TIGER, TURN ME LOOSE, HOUND DOG MAN & MORE – TEEN IDOL “FABIAN”
May 20 '03
The Bottom Line FABIAN was born “Fabiano Anthony Forte Bonaparte” on 6 February 1943 in Philadelphia, PA
Fabian was discovered at the age of 14 by Teenage Idol “Frankie Avalon’s” manager “Bob Marcucci” and was signed to a contract solely based on his looks. Bob believes he resembles another Teenage idol at the time “Ricky Nelson”. Frankie Avalon had 25 Top 100 POP singles from 1958 to 1976 the biggest of which was “Venus” that peaked at #1 for 5 weeks on 9 February 1959. Ricky Nelson had 54 Top 100 POP singles from 1957 to 1973 the biggest of which was “Poor Little Fool” that peaked at #1 for 2 weeks on 7 July 1958. Bob decides he can also market his newfound handsome teen into another Teenage Idol Heartthrob as well. Bob is also the owner of a recording company named “Chancellor” records and not only signs him to a recording contract he gets him into the studio to record his very first record right away. His first single is “I’m In Love Shivers” released in September 1958 that fails to chart. His next release in November titled “Be My Steady Date” also fails to make the Top 100 singles chart. His 3rd release is “I’m A Man” backed by “Hypnotized” that peaks at #31 on 12 January 1959. It is released with a picture sleeve cover that has the song title as being “I Am A Man”. His next single “Turn Me Loose” peaks at #9 on 30 March.
He next releases an album titled “Hold That Tiger!” that peaks at #5 on 18 May. The album is followed by what would be his biggest selling hit single “Tiger” that peaks at #3 on 15 June. It sells a million copies and would be his only release to sell at least a million copies. His next release is a double-sided hit single “Come On And Get Me” that peaks at #29 on 7 September. The flip side “Got The Feeling” charts separately and peaks at #54 2 weeks later on 21 September. In November he appears in what would be the 1st of 30 Movies when he appeared in “Hound-Dog Man” along with “Stuart Whitman”, “Dodie Stevens”, “Carol Lynley”,“Claude Akins” and “Edgar Buchanan”. He not only sings the title song from the Movie “Hound-Dog Man” but also releases it as a single that peaks at #9 on 16 November. The flip side of this single also charts separately titled “This Friendly World” also from the same Movie that peaks at #12 on 23 November. His 2nd album titled “Fabulous Fabian” peaks at #3 on 28 December and becomes his biggest selling album of his career.
His next single release is a remake of a “Billy Williams” hit titled “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter” that fails to make the Top 100. Billy Williams had the song peak at #3 for him on 3 June 1957. Fabian’s next single titled “Tomorrow” also fails to make the Billboard Top 100 charts. In February 1960 he appears in his second film titled “North To Alaska” also starring “John Wayne”, “Stewart Granger” and “Ernie Kovacs”. His 3rd Film also in 1960 is “High Time” also starring “Blake Edwards”, “Bing Crosby” and “Tuesday Weld”. His final Top 100 single is “Kissin’ And Twistin’” that peaked at #91 on 31 October. In 1960 he releases 3 albums “Good Old Summertime”, “The Fabian Façade: Young And Wonderful” and “The Hit Makers”. All 3 failed to make much of a mark on the Top 200 album charts. In 1961 he released 1 album titled “Rockin’ Hot” that failed to chart at all. In 1961 Fabian released a total of 6 singles and not one of them made the Top 100 charts. Those singles in order are listed next:
You Know You Belong To Someone Else/Hold On
Grapevine/David And Goliath
The Love That I’m Giving To You/You’re Only Young Once
A Girl Like You/Dream Factory
Tongue Tied/Kansas City
Wild Party/Made You
With the sales of his records being so slow and going down hill he picks up his Movie career. In 1962 he stars in 3 Films. “Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation”, “Five Weeks In A Balloon” and “The Longest Day”. The last being the biggest Movie of 1962 with a huge assemble cast that included “John Wayne”, “Rod Steiger”, “Robert Ryan”, “Peter Lawford”, “Henry Fonda”, “Robert Mitchum”, “Richard Burton”, “Sal Mineo”, “Roddy McDowall”, “Eddie Albert”, “Robert Wagner”, “Red Buttons” and “Sean Connery”. In 1963 he releases one single on “Dot” records titled “Break Down And Cry” that fails to make the Top 100.
In 1964 he stars in “Ride The Wild Surf” with “Tab Hunter”, “Shelley Fabres”, “James Mitchum” and “Barbara Eden”. In 1965 he appears in a small film titled “Dear Brigitte”. In 1966 he stars in 3 Films “Ten Little Indians”, “Dr. Goldfoot And The Girl Bombs” and one of the biggest of 1966 “Fireball 500”. “Fireball 500” also starred “William Asher”, “Frankie Avalon”, “Annette Funicello”, “Chill Wills” and “Harvey Lembeck”. In 1967 he appears in “Thunder Alley”. In 1968 he is in “The Wild Racers” and “Maryjane”. In 1968 he stars in “Devil’s 8” and in 1970 he is in “A Bullet For Pretty Boy”.
In 1973 he appears in “Little Laura And Big John” and in 1976 he is in “The Day The Lord Got Busted”. Also in 1973 he releases an album on “ABC” records titled "Greatest Hits” that fails to dent the Top 200. In 1975 his next release is “The Very Best Of Fabian” on “Warner Brothers” records that also fails to see much action. In 1977 he released one single on “Cream” records titled “The American East” that fails to chart at all. In 1978 he is in 3 Films titled “Getting Married” a made for TV Movie, “Katie: A Portrait Of A Centerfold” also a made for TV Movie and “Disco Fever”. In 1979 he appears in another made for TV Movie titled “Crisis in Mid-Air”. In the 1980’s he appears in only 2 films, first in 1981 in “Revenge Of The Zombie” and in 1983 in “Get Crazy”. In 1985 “The Best Of Fabian” is released on “MCA” records that once again fails to sell many copies. In the 1990’s he appears in 3 films which are “Runaway Daughters” a made for TV Movie in 1994, “Up Close And Personal” in 1996 and “Mr. Rock And Roll: The Alan Freed Show” a made for TV Movie in 1999.
On 5 August 1997 Fabian started a tour called “Fabian’s Good Time Rock ‘N’ Roll Revue”. He also had appearing with him on the tour “Lesley Gore” and “The Marvelettes”. In 2000 he appeared in the TV Movie “Hollywood Rocks The Movies: The Early Years”. My favorite Album/CD by Fabian is titled ”TURN ME LOOSE – THE VERY BEST OF FABIAN”. It was originally released on 28 September 199 on the “Collectables” record label and is available at amazon.com for $13.98. The songs on this CD are listed next, as they appear followed by my rating of each song and then my overall rating of the CD:
1. Turn Me Loose – 5
2. Shivers – 3
3. Tiger – 5
4. I’m In Love – 4
5. Hound Dog Man – 5
6. Lily Lou – 4
7. I’m A Man – 5
8. Be My Steady Date – 4
9. Come On And Get Me – 4
10. Hypnotized – 4
11. Got The feeling – 3
12. Stop Thief – 3
13. This Friendly World – 5
14. Mighty Cool (To A Warm, Warm Heart) – 3
15. String Along ס
16. Strollin’ In The Sunshine Springtime – 3
17. About This Thing Called Love – 5
18. Tomorrow – 3
19. Kissin’ And Twistin’ – 5
20. Hold On – 5
21. Grapevine – 3
22. Love That I’m Giving You – 4
23. Tongue Tied – 4
24. Wild Party – 3
25. (Untitled Track) – 3
TOTAL POINTS: 100 DIVIDED BY 25 = 4 STARS
RATING KEY:
5 – GREAT
4 – VERY GOOD
3 – GOOD
2 – FAIR
1 – POOR
0 – THIS SONG DOESN’T BELONG HERE!
