“Silhouettes“ by The Rays

Silhouettes (The Rays song) Original song written and composed by Bob Crewe and Frank Slay; first recorded by The Rays! “Silhouettes“ is a song made famous by the doo-wop group the Rays in 1957, peaking at number 3 on the U.S Billboard Hot 100. In May 1957, songwriter Bob Crewe saw a couple embracing through a windowshade as he passed on a train. He quickly set about turning the image into a song. Frank Slay, who owned the small Philadelphia record company with Crewe, added lyrics, and they soon had a complete song ready to record. The song received a break when popular Philadelphia disc jockey Hy Lit (Hyman Aaron) fell asleep with a stack of newly released records on his record player. “Silhouettes“ happened to be the last to play, and so it repeated until he woke up. He began to play the song on his show and it spread across the country, eventually reached number 3 on both the R&B Best Sellers chart and Billboard Top 100, while also hitting the top five on both the sales and airplay charts. It was the group’s only top 40 hit. A competing version by the Diamonds was also successful. In 1965 it was a number 5 hit in the US for Herman’s Hermits, and in 1990 it was a number 10 hit in the UK for Cliff Richard.