Lollipop (1950s pop song)
Encyclopedia
"Lollipop" is a pop
song written by Julius Dixson
and Beverly Ross in 1958 for the duo Ronald & Ruby
, which was covered most successfully by The Chordettes
. Dixson's name is sometimes spelled Dixon.
The song is a firm favorite amongst many performing barbershop music
.
got hold of it and Dixson, who owned the master and had produced the demo, agreed to let them release it. Ronald and Ruby's version rose up the chart reaching #20 but when it was learned they were an interracial duo (as were the songwriters Dixson and Ross), television appearances that had been previously booked were canceled and interest in the song waned.
whose version reached #2 and #3 on the Billboard pop and R&B charts, respectively. The song became a worldwide hit. The Chordettes' version reached #6 in the UK, where there was also a cover version by The Mudlarks
which made #2. Westlife
in 2000s.
The Argentinian band Viuda e Hijas de Roque Enroll had a hit in the mid 1980s using interpolations of the two most popular "Lollipop" songs: the Dixson and Ross version, and "My Boy Lollipop
". Samples of the original Ronald and Ruby version were also used.
The song was also covered by Steven Seagal
for his album Songs from the Crystal Cave
and by children's entertainers Sharon, Lois & Bram
, on their 1995 album Let's Dance!
.
Squeak E. Clean & Desert Eagles covered and remixed the song for the film Whip It.
Kenny Loggins
covered it on his 2009 album All Join In
.
(1986), Harrison Bergeron
(1995), Chicken Little
(2005), and Whip It (2009). It was also used in an episode of the American drama CSI
, as well as Cheers
and Scrubs
.
On the TV sitcom Cheers
, Norm and Cliff sing their own rendition of the song, after sucking helium to give themselves a higher sounding voice.
In The Simpsons
episode "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase
", in the "Simpson Family Smile-Time Variety Hour" sketch, Jasper tries to sing "Lollipop", but when he tries to do the pop sound effect, his teeth fall out.
In a 1977 episode of Happy Days
entitled "Time Capsule", the gang is accidentally locked in a vault and Potsie sings "Lollipop" to try to cheer everyone up.
The 2005 video game Stubbs the Zombie uses a version of the song by Ben Kweller
. It was also remixed by Junkie XL for the popular game Destroy All Humans.
An episode of Cold Case on CBS began with the song.
The song was the signature song of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation show Lollipop, airing from 1989 and presented by Rune Larsen
.
In 2009, factory workers sing the song on a Dell
computer commercial.
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
song written by Julius Dixson
Julius Dixson
Julius Edward Dixson was an African-American songwriter and record company executive.-Life and work:...
and Beverly Ross in 1958 for the duo Ronald & Ruby
Ronald & Ruby
Ronald & Ruby were an American interracial pop vocal duo, best known for their 1958 hit single "Lollipop".The duo's members were the black Ronald Gumm and the white Beverly "Ruby" Ross; interracial pop groups were a rarity at this time, and the group did not appear in public or in major press and...
, which was covered most successfully by The Chordettes
The Chordettes
The Chordettes were a female popular singing quartet, usually singing a cappella, and specializing in traditional popular music. The Chordettes were one of the longest lived vocal groups with beginnings in the mainstream pop and vocal harmonies of the 1940s and early 1950s...
. Dixson's name is sometimes spelled Dixon.
The song is a firm favorite amongst many performing barbershop music
Barbershop music
Barbershop vocal harmony, as codified during the barbershop revival era , is a style of a cappella, or unaccompanied vocal music characterized by consonant four-part chords for every melody note in a predominantly homophonic texture...
.
Origins
The recording duo Ronald & Ruby comprised Ronald Gumps, and songwriter Beverly Ross. The recording was originally a demo disc but RCARCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
got hold of it and Dixson, who owned the master and had produced the demo, agreed to let them release it. Ronald and Ruby's version rose up the chart reaching #20 but when it was learned they were an interracial duo (as were the songwriters Dixson and Ross), television appearances that had been previously booked were canceled and interest in the song waned.
Cover versions
"Lollipop" was then covered in the United States by female vocal quartet The ChordettesThe Chordettes
The Chordettes were a female popular singing quartet, usually singing a cappella, and specializing in traditional popular music. The Chordettes were one of the longest lived vocal groups with beginnings in the mainstream pop and vocal harmonies of the 1940s and early 1950s...
whose version reached #2 and #3 on the Billboard pop and R&B charts, respectively. The song became a worldwide hit. The Chordettes' version reached #6 in the UK, where there was also a cover version by The Mudlarks
The Mudlarks
The Mudlarks were an English pop vocal group of the late 1950s and early 1960s. They had two Top 10 UK hit singles in 1958.-Career:They were a family group from Luton, Bedfordshire, originally comprising Jeff Mudd , Fred Mudd , and Mary Mudd...
which made #2. Westlife
Westlife
Westlife are an Irish boy band established on 3 July 1998. They are to disband in 2012. The group's line-up was Nicky Byrne, Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Shane Filan, and Brian McFadden . The group are the only act in British and Irish history to have their first seven singles peak at number one...
in 2000s.
