Song:See You In September
Album:41 Original Hits From The Soundtrack Of American Graffiti
Most folks should be familiar with the 1966 top five hit recording of See You In September by The Happenings. But you may not be aware that it was originally recorded by The Tempos and was a top 30 hit in 1959. I think most folks didn't know there was an original version until George Lucas used it in his 1972 film American Graffiti. I don't know a lot about The Tempos except they were from the Pittsburgh suburb of Canonsburg, PA. Other doo wop groups from Pittsburgh included The Del Vikings and The Marcels. Mike Lazo was lead singer and other members were Jim Drake, Gene Schachter and Tom Monito. They recorded a handful of singles but See You In September was the only one that went anywhere. It reached #23 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959. The song was written by veteran Brill Building songwriters Sherman Edwards and Sid Wayne. According to Wayne, they were sitting around the office trying to figure out what to write and Edwards told him he wanted to write a song titled See You In September. They started writing it at 11AM and were finished by 2PM. Apparently Edwards was a very quick lyricist. They went out and pitched the song and producer Jack Gold liked it. He called The Tempos and had them come to New York for the recording session. That was Friday. The song was recorded on Monday with the Billy Mure Orchestra. The record was pressed on Thursday and was played on WNEW in New York on Friday. Wayne says they got $500 for the song. Jack Gold went on to be a house producer at Columbia Records. Soon after Sid Wayne moved to Los Angeles and wrote songs for Elvis Presley films usually with Len Weisman. Sherman Edwards also co-wrote the 1962 Joanie Sommers hit Johnny Get Angry but his biggest achievement was writing the hit Broadway musical 1776. As I said, The Happenings reached #3 with their version of See You In September in 1966. The Tempos version was forgotten until George Lucas used it in American Graffiti and it's on the 2CD version of the soundtrack. Here's a video for See You In September by The Tempos.
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