Song:Let Me Go, Lover
Album:Pure...50s
Let Me Go, Lover topped the charts for four weeks early in 1955. It turned out to be the only hit for Joan Weber. She was born Dec. 12, 1935 in Paulsboro, NJ. She was married to sax player George Verfaillie. She sang for his band The Harry Vee Five who played local clubs. She was spotted by manager Eddie Joy who took the two of them to the Brill Building to meet Charles Randolph Grean of RCA Records. Grean had Joan record a demo. He liked it but Grean normally worked with country artists like Eddy Arnold. So he gave it to Columbia Records A&R head Mitch Miller. Let Me Go, Devil was a country song written by veteran songwriter Jenny Lou Carson. She says she wrote it in tribute to Hank Williams. Miller liked the song but he thought it was too dark. So he had veteran songwriters Fred Wise, Kathleen Twomey and Ben Weisman rewrite it for 18 year old Joan as Let Me Go, Lover. The song is credited to the pseudonym Al Hill. Joan recorded the song and it was featured in an episode of the drama anthology series Studio One. The song was played six times during the broadcast. Joan was pregnant at the time so she couldn't perform live though after her daughter was born, she appeared on Ed Sullivan and other shows. Let Me Go, Lover topped the charts for four weeks in early 1955. It turned out to be one of the biggest hits of the year. After subsequent singles went nowhere, Columbia dropped Joan in 1959. In a 2004 interview, Miller said Joan's husband became her manager and she probably would have been better off with a real manager. She also didn't want to tour preferring to stay home with her daughter. You can get Let Me Go, Lover on this 4CD various artists budget box set from Sony. Joan continued to sing locally and work as a library clerk. She seemed to disappear in the early 70s. It turns out she was admitted to a mental hospital and she died there on May 13, 1981 at age 45. Here's a video for Let Me Go, Lover by Joan Weber.
That last part Frank is tragic. For her to die like that is very sad. I can understand her talent being stopped because of her husband's mismanagement. That has happened before and it is to bad. But for her to have issues like that and die like that at 45 is a sad way to go. Its to bad. She sound like on of those singer who could have gone further if she had wanted to. Yours Defshepard.
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