In 1963, doo-wop group, Randy and the Rainbows, enjoyed a Number 10 hit on the US Billboard Singles Chart with Denise. It failed to chart in the UK, though 15 years later, Blondie flipped the genders and scored a Number 2 hit on the UK Singles Chart with Denis, which in a neat reversal failed to chart in the US.
Having enjoyed a hit just at the point when doo-wop was beginning to shift from commercial hot-property to a nostalgia fad, Randy and the Rainbows were faced with tricky decisions over what to do with the follow-up single. In the event, they took the most sensible course of action and reused the Denise melody with fresh lyrics. The result was Why Do Kids Grow Up? Unfortunately, the record buyers of America weren’t interested in buying the same record twice and it stalled at Number 97. The tune is reused, though the lyrics explore one of the obsessions of late 1950s/early 1960s US pop - what could best be described as Wow! That Little Girl I Remember Is All Grown Up Now and How! - in a slightly more philosophical vein than other examples like Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen did. Here, the rite of childhood is seen as a preparation for falling in love with all the attendant thrills and upheavals that that brings. In the wrong hands, this could end up sounding like a Giles Coren article set to music, but in the event it manages to be a successful riff on the notion of childhood relationships, puberty and as a doo-wop version of Circle of Life, 30 years in advance.
Video courtesy of ELTOHOF.
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