Chantilly Lace (song)

"Chantilly Lace" is the name of a rock and roll song written by Jiles Perry "The Big Bopper" Richardson, who released the song in August 1958. The single was produced by Jerry Kennedy.

"Chantilly Lace"
Single by The Big Bopper
from the album Chantilly Lace
B-side"The Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor"
ReleasedAugust 1958
GenreRockabilly
Length2:20
LabelMercury
Songwriter(s)J.P. Richardson
Producer(s)Jerry Kennedy
The Big Bopper singles chronology
"Chantilly Lace"
(1958)		 "Little Red Riding Hood"
(1958)

The song was included in Robert Christgau's "Basic Record Library" of 1950s and 1960s recordings, published in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981).[1]

History

Originally cut for Pappy Daily's D label, the recording was purchased by Mercury Records and released in the summer of 1958, just over six months after Chuck Berry released "Sweet Little Sixteen," which uses the same chord progression. The song reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent 22 weeks on the national Top 40. It was the third most played song of 1958.[2] On the Cash Box chart, "Chantilly Lace" reached number four.[3]

Jerry Lee Lewis version

A 1972 version by Jerry Lee Lewis[4] was for three weeks a No.1 hit on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart[5] and a top fifty pop hit in the US[6] and a Top 40 pop hit in the UK.[7]

Lyrics content

The song depicts a young man flirting with his girlfriend on the telephone and listing things about her that he likes, including:

Chantilly lace and a pretty face
And a pony tail hangin' down
A wiggle in her walk and a giggle in her talk
Make the world go 'round.[8]

The song begins with the sound of a telephone ringing, and is answered by the Big Bopper shouting:

"HELLO BABY"

The "Hello Baby" motif reappears in the Big Bopper's follow-up song "Big Bopper's Wedding," in which the singer is so distracted by the bridesmaids that the impatient preacher demands, "Do you or don't you take this woman?"

Responses, cover versions, and samples

"Chantilly Lace" inspired an answer song performed by Jayne Mansfield, titled "That Makes It", hypothetically based on what the girl may have been saying at the other end of the line.

Bopper 486609 - Donna Dameron (Dart 113-1959), was an answer record. Donna Dameron was rumoured to be The Big Bopper's mother, Elsie Richardson.[9]

The phrase "Oh, baby, you know what I like" was sampled by Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers in the music collage track "That's What I Like", which also included samples from Jerry Lee Lewis, Chubby Checker, The Surfaris, The Ventures, and other rock and roll singers and bands from late 1950s to early 1960s scene.

Van Halen's song "Good Enough", from the 1986 album 5150, begins with singer Sammy Hagar's calling out "Hello Baby", imitating the Big Bopper's vocal hook in "Chantilly Lace".

Ivor Biggun, alias Doc Cox, recorded an unsyncopated cockney/novelty version of the song for his 1987 album "Partners in Grime", altering the lyrics somewhat to include phrases such as "oh you little bobby-dazzler", "but me bicycle's broken" and "me mummy insists that I be in bed by half-past 10".

Motown R&B singer Shorty Long recorded the song in 1966 and his version was released as a single on the company's Soul subsidiary label the following year.

The Rolling Stones performed a version of the song in their live-set in Germany featuring Ian Stewart on piano and Bobby Keys on tenor sax during the group's Rolling Stones European Tour 1982.

R. Stevie Moore recorded a punk rock version in 1980.

Sha Na Na recorded a cover version of this song for their 1973 album, The Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll released on Kama Sutra Records.

Composer Clark Gassman used the song as the basis for the theme song to the 1991 cartoon show Wish Kid.

The Re-Bops recorded a Christmas cover version in 1995 their album Oldies for a Cool Christmas, altering certain lyrics for seasonal purposes. The song is instead about children asking Santa for a doll.[10]

References
  1. Christgau, Robert (1981). "A Basic Record Library: The Fifties and Sixties". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 0899190251. Retrieved March 16, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
  2. "The Official Website of 'The Big Bopper'". Officialbigbopper.com. Archived from the original on 2008-06-16. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
  3. "Cash Box Top 100 Singles, October 25, 1958". Archived from the original on August 14, 2014. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
  4. US catalogue no.: Mercury 73273; the flip side was "Think About It Darlin'."
  5. Roland, Tom: The Billboard Book Of Number One Country Hits. New York City / New York: Billboard Books; London: Guinness Publishing Ltd., 1991, p. 66
  6. The single peaked at No.43; Whitburn, Joel: Top Pop Singles 1955-1993. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Ltd., 1994, p. 355
  7. UK catalogue no.: Mercury 6052 131; the single reached No.33 und stayed for five weeks in the charts; Rice, Jo / Rice, Tim / Gambacini, Paul / Read, Mike: The Guinness Book Of The Hits Of The 70s. London: Guinness Superlatives Ltd., 1980, p. 101
  8. Gilliland, John (1969). "Show 14 - Big Rock Candy Mountain: Rock 'n' roll in the late fifties. [Part 4] : UNT Digital Library" (audio). Pop Chronicles. Digital.library.unt.edu. Retrieved 2011-04-30.
  10. "Oldies for a Cool Christmas by The Re-Bops on Apple Music". itunes.apple.com. Retrieved 2017-11-29.
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