Charles Fowler Singleton Jr. (September 17, 1913 – December 12, 1985),
known as Charlie "Hoss" Singleton, was an American songwriter, best known for having co-written the lyrics for "
Strangers in the Night
"Strangers in the Night" is a song composed by Bert Kaempfert with English lyrics by Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder. Kaempfert originally used it under the title "Beddy Bye" as part of the instrumental score for the movie ''A Man Could Get ...
" and "
Moon Over Naples
"Moon Over Naples" is a 1965 instrumental composed and recorded by German bandleader Bert Kaempfert. The instrumental version reached No. 6 on ''Billboards Adult Contemporary chart. It won a BMI Award in 1968.
Vocal versions of the song have b ...
" (later covered as "Spanish Eyes").
[
Singleton wrote or co-wrote over a thousand songs. "Strangers in the Night" reached number-one on the '']Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' charts for Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...
, and the Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
version of "Spanish Eyes" had sales of over three million copies.[
]
Biography
Charles Singleton attended several schools in and around Jacksonville
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
, Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, and graduated in 1935 from Stanton High School. He was always interested in singing and dancing, and by the time he left school he had become a proficient songwriter. He also produced shows and was responsible for several musical extravaganzas, including ''April Frolics'', which was staged at a nightspot in LaVilla
LaVilla is a historic African American neighborhood of Jacksonville, Florida and a was formerly an independent city. It developed after the American Civil War and was eventually annexed to the city of Jacksonville in 1887 and is now considered pa ...
in Jacksonville. Singleton continued to work in Jacksonville into the 1940s.[
In the early 1950s Singleton moved to New York City and presented his lyrics to ]Decca Records
Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American ...
, who signed him up as a songwriter. By 1954, he had teamed up with Rose Marie McCoy
Rose Marie McCoy (April 19, 1922 – January 20, 2015) was an American songwriter. She began her career as an aspiring singer before becoming a prolific songwriter during the 1950s and 1960s. Many artists have recorded some of the over 800 so ...
, and the pair had their first writing successes with such R&B hits as Joe Turner's "Well All Right", Faye Adams
Faye Adams (born Fanny Tuell, May 22, 1923) is an American singer who recorded and performed rhythm and blues and gospel from the late 1940s until the early 1960s. She had several chart hits in the early 1950s, before retiring from the music b ...
' number 1 R&B hit "It Hurts Me to My Heart
"It Hurts Me to My Heart" is a 1954 single by Faye Adams. The song, written by Rose Marie McCoy
Rose Marie McCoy (April 19, 1922 – January 20, 2015) was an American songwriter. She began her career as an aspiring singer before becoming a ...
", and Ruth Brown
Ruth Alston Brown (; January 12, 1928 – November 17, 2006) was an American singer-songwriter and actress, sometimes referred to as the " Queen of R&B". She was noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atl ...
's " Mambo Baby".[ Songs written by Charles Singleton, ''MusicVf.com'']
Retrieved November 8, 2016 Singleton and McCoy also wrote "Tryin' to Get to You
"Tryin' to Get to You" is a song written by R&B singer songwriters Rose Marie McCoy and Charles Singleton. It was originally recorded by the Washington DC vocal group The Eagles in 1954 and released in mid-1954 on Mercury Records 70391. The fo ...
", notably recorded by Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
at Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
(1955) but first released by Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
group The Eagles
The Eagles are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1971. With five number-one singles and six number-one albums, six Grammy Awards and five American Music Awards, the Eagles were one of the most successful musical acts of the 1970s ...
in 1954. In 1956, Singleton and McCoy, as Charlie and Rosie, recorded a single
Single may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Single (music), a song release
Songs
* "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004
* "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008
* "Single" (William Wei song), 2016
* "Single", by ...
together on RCA Victor
RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...
.
Singleton went on to write songs for a number of notable artists, including Pat Boone
Patrick Charles Eugene Boone (born June 1, 1934) is an American singer and actor. He was a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He sold more than 45 million records, had 38 Top 40 hits, and appeared in mo ...
, Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's music career began after he dropped out of school at the age of 15, and continued f ...
, Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...
, B. B. King, Peggy Lee
Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress, over a career spanning seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalis ...
, Johnny Mathis
John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standard music, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum s ...
, Wayne Newton
Carson Wayne Newton (born April 3, 1942) is an American singer and actor. One of the most popular singers in the nation from the mid-to-late 20th-century, Newton remains one of the best-known entertainers in Las Vegas. He is known by the nicknam ...
and Andy Williams
Howard Andrew Williams (December 3, 1927 – September 25, 2012) was an American singer. He recorded 43 albums in his career, of which 15 have been gold certified and three platinum certified. He was also nominated for six Grammy Awards. He hos ...
