Joanie Sommers

Her break came after a friend took her to the Deauville Country Club in Santa Monica, where she sang with Tommy Oliver’s band. He arranged for a demo record to be cut and presented it to Warner Brothers, whereupon Sommers was signed to the label. Warner initially used her vocal talents singing “Am I Blue” on a 1959 Warner specialty record, Behind Closed Doors at a Recording Session, and on one side of the spoken-word single “Kookie’s Love Song” with Edd Byrnes. The pairing with Byrnes led to a small role in 77 Sunset Strip, the private detective television series featuring Byrnes in the role of Gerald Lloyd “Kookie” Kookson III. In addition, she sang on Byrnes’ “I Don’t Dig You” and “Hot Rod Rock” which appeared on one of his albums.

Her 1960 debut single “One Boy” (from the musical Bye Bye Birdie) charted for three months, peaking at number 54 on the Billboard Top 100. Both “One Boy” and the flip side “I’ll Never Be Free” were Billboard Spotlight Winners. In early 1960, Warner released Sommers’ first LP, Positively the Most, which did not include the “One Boy” hit single. Later that year, Warner released the single “Ruby-Duby-Du”, featuring a vocal version of the Tobin Mathews & Co. instrumental from the motion picture Key Witness. In 1962, Sommers’ single “Johnny Get Angry”, released on Warner Bros. Records, reached number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s Sommers appeared on television as a singer and game show contestant, including shows such as Everybody’s Talking, Hollywood Squares, You Don’t Say, and The Match Game, as well as a performer on Dick Clark’s Where the Action Is, Hullabaloo, and other variety shows.

Her acting credits include Everything’s Ducky (1961) opposite Mickey Rooney, and Jack Arnold’s The Lively Set (1964), in which she sang “If You Love Him”. In the last episode of The Wild Wild West, titled The Night of the Tycoons (April 11, 1969), she sang “Dreams, Dreams of a Lady’s Love”.