Thank you to Barbara Bradby for introducing me to The Bobbettes, a girl group who had a hit with their self-penned song, Mr Lee, written about their school teacher who they detested. Atlantic records insisted that they changed the lyrics to make it a crush-on-the-teacher song and it got to number one in the USA in 1957.
So they followed it up with I Shot Mr Lee at which Atlantic promptly dropped them. They released it on the Triple X label anyway. What naughty girls.
More here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bobbettes
Hhmmmm, not sure about that. Proto-Gansta Rap maybe? Seems to advocate taking a gun to school and shooting your teacher, although that seems to be on the curriculum these days in the US. Does it being sung by girls make it OK? Does the jaunty music make it OK?
ReplyDeleteInteresting story tho'. And interesting to see that 20% of the Bobbettes never made it to 70
Ooops - I meant 80%
ReplyDeleteMaybe Karma, Wilky
ReplyDelete