The Argentinian band Viuda e Hijas de Roque Enroll had a hit in the mid 1980s using interpolations of the two most popular "Lollipop" songs: the Dixson and Ross version, and "My Boy Lollipop
My Boy Lollipop
"My Boy Lollipop" is a song written in the mid-1950s by Robert Spencer of the doo-wop group The Cadillacs, and usually credited to Spencer, Morris Levy, and Johnny Roberts. It was first recorded in New York in 1956 by Barbie Gaye...
". Samples of the original Ronald and Ruby version were also used.
The song was also covered by Steven Seagal
Steven Seagal
Steven Frederic Seagal is an American action film star, producer, writer, martial artist, guitarist and reserve deputy sheriff. A 7th-dan black belt in Aikido, Seagal began his adult life as an Aikido instructor in Japan...
for his album Songs from the Crystal Cave
Songs from the Crystal Cave
Songs from the Crystal Cave is a 2005 album by Steven Seagal, his first. Seagal is credited with "Lead Vocals, Rhythm and Lead Guitar" and appears on the cover and throughout the liner notes emotively playing and posing with a guitar...
and by children's entertainers Sharon, Lois & Bram
Sharon, Lois & Bram
Sharon, Lois & Bram is the name of a Canadian children's musical trio composed of Sharon Hampson , Lois Ada Lilienstein , and Bramwell "Bram" Morrison .-Group formation:Sharon Hampson, Lois Lillenstein, and Bram Morrison began their singing...
, on their 1995 album Let's Dance!
Let's Dance!
Let's Dance! is the seventeenth album by popular children's entertainers Sharon, Lois & Bram, originally released in the fall of 1995. This was the first Sharon, Lois & Bram album to feature a different repretoire of carefully selected pop tunes spanning over four decades of music from the 40s to...
.
Squeak E. Clean & Desert Eagles covered and remixed the song for the film Whip It.
Kenny Loggins
Kenny Loggins
During the next decade, Loggins recorded so many successful songs for film soundtracks that he was referred to as, King of the Movie Soundtrack.He began with "I'm Alright" , "Mr. Night", and "Lead the Way" from Caddyshack...
covered it on his 2009 album All Join In
All Join In
All Join In is the thirteenth studio album and third childrens album by Kenny Loggins.The first Kenny Loggins childrens album to be released by Walt Disney Records in 2009.His previous childrens albums Return to Pooh Corner was released by Columbia Records/Sony Wonder and More Songs From Pooh...
.
In popular culture
The song was used in the movies Crazy Mama (1976), Eskimo Limon (1978), Shifshuf Naim (1981), Stand by MeStand by Me (film)
Stand by Me is a 1986 American drama film directed by Rob Reiner. Based on the novella The Body by Stephen King, the film takes its title from the Ben E. King song of the same name, which plays over the end credits.-Plot:...
(1986), Harrison Bergeron
Harrison Bergeron (film)
Harrison Bergeron is a 1995 cable television movie film loosely adapted from Kurt Vonnegut's 1961 short story of the same name. It was produced for Showtime, and first screened on August 13, 1995.-Premise:...
(1995), Chicken Little
Chicken Little (2005 film)
Chicken Little is a 2005 computer-animated science fiction family comedy film loosely based on the fable The Sky Is Falling. It was the 46th animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation...
(2005), and Whip It (2009). It was also used in an episode of the American drama CSI
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
, as well as Cheers
Cheers
Cheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...
and Scrubs
Scrubs (TV series)
Scrubs is an American medical comedy-drama television series created in 2001 by Bill Lawrence and produced by ABC Studios. The show follows the lives of several employees of the fictional Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital. It features fast-paced screenplay, slapstick, and surreal vignettes...
.
On the TV sitcom Cheers
Cheers
Cheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...
, Norm and Cliff sing their own rendition of the song, after sucking helium to give themselves a higher sounding voice.
In The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
episode "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase
The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase
"The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase" is the twenty-fourth episode of the eighth season of The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 11, 1997. The episode centers on fictional pilot episodes of non-existent television series derived from The Simpsons, and is a...
", in the "Simpson Family Smile-Time Variety Hour" sketch, Jasper tries to sing "Lollipop", but when he tries to do the pop sound effect, his teeth fall out.
In a 1977 episode of Happy Days
Happy Days
Happy Days is an American television sitcom that originally aired from January 15, 1974, to September 24, 1984, on ABC. Created by Garry Marshall, the series presents an idealized vision of life in mid-1950s to mid-1960s America....
entitled "Time Capsule", the gang is accidentally locked in a vault and Potsie sings "Lollipop" to try to cheer everyone up.
The 2005 video game Stubbs the Zombie uses a version of the song by Ben Kweller
Ben Kweller
Ben Kweller is an American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.-Early life:Ben Kweller was born in San Francisco, CA in 1981. In 1982, his family relocated to Emory, Texas, where his father, Howard Kweller, became the town's first doctor. In 1986, the Kwellers moved to a much larger city,...
. It was also remixed by Junkie XL for the popular game Destroy All Humans.
An episode of Cold Case on CBS began with the song.
The song was the signature song of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation show Lollipop, airing from 1989 and presented by Rune Larsen
Rune Larsen
Rune Larsen is a Norwegian journalist, singer, musician, record producer and television presenter.He was born in Bergen. He made his stage debut in 1957, and his television debut in 1964. By that time he had already played with two bands, The White Shirts and The Black Diamonds, and rejected a...
.
In 2009, factory workers sing the song on a Dell
Dell
Dell, Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest...
computer commercial.