Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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LITTLE EVA

(b Eva Narcissus Boyd, 29 June 1945, Belhaven NC; d 10 April 2003 of cervical cancer) Singer. She went to NYC to complete her education, and sessioned at age 16 on the Ben E. King hit 'Don't Play That Song' with Earl-Jean McRea, Dorothy Jones and Margaret Ross, aka the Cookies. Babysitting for the Brill Building husband/wife team Gerry Goffin and Carole King, her impromptu steps as King played piano inspired Goffin's dance-craze lyrics: 'The Loco-Motion' was a smash no. 1 USA/2 UK '62, with the Cookies backing while saxes honked; it was the height of a dance craze fashion which saw hits by Chubby Checker, Sam Cooke, and the Isley Brothers. Goffin and King steered Eva away from the dance mania with a no. 12 hit 'Keep Your Hands Off My Baby', but the album Loco-Motion '62 on Dimension included the big hit plus covers and other things outside her range (i.e. 'I Have A Love' from West Side Story). 'Keep Your Hands Off My Baby' was added to later pressings of the album, and the version of 'Loco-Motion' was not the single version, but sans handclaps.

Eva went back to the dance floor for lesser hits in '63, as well as an anonymous appearance duetting with Big Dee Irwin (Defosca Ervin, former lead singer with the Pastels) on 'Swinging On A Star'; the Cookies hit with 'Chains' (later covered by the Beatles) and others, and later backed Eydie Gormé. Eva's sister Idalia Boyd, also on Dimension, had a minor hit with another fad, 'Hula Hooping'. Eva recorded for Spring and Amy before she faded, but affection for the big one remained: 'Loco-motion' reached no. 11 in the UK on reissue in '72.

A side note

The hit inspired producer Wally Zober to make an 'answer' record, 'Little Eva', by the Locomotions. The Copiague and Amityville high schools on Long Island were making their contribution to pop culture with singing groups such as The Universals, the Casualeers, and, in 1962, five 16-year-olds from Copiague performing as the Gems: Jack Kunz, Mike Phillips, Butch Poveromo, Paul Petruccelli and Fred Wessel were hired by Zober to make his record at a studio in Manhattan. Poveromo sang lead on both sides (the flip being 'Adios My Love'), and the record came out in a hurry on Gone, a subsidiary of George Goldner's Roulette label, showing evidence of hasty editing. It won record of the night and of the week on Murray The K's famous WINS radio show, and Petruccelli wrote many years later that while a lot of their Copiague friends had called in to vote for them, Murray The K's compilation LPs were all on the Roulette label, so there might have been other thumbs on the scale. It sold well locally, and the boys made personal appearances including one gig with Johnny Mathis. But while their parents had put up several hundred dollars to pay for the recording session, the boys eventually each received a royalty check for one dollar and change.

To this day it is repeated (including previously in this space) that the answer novelty was produced by Leon Huff with studio musicians, but it was Zober's show. A compilation of Zober's work included tracks by the Spinners, Ivory Joe Hunter and many others.