"Calendar Girl" is a song by

Neil Sedaka Neil Sedaka (; born March 13, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. Since his music career began in 1957, he has sold millions of records worldwide and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and other artists, collabo ...

. The music was composed by Sedaka and the lyrics by

Howard Greenfield Howard Greenfield (March 15, 1936 – March 4, 1986) was an American lyricist and songwriter, who for several years in the 1960s worked out of the famous Brill Building. He is best known for his successful songwriting collaborations, including o ...

. Recorded in 1959 and released in December 1960 as a single, it was a Top-5 hit single for Sedaka, peaking at No. 4 on the US charts, No. 3 in Australia, and No. 1 on the Canadian and Japanese charts.

Background

Howard Greenfield got the inspiration for the song title from an old film ('' Calendar Girl'') listing in ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

''. Sedaka borrowed inspiration from multiple sources for the music, incorporating a shuffle beat after hearing "

Personality Personality is the characteristic sets of behaviors, cognitions, and emotional patterns that are formed from biological and environmental factors, and which change over time. While there is no generally agreed-upon definition of personality, mos ...

" by

Lloyd Price Lloyd Price (March 9, 1933May 3, 2021) was an American singer-songwriter, record executive and bandleader, known as "Mr. Personality", after his 1959 million-selling hit, "Personality". His first recording, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", was a hit for Spe ...

, a chord progression that was common in the music of

Al Jolson Al Jolson (born Eizer Yoelson; June 9, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was a Lithuanian-American Jews, Jewish singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian. He was one of the United States' most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s, and was self-bi ...

and

Eddie Cantor Eddie Cantor (born Isidore Itzkowitz; January 31, 1892 – October 10, 1964) was an American comedian, actor, dancer, singer, songwriter, film producer, screenwriter and author. Familiar to Broadway, radio, movie, and early television audiences, ...

, along with another progression from the end of

Ricky Nelson Eric Hilliard Nelson (May 8, 1940 – December 31, 1985) was an American musician, songwriter and actor. From age eight he starred alongside his family in the radio and television series ''The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet''. In 1957, he bega ...

's hit record "

Travelin' Man "Travelin' Man" is an American popular song, best known as a 1961 hit single sung by Ricky Nelson. Singer-songwriter Jerry Fuller wrote it with Sam Cooke in mind, but Cooke's manager was unimpressed and did not keep the demo, which eventually wou ...

Record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

Joe Viglione, writing for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, describes the song as a

G-rated The Motion Picture Association film rating system is used in the United States and its territories to rate a motion picture's suitability for certain audiences based on its content. The system and the ratings applied to individual motion pictures ...

calendar of

pin-ups A pin-up model (known as a pin-up girl for a female and less commonly male pin-up for a male) is a model whose mass-produced pictures see widespread appeal as part of popular culture. Pin-up models were variously glamour models, fashion models ...

such as

Betty Grable Elizabeth Ruth Grable (December 18, 1916 – July 2, 1973) was an American actress, pin-up girl, dancer, model, and singer. Her 42 films during the 1930s and 1940s grossed more than $100 million; for 10 consecutive years (1942–1951) she reign ...

and

Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...

, using verbal rather than visual imagery. Each month gives a different reason for the singer's affection for the titular character, and September—"I light the candles at your sweet sixteen"—was a lyrical motif that Howard Greenfield frequently used at the time, including "

Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen" is a pop song released in 1961 by Neil Sedaka. Sedaka wrote the music and performed the song, while the lyrics were written by Howard Greenfield. The song is noted for being similar in musical structure to Take Good ...

