Connie Stevens - Sixteen Reasons (1960), plus Film Introduction

Chances are you may have had a crush on this actress growing up in the 1960’s, if you’re a guy. I don’t know if Connie Stevens was an Elvis girl, but she certainly could have been. Connie started out as both a pop singer and a television actress. Last year I did a video of the theme song to the one season TV series, “Mr. Lucky“ (1959-60). At the same time another TV show was destined to have better success at longevity: “Hawaiian Eye.“ In that series (1959-63) she played photographer and singer Cricket Blake opposite Robert Conrad’s character detective Tom Lopaka. Previous to this she appeared in episodes of “77 Sunset Strip“ and meantime recorded the hit song “Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb,“ which reached #4 on Billboard in 1959. You might recall seeing that on my Top 20 countdown playlist for 1959 last year. But it was the December 1959 release of this song, “Sixteen Reasons,“ that brought Connie Stevens the greatest fame as a recording star. It reached #3 on Billboard on May 9, 1960 and #5 on Cash Box on May 14, 1960. It was also a smash success in the UK. There were plans to have her sing the song as Cricket on Hawaiian Eye, but copyright issues prevented this from happening. There were many cover versions of the song done in the US and internationally, but it was Connie Stevens’ original version of “Sixteen Reasons“ that was to be a smash hit again in 2001 when it became one of several early 60’s songs that appeared in the David Lynch film, Mulholland Drive. Connie went on to become a major actress, starring in a number of feature films and television shows as well as in Broadway and stage productions.