BILLBOARD US Top 100 Pop Singles for “FABIAN”
1. I’M A Man – Peaked at #31 on 01/12/59
2. Turn Me Loose – Peaked at #9 on 03/30/59
3. Tiger – Peaked at #3 0n 06/15/59
4. Come On And Get Me – Peaked at #29 on 09/07/59
5. Got The Feeling – Peaked at #54 on 09/21/59
6. Hound Dog Man – Peaked at #9 on 11/16/59
7. This Friendly World – Peaked at #12 on 11/23/59
8. About This Thing Called Love – Peaked at #31 on 02/29/60
9. String Along – Peaked at #39 on 02/22/60
10. Kissin’ And Twistin’ – Peaked at #91 on 10/31/60
BILLBOARD US Top 40 Pop Albums for “FABIAN”
1. Hold That Tiger! – Peaked at #5 on 05/18/59
2. Fabulous Fabian – Peaked at #3 on 12/28/59
SOME SONG LYRICS
I’M A MAN
Now when I was a little boy,
At the age of five,
I had somethin' in my pocket,
Keep a lot o' folks alive.
Now I'm a man, Made twenty-one.
You know, baby,
We can have a lot o' fun.
I'm a man.
I spell M A N, Man.
Ah, ah, ah, ah,
All you pretty women
Stand in line.
I can make love to you, baby,
In an hour's time.
I'm a man,
Spelled M A N, Man.
STRING ALONG
String along, that's all I am is just your
String along, someone that you just seem to
Bring along whenever you are all alone, need some company
You always turn to me
String along (string along), that's all I do is sorta
String along (string along), you never seem to notice
I'm along, I just want you to want me, too
How I hope and pray that you'll need me some day
String along, that's all I am is just your
String along, someone that you just seem to
Bring along whenever you are all alone, need some company
You always turn to me
Treat me wrong (treat me wrong) and maybe soon you'll lose
Your string along (string along), someone may come and bring a
Love that's strong, and wanna string along with me
Find somebody new, won't treat me like you do
JAGUARDOG’S FINAL THOUGHTS
Even though “Fabian” had a very short Music career compared to most singing artists his music was still loved by many and still listened too by some many years later. His music was amiable, carefree, cheerful, confident, easy going, exuberant, fun, good-natured, innocent, romantic and sentimental. His music could be found in the categories of Easy Listening, Pop, Rock and Rhythm & Blues. I owned only 3 of his singles at one time and 2 compilation Albums/CD’s by him as well as a compilation CD titled “Their Greatest Hits” which not only includes 4 songs by “Fabian" but 4 songs by “Frankie Avalon” and 3 songs by “Ritchie Valens” on ““Laserlight” records. Fabian was one of many Teen Idols of the 60’s some of which I have listed below.
1. Paul Anka
2. Frankie Avalon
3. Pat Boone
4. Lou Christie
5. Johnny Crawford
6. Bobby Darin
7. James Darren
8. Dion DiMucci
9. Shelley Fabares
10. “FABIAN”
11. Connie Francis
12. Annette Funicello
13. Brian Hyland
14. Sal Mineo
15. Ricky Nelson
16. Ray Peterson
17. Gene Pitney
18. Elvis Presley
19. Neil Sedaka
20. Del Shannon
21. Bobby Sherman
22. Johnny Tillotson
23. Ritchie Valens
24. Bobby Vee
25. Bobby Vinton
This was a partial list only of my 25 Favorite “Teen Idols” and I’m sure you can come up with others I have missed? Please feel free to mention some I missed in your comments. Thanks for dropping by and reading my continuing “History of Rock ‘N’ Roll Music”. I hope you enjoyed it and will drop by again real soon?
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Member: Ron Drain
Location: Jacksonville, Florida, USA
Reviews written: 235
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About Me:
I LOVE Music/TV/Movies & sports like Football - NFL/College, Baseball, Olympics - Summer/Winter and Wrestling.
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