," released later the same year. Other months in the song reference

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, throu ...

in February, the

Easter Bunny The Easter Bunny (also called the Easter Rabbit or Easter Hare) is a folkloric figure and symbol of Easter, depicted as a rabbit—sometimes dressed with clothes—bringing Easter eggs. Originating among German Lutherans, the "Easter Hare" orig ...

in April, a

junior prom ''Junior Prom'' is a 1946 American musical comedy, directed by Arthur Dreifuss and produced by Sam Katzman and Maurice Duke. It was released by Monogram Pictures. It is the first of The Teen Agers series of movies. In 2018, the film was release ...

in May and June. Instrumentation on the song was provided by

Stan Applebaum Stanley Seymour Applebaum (March 1, 1922 – February 23, 2019) was an American composer, arranger, musician and conductor. He arranged the orchestration on many pop hit records, most notably in the early 1960s, including The Drifters' " Sa ...

and His Orchestra, with

Gary Chester Gary Chester (born Cesario Gurciullo; October 27, 1924 – August 17, 1987) was an American studio drummer, author, and teacher. Beginning in the 1960s, he played on hundreds of records for bands such as The Coasters, The Monkees, and The Lovin ...

on drums. Recording of the song required 26 takes over a three-hour period. The song was released to a 45 rpm single backed with a country-and-western song, "The Same Old Fool". Both songs were also released on a Compact 33 Single, a short-lived format that

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 ...

promoted in the early 1960s.

Promotional video

Scopitone Scopitone is a type of jukebox featuring a 16 mm film component. Scopitone films were a forerunner of music videos. The 1959 Italian Cinebox/Colorama and Color-Sonics were competing, lesser-known technologies of the time one year before the Scopi ...

promotional clip for the song was filmed in color in 1966, several years after the song was a hit (and at a time when Sedaka's star power had faded). It consists of Neil Sedaka playing the piano and dancing alongside four models (including his wife Leba), on a mock stage made to resemble calendar themes. It was somewhat unusual among American Scopitones in that the film matched the content of the song; Scopitones of the mid-1960s were noted for their disjointedness.

Reception

"Calendar Girl" became Sedaka's sixth hit in two years, but was also his first top-five record. The song peaked at No. 4 on the US Billboard chart and No. 1 on the Canadian and Japanese chart in 1961. In New Zealand, the song reached No. 7. The recording peaked at number 8 in the UK, as well as a top 5 in Australia.

Chart history

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Covers

Petula Clark Petula Sally Olwen Clark, CBE (born 15 November 1932) is an English singer, actress, and composer. She has one of the longest serving careers of a British singer, spanning more than seven decades. Clark's professional career began during the ...

recorded a French-language cover of this song, ''Tout Au Long Du Calendrier''. The Swedish group

Sven-Ingvars Sven-Ingvars is a Swedish pop/rock group from Slottsbron, Sweden. The band was formed in 1956 by Sven Svärd (drums), Ingvar Karlsson (guitar and accordion), Sven-Erik Magnusson (vocals, guitar, and clarinet). Later the band were joined first ...

—then called Sven-Ingvars Kvartett—recorded a version of Calendar Girl on their second EP "Pony Time" in 1961. In 1963,

Dee Dee Sharp Dee Dee Sharp (born Dione LaRue; September 9, 1945, in Philadelphia) is an American R&B singer, who began her career recording as a backing vocalist in 1961. Career Although Sharp had been playing the piano from an early age and directed chur ...

recorded "Calendar Boy" published by Cameo Parkway Records. In 1973,

Tirso Cruz III Tirso Silvano Cruz III (born April 1, 1952) is a Filipino actor, comedian, and singer. He currently serves as the Chairperson of the Film Development Council of the Philippines. Regarded as a "matinee idol", Cruz is a FAMAS Award and Gawad Uria ...

under Vicor Music Philippines. In 1977,

Tina Arena Filippina Lydia "Tina" Arena (born 1 November 1967) is an Australian singer-songwriter, musician, musical theatre actress and record producer. She is one of Australia's highest-selling artists and has sold over 10 million records worldwid ...

and John Bowles recorded a version for their album "

Tiny Tina and Little John ''Tiny Tina and Little John'' is the debut studio album by Australian singers Tina Arena and John Bowles. It was issued on Compact Disc and digitally in June 1998. Arena returned to the music charts in 1990 with her second album, and has since h ...

". In 1978,

The Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and frie ...

recorded a version of "Calendar Girl" with

Mike Love Michael Edