"Gum Drop" is a popular song written by

Rudy Toombs Rudolph Toombs (1914 – November 28, 1962) was an American performer and songwriter. He wrote " Teardrops from My Eyes", Ruth Brown's first number one R&B song, and other hit songs for her, including " 5-10-15 Hours". He also wrote " One M ...

. The original recording was by

Otis Williams and the Charms Otis Williams and the Charms were an American doo-wop vocal group in the 1950s, who were originally billed as The Charms. Williams is not related to Otis Williams of The Temptations. Career Otis Williams (born June 2, 1936, in Cincinnati, Ohio ...

(credited as "Otis Williams and His New Group"), released by

De Luxe Records De Luxe Records (later DeLuxe Records) was a record company and label formed in 1944 by brothers David Braun (1908–1985) and Julius "Jules" Braun (1911–2002), the sons of Hungarian Jewish immigrants, in Linden, New Jersey. The label ...

in June 1955 as catalog number 45-6090.

The Crew-Cuts recording

The recording by

The Crew-Cuts The Crew-Cuts (sometimes spelled Crew Cuts or Crewcuts) were a Canadian vocal and doowop quartet, that made a number of popular records that charted in the United States and worldwide. They named themselves after the then popular crew cut hai ...

was released by

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released ...

as catalog number 70668. It first reached the Billboard magazine charts on August 27, 1955. On the Disk Jockey chart, it peaked at #14; on the Best Seller chart, at #10; on the Juke Box chart, at #20; on the composite chart of the top 100 songs, it reached #80. The peak at #80 on the top-100 list is misleading, however, because this list was begun after the song had reached its popularity peak, so it was headed off the list at that point. The flip side was "Present Arms" on some copies and "Song Of The Fool" on others.

References

1955 singles Mercury Records singles The Crew-Cuts songs Songs written by Rudy Toombs 1955 songs {{1950s-pop-song-stub