"Theme From A Summer Place" by Percy Faith began its nine
week run at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. It remains the
longest-running number-one instrumental in the history of
the chart and brought Faith a Grammy Award for Record of
the Year in 1961.

Percy Faith (April 7, 1908 – February 9, 1976)

None of the Playboys played their instruments on the recording and 
Gary Lewis‘s vocals were heavily supported by overdubs from The
Ron Hicklin Singers, a group of Los Angeles studio singers. The
music was performed by a group of studio and session musicians
called The Wrecking Crew.

The Wrecking Crew

Gary Lewis and The Playboys today

On March 3, 1966, “Lightnin’ Strikes” garnered gold status
for selling over one million copies.

Lou Christie (Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco) is 72 today.

"Paul" was the song’s writer, Ray Hildebrand, a student at Texas‘ Howard
Payne University, a Baptist institution in the city of Brownwood. "Paula"
was Jill Jackson, the niece of the owner of the boarding house where
Ray lived. The song was originally titled "Paul and Paula", taking
inspiration from the Annette Funicello hit "Tall Paul".

"There! I’ve Said It Again" was written by Redd Evans and David Mann and was
originally made popular by Vaughn Monroe in 1945. Bobby Vinton’s version topped
the Billboard Hot 100 chart on January 4, 1964 and remained there for four weeks,
making it the first #1 song of 1964.

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Stanley Robert "Bobby" Vinton, Jr. will be 80 in April.