.[ One of his biggest writing successes was "]Don't Forbid Me
"Don't Forbid Me" is a popular song by Charles Singleton. Among Singleton's huge number of compositions was "Tryin' to Get to You", which had previously been recorded by Elvis Presley at Sun Records. In 1957, "Don't Forbid Me" was a number 1 hit ...
" by Pat Boone, a number one pop hit recorded in 1956.[ In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Singleton largely wrote songs without a writing partner, and also recorded an album, ''The Big Twist Hits'', released in 1962 and credited to the Charlie "Hoss" Singleton Combo.
"]Strangers in the Night
"Strangers in the Night" is a song composed by Bert Kaempfert with English lyrics by Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder. Kaempfert originally used it under the title "Beddy Bye" as part of the instrumental score for the movie ''A Man Could Get ...
" began as an instrumental called "Beddy Bye", by German bandleader and composer Bert Kaempfert
Bert Kaempfert (born Berthold Heinrich Kämpfert; 16 October 1923 – 21 June 1980) was a German orchestra leader, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, arranger, and composer. He made easy listening and jazz-oriented records and wrote the musi ...
, which appeared on the soundtrack of the film ''A Man Could Get Killed
''A Man Could Get Killed'' is a 1966 American adventure comedy film directed by Ronald Neame and Cliff Owen, shot on various locations in Portugal and starring James Garner, Melina Mercouri, Sandra Dee, Anthony Franciosa, and Robert Coote. Film ...
''. When Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...
's producer Jimmy Bowen
James Albert Bowen (born November 30, 1937) is an American record producer and former rockabilly singer. Bowen brought Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood together, and introduced Sinatra to Mel Tillis for their album, ''Mel & Nancy.''
Early life ...
heard the tune, he asked Kaempfert to turn it into a song, and Kaempfert approached Singleton and American composer and songwriter Eddie Snyder
Edward Abraham Snyder (February 22, 1919 – March 10, 2011) was an American composer and songwriter. Snyder is credited with co-writing the English language lyrics and music for Frank Sinatra's 1966 hit, "Strangers in the Night".
Snyder was bor ...
for help. Singleton wrote the lyrics and Snyder adapted the music for what became "Strangers in the Night".[ Sinatra initially called the song "a piece of shit" after the first ]take
A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production.
Film
In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup". Takes of each s ...
had to be discarded because session guitarist Glen Campbell
Glen Travis Campbell (April 22, 1936 – August 8, 2017) was an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, actor and television host. He was best known for a series of hit songs in the 1960s and 1970s, and for hosting ''The Glen Campbell Goodt ...
had made a mistake.[ But Sinatra changed his mind during the second take when he began adlibbing "dooby-dooby-doo".][ "Strangers in the Night" reached number-one on the '']Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' Hot 100
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...
and Adult Contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...
charts in 1966,[ and rejuvenated Sinatra's career.][
Singleton and Snyder had also reworked another Kaempfert instrumental called "Moon Over Naples" into the song " Spanish Eyes", which was successfully recorded by Elvis Presley, ]Al Martino
Al Martino (born Jasper Cini; October 7, 1927 – October 13, 2009) was an American singer and actor. He had his greatest success as a singer between the early 1950s and mid-1970s, being described as "one of the great Italian American pop croone ...
, Engelbert Humperdinck, Tom Jones, Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American country musician. The critical success of the album ''Shotgun Willie'' (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of ''Red Headed Stranger'' (1975) and '' Stardust'' (197 ...
, Julio Iglesias
Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva (; born 23 September 1943) is a Spanish singer, songwriter and former professional footballer. Iglesias is recognized as the most commercially successful Spanish singer in the world and one of the top record ...
, Faith No More
Faith No More is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1979. Before settling on the current name in July 1983, the band performed under the names Sharp Young Men and later Faith No Man. Bassist Billy Gould, keyboardist/r ...
, and others.[
Singleton, who also produced several ]platinum album
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
s, died in 1985.[
In some sources, Singleton seems to be confused with another musician called Charlie Singleton, a saxophonist born in Kansas City around 1930, who recorded ]jump blues
Jump blues is an up-tempo style of blues, usually played by small groups and featuring horn instruments. It was popular in the 1940s and was a precursor of rhythm and blues and rock and roll. Appreciation of jump blues was renewed in the 1990s as ...
in New York from around 1950. "Charlie "Hoss" Singleton", ''rocknroll-schallplatten-forum.de''
Retrieved November 8, 2016
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Singleton, Charles
1913 births
1985 deaths
African-American songwriters
Songwriters from Florida
20th-century American musicians
Golden Globe Award-winning musicians
20th-century African-American musicians