Lipstick on Your Collar (song)
| "Lipstick on Your Collar" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Cover of Swedish EP | ||||
| Single by Connie Francis | ||||
| A-side | "Lipstick on Your Collar" | |||
| B-side | "Frankie" | |||
| Released | June 1959 | |||
| Format | 7" single | |||
| Genre | rock and roll | |||
| Length | 2:16 | |||
| Label | MGM Records | |||
| Writer(s) | George Goehring, Edna Lewis | |||
| Producer(s) | Ray Ellis | |||
| Connie Francis singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Lipstick on Your Collar" is a song written by Edna Lewis (lyrics) and George Goehring (music) which was a 1959 hit single for Connie Francis.
Francis recorded the song April 15 1959 in a session at Metropolitan Studio (NYC) produced and conducted by Ray Ellis. Veteran guitarist George Barnes contributed a solo to the track.[1]
To provide a contrasting B-side for the upbeat track, a ballad from the same session: "Frankie", was utilized. This Howard Greenfield/ Neil Sedaka composition was inspired by Frankie Avalon.
"Lipstick on Your Collar" became the first uptempo Connie Francis single to reach the US Top Ten, peaking at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July 1959. That summer the track also reached #3 UK and became Francis' first Top Ten hit in Australia at #4.
"Frankie" also became a Top Ten hit in the US with a #9 peak making the "Lipstick on Your Collar"/ "Frankie" single the most successful double-sided hit of Francis' career.
In a 1959 interview, Francis attributed her being the sole songstress then scoring rock and roll hits by saying: "Rock 'n' roll is a masculine kind of music" with its mindset of "'Come on out baby we're going to rock'..[best] suited for a man to sing...The mistake that many girl singers have made is trying to compete with the men [whereas] I've tried for the cute angle in lyrics, things like 'Lipstick on Your Collar' and 'Stupid Cupid'."[2]
The cover version of "Lipstick on Your Collar" for the UK Embassy Records budget disc label was recorded by Maureen Evans.
"Lipstick on Your Collar" was recorded in German by Conny as "Lippenstift am Jacket" which reached #131 in Germany in April 1960 (the single was a double-sided hit with the Rex Gildo duet "Yes, My Darling"). It was the success of the German version of "Lipstick on Your Collar" that alerted Francis to her potential success singing her singles in other languages: she made her first foreign language recording, that being "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" in German, in April 1960.
A Swedish rendering of "Lipstick on Your Collar" entitled "Läppstift På Din Krage", had been recorded in 1959 by respectively Lill-Babs, Mona Grain (sw) and Bibi Johns (sw). Also in 1959 the Danish rendering "Tusind skøre tanker" had been recorded by Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann while Québécois singer Michèle Richard (fr) had recorded the French rendering "Du rouge à levres sur ton collet". The Italian rendering "Rossetto sul colletto" was recorded by Mina for her 1960 album Il cielo in una stanza.
"Lipstick on Your Collar" was one of several hits remade by Helen Shapiro on her March 10 1962 album release Tops With Me.
In 1963, Hong Kong female singer CHANG loo (zh) covered this song under the title 妒人的口紅" (lipsticks on your collar), in alternate English and Mandarin Chinese language versions, on her LP album An Evening With Chang Loo, a EMI Columbia Records release.
In September 1977 Australian punk rock pioneers the Saints had a single release with their remake of "Lipstick on Your Collar".
The 1981 Elisabeth Andreassen album Angel of the Morning features a cover of "Lipstick on Your Collar".[3] In 1982 Mud recorded the song.
Dana had a 1987 single release with a remake of "Lipstick on Your Collar" which did not chart.
A version under the Welsh language title "Lipstic ar dy Goler" was recorded by violinist Angharad Davies in 1989, and included on her album "Y Ferch o'r Filltir Sgwâr".
In 1991 Dutch duo Maywood remade "Lipstick on Your Collar" for their Walking Back to Happiness album.
"Lipstick on Your Collar" was a favorite song to sing for the young Donna Summer.[4]
Other uses
The song was also used in the off-Broadway musical, "The Marvelous Wonderettes", a revue of 1950s and 1960s songs.
In 1982 Wisk laundry detergent utilized an adaption of "Lipstick on Your Collar" as a jingle in a radio ad campaign celebrating the product's twenty-fifth anniversary; the lyrics for the Wisk jingle version were composed by George Goehring who'd written the original song's music (but not its lyrics).[5]
Connie Francis' "Lipstick on Your Collar" served as the theme song for the 1993 British television series Lipstick on Your Collar which was set during the Suez Crisis of 1956, three years previous to Francis' hit single.[6]
References
- ↑ {{cite book. Other personnel on the track included Dick Hyman on Piano, Milt Hinton on bass and David "Panama" Francis on drums. | first=Eric | last=Clapton | year=2007 | title=The Autobiography | publisher=Broadway | location=New York | page=42 | isbn=0-385-51851-X}}
- ↑ Miami News 11 August 1959 p. 20
- ↑ Information at Svensk mediedatabas
- ↑ Donna Summer, with Marc Eliot (2003). Ordinary Girl: the Journey. New York: Villard. p. 15. ISBN 1-4000-6031-1.
- ↑ Billboard May 29 1982 (vol. 94 #21) p. 38.
- ↑ "Second Hand Songs". Retrieved 4 December 2009.
