Don't You Worry My Little Pet
| "Don't You Worry My Little Pet" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by The Teddy Bears | ||||
| A-side | "To Know Him Is to Love Him" | |||
| Released | September 1958 | |||
| Recorded | 1958 | |||
| Genre | Rock and roll | |||
| Length | 2:01 | |||
| Label | Doré | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Phil Spector | |||
| The Teddy Bears singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Don't You Worry My Little Pet" is a song written by Phil Spector for the American pop quartet the Teddy Bears, of which he was a member. It was released in September 1958 as the B-side of the group's "To Know Him Is to Love Him", which topped the Billboard Hot 100.[1]
Background and recording
Spector wrote the upbeat rock and roll song based on his then-current favorite performers, Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers.[2] It was his first experience with studio recording; the production was achieved by taking a demo tape of the song and playing it back over the studio's speaker system in order to overdub another performance over it.[3] The end product was a cacophony, with stacked harmony vocals that could not be heard clearly. He would develop these methods further, culminating in what would later be dubbed the Wall of Sound.[4]
On May 20, 1958,[2] the song was recorded at Gold Star Studios, Hollywood in a single two-hour session.[5] According to biographer Mick Brown: "Nobody apart from Spector was really convinced the song was any good. [Studio owner] Stan Ross would later dismiss it as 'a piece of crap', and even Anette Kleinbart [sic] thought it was 'dreadful'."[2]
Personnel
- The Teddy Bears
- Carol Connors (formerly Annette Kleinbard) – vocals[5]
- Harvey Goldstein – vocals[5]
- Marshall Leib – vocals[5]
- Phil Spector – vocals[5]
Art and Dotty Todd version
On November 17, 1958, another version recorded by Art and Dotty Todd was given a four-star rating in Billboard, indicating "very strong sales potential". The publication referred to it a "swingy rocker ... Side moves, and it could get some action."[6]
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