you will enjoy the musical references and relish the personal
disclosures of a man whose life has been jam-packed with musical challenges, failures
and disappointments, as well as successes. His life has been filled with music;
a musical trip that started at home with a musical family, encouraging friends,
a little talent and a little luck. It’s been as he says, “A life well
lived”.
The book includes a Paul Evans Discography and a list of his songs recorded by other artistes.
No comments:
Post a Comment