Gaye's recording of "My Boy Lollypop" was popular in New York City, and a few other Northeastern cities. The singer and songwriter Ellie Greenwich, then a teenager living on Long Island, was so taken by the record that she named herself Ellie Gaye when she embarked on her recording career. The following year, Gaye toured with Richard and Fats Domino. The record sold in sufficient quantities locally to gain her a place in Freed's annual Christmas show at the New York Paramount in December 1956, when she opened for Little Richard. 25 on Freed's Top 25 on WINS, New York in November 1956. It was heavily played by Alan Freed, and listener requests made the song No. īarbie Gaye's recording was released as a single by Darl Records in late 1956. The Jamaican artists, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd and Arthur "Duke" Reid, introduced the R&B shuffle beat to Jamaica in the late 1950s. The shuffle sound was developed in the early 1940s in America's black community and made popular by Professor Longhair, Rosco Gordon and Louis Jordan. Barbie Gaye was paid $200 for her writing contributions to "My Boy Lollypop" and her studio recording. The four musicians, including the white teenage girl, went into the studio and recorded the song in one take. They decided to record the song in a relatively new style of R&B called shuffle. After listening to her, they improvised music to match her vocals. The band leader, Kirkland, asked Gaye to sing the song for them. Gaye met the three members of the session band, guitarist Leroy Kirkland, saxophonist Al Sears and drummer Panama Francis. When it came time to record, Gaye cut school and took the subway to a recording studio in Midtown Manhattan. She added non-lyrical utterances such as "whoa" and "uh oh", chose the notes for the lyrics, shortened and lengthened notes, decided which lyrics to repeat ("I love ya, I love ya, I love ya so") and added the word " dandy" to describe the subject. Gaye changed the song's title to "My Boy Lollypop" and rewrote the song accordingly. He gave them to Gaye, with no specific instructions except to change the gender of the song's subject and be ready to perform it by the following week. Vastola became Gaye's manager and within days, he acquired the sheet music and lyrics for "My Girl Lollypop" from Levy. Gaye sang a few songs for them and Freed was equally impressed. Vastola was so impressed that he immediately took her to meet New York radio DJ Alan Freed. Vastola had recently discovered 14-year-old singer Barbie Gaye after hearing her sing on a street corner in Coney Island, Brooklyn. The song caught the attention of one of Levy's partners, the later convicted mobster and music mogul Gaetano Vastola, aka "Corky". Levy even claimed that Robert Spencer was his pseudonym. In an effort to avoid sharing any royalties with Spencer, Levy removed Spencer's name from the original writing credits. Although not involved in writing the song, Levy and alleged gangster Johnny Roberts listed themselves as the song's authors. Notorious record company executive Morris Levy agreed to purchase the song from Spencer. The original song "My Girl Lollypop" was written by Robert Spencer of the doo-wop group The Cadillacs. Barbie Gaye original version "My Boy Lollypop"