The Caravelles, Lois Wilkinson (born 3 April 1944 in

Sleaford Sleaford is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. On the edge of the The Fens, Fenlands, it is north-east of Grantham, west of Boston, Lincolnshire, Boston, and sou ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

, England) and Andrea Simpson (born 9 September 1946 in

Finchley Finchley () is a large district of north London, England, in the London Borough of Barnet. north of Charing Cross, nearby districts include: Golders Green, Muswell Hill, Friern Barnet, Whetstone, London, Whetstone, Mill Hill and Hendon. It is ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

),Larkin C, ''Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music'', (Muze UK Ltd, 1997) p95 were a British female duo, best known for their 1963

hit single A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single, or simply hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record'' ...

You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry In Modern English, the word "''you''" is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers. History ''You'' comes from ...

Career

The Caravelles were named after the

Sud Aviation Caravelle The Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle is a French jet airliner produced by Sud Aviation. It was developed by SNCASE in the early 1950s, and made its maiden flight on May 27, 1955. It included some de Havilland designs and components developed for t ...

, a French aircraft.

AllMusic biography AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

/ref> Their best known song, "You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry", was originally a regional hit for

Moon Mullican Aubrey Wilson Mullican (March 29, 1909 – January 1, 1967), known professionally as Moon Mullican and nicknamed "King of the Hillbilly Piano Players", was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and pianist. He was associated with ...

, and then was used as the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

Tennessee Ernie Ford Ernest Jennings Ford (February 13, 1919 – October 17, 1991), known professionally as Tennessee Ernie Ford, was an American singer and television host who enjoyed success in the country and western, pop, and gospel musical genres. Noted for ...

's hit single "

Sixteen Tons "Sixteen Tons" is a song written by Merle Travis about a coal miner, based on life in the mines of Rosewood, Kentucky. Travis first recorded the song at the Radio Recorders Studio B in Hollywood, California, on August 8, 1946. Cliffie Stone ...

". The Caravelles' version of "You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry" reached No. 3 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and No. 6 on the UK Singles Chart. Carrying over into the next year, the song became the first British record on the Hot 100's top 40 in 1964, beating

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is a British singer and actor. He has total sales of over 21.5 million singles in the United Kingdom and, as of 2012, was the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart histo ...

by two weeks and

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

by three weeks, making the Caravelles the first British act to have a national top 40 hit in America that year. They could not maintain their success, and Lois Wilkinson began recording solo under the name Lois Lane. The album ''Lois Lane'', featuring 12 songs (mostly cover versions, though with one original, "One Upon a Time" by Wilkinson) arranged in orchestral middle-of-the-road style by

Johnny Arthey John Raymond Arthey (24 September 1930 – 27 October 2007) was a British conductor and composer. He was responsible for arranging many hit pop records in the 1960s and 1970s. Life and career Johnny Arthey started his career as a pianist ...

, was issued in October 1968.''Lois Lane'', Mercury 20125 SMCL Andrea Simpson continued to use the band name "The Caravelles" through the 1980s in groups with other musicians, and still performed occasionally into the 1990s.

Partial discography

Singles

References

External links

45rpm.org.uk Biography and Discography
* Caravelles biographyat

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caravelles, The English musical duos Female musical duos Wilkinson, Lois Smash Records artists English girl groups