Fasten your seat belt on this one because it is an interesting ride and at the end of the road will be great live version by rock royalty.
‘Hello Mary Lou’ was written by Gene Pitney and first recorded by Johnny Duncan in 1960.
A more famous version was released by Ricky Nelson in 1961. It was the ‘B’ side to his #1 song ‘Travelin’ Man’ and went to #9 on the Billboard charts. In the U.K. ‘Hello Mary Lou’ was released as the ‘A’ side and it went to #1 on this day in 1961. Listening to both Duncan and Nelson, I admit I prefer Johnny Duncan’s version but to each his own. Admittedly the solo by James Burton is among the best in the early rock and roll era.
What I have discussed so far is just the the beginning. We have only pulled out of the driveway.
It seems ‘Hello Mary Lou’ was not an original composition. Allegations were made that Pitney took the essence of a song called ‘Merry, Merry Lou’ recorded by a band called The Sparks in 1957. See what you think…
The legendary rock and roll pioneer Bill Haley and the Comets released the song as Mary, Mary Lou soon after which gave the song some more prominence.
The composer of ‘Merry, Merry Lou was a gentleman by the name of Cayet Mangiaracina (of The Sparks) who as fate would have it would ultimately become a Catholic priest. When ‘Hello Mary Lou’ was released, Decca Records sued for plagiarism and won. Mangiaracina ended up with co-writer credits on the song due to his being the composer of the original. According to Father Mangiaracina the royalty cheques come in quarterly but he has never seen them. They are mailed directly to the Southern Dominican Province Office in Metairie, Louisiana. These are an ‘order of Dominican friars committed to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ for the salvation of souls in the Southern United States’.
‘Hello Mary Lou’ went on to be a frequently recorded song by many artists including, Gene Pitney himself.
Others to record it include: The Seekers, Brownsville Station. Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Statler Brothers. It was even recorded in French by Petula Clark under the title ‘Bye Bye Mon Amour’.
My favourite recording comes from Queen: Live at Wembley in 1986 as a tribute to Ricky Nelson. Queen guitarist Brian May cites the guitar solo in Hello Mary Lou by James Burton (Elvis’ primary guitar player) as a major influence in his interest in playing the guitar. I guarantee this performance will put a smile on your face.
So here you have a song that passed through a lot of hands with minor adjustments to the title and words before ending up on the stage of Wembley Arena to be sung by one of the greatest singers of all time. All the while it made a humble Catholic priest very rich (his Order anyway) Quite a story and until the time of writing I did not know any of this. Hopefully some of this story was new to you as well. Pretty fascinating lineage to a fun song.
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Originally posted on May 29, 2018
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