Carol Connors was born Annette Kleinbard on 13 November 1941 in New Brunswick, and after leaving Fairfax High School, Los Angeles in 1958 she formed a pop vocal trio with her friend Phil Spector, who wrote a song specifically to showcase Kleinbard's singing voice. 'To Know Him Is To Love Him' became The Teddy Bears' best-known and most successful recording, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1958, and granting Kleinbard the honour of being the first woman to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. After their initial hit, the trio disbanded because of the failure of their follow-up singles 'Don't Go Away' and Oh Why', a car accident that injured Kleinbard, and the fact that Spector preferred working behind the scenes to performing. In January 1960 she released the 'Alibi' single on Imperial Records, before legally changed her name to Carol Connors, apparently because she did not want her first name to be associated with Mousketeer Annette Funicello, and she signed to Columbia Records. 'My Diary' was released in March 1961, followed by 'Listen To The Beat' in September, but after one more single she left the label and signed to Era Records. 1962 saw two singles released on the label, with 'Big, Big Love' appearing in July and 'Tommy Go Away' following in November, before another label change to Capitol. Around this time she began writing songs, and in 1964 she wrote 'Hey Little Cobra' about the Shelby Cobra car, which was recorded by The Rip Chords, who were made up of Terry Melcher and Bruce Johnston.
Buoyed by the success of a car song, in 1964 she released a single promoting the Yamaha motorcycle, with 'Yum Yum Yamaha' being credited to Carol Connors And The Cycles, before returning to her solo career with her only Capitol single 'Angel, My Angel'. In February 1965 she was picked up by Colpix Records for the 'Go Go G.T.O.' single with her sister Cheryl, before releasing her final 7" in 1966, with 'My Baby Looks, But He Don't Touch' appearing on Mira Records. Connors wrote many of her later singles, and so when she stopped recording as a solo artist she wrote and performed songs for several films, including the 1967 beach-party film 'Catalina Caper', performing her 'The Book Of Love' in the movie backed by the Cascades. Later song-writing successes include her co-write with Ayn Robbins and Bill Conti on 'Gonna Fly Now', the theme song from the film 'Rocky', which earned her an Academy Award nomination. She also sang the theme to the film 'Orca', 'We Are One', and co-composed three songs with Ayn Robbins for the soundtrack of the 1977 Disney film, 'The Rescuers'. In 1983 she was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for the 'Worst Original Song' for 'It's Wrong For Me To Love You', from 'Butterfly', which she co-composed with Ennio Morricone, but for this post let's concentrate on her best work, which is this great collection of 60's pop.
Track listing
01 Alibi (single as Annette Bard 1960)
02 My Diary (single 1961)
03 You Are My Answer (b-side of 'My Diary')
04 Listen To The Beat (single 1961)
05 My Special Boy (b-side of 'Listen To The Beat')
06 What Do You See In Him (single with Hank Levine & His Orchestra 1962)
07 That's All It Takes (b-side of 'What Do You See In Him')
08 Big, Big Love (single 1962)
09 Two Rivers (b-side of 'Big, Big Love')
10 Tommy Go Away (single 1962)
11 I Wanna Know (b-side of 'Tommy Go Away')
12 Yum Yum Yamaha (single as Carol Connors And The Cycles 1964)
13 Angel, My Angel (single 1964)
14 Never (b-side of 'Angel, My Angel')
15 Go Go G. T. O. (single as Carol And Cheryl 1965)
16 Sunny Winter (b-side of 'Go Go G.T.O.')
17 My Baby Looks, But He Don't Touch (single 1966)
18 Lonely Little Beach Girl (b-side of 'My Baby Looks, But He Don't Touch')
19 The Book Of Love (from the film 'The Catalina Caper' 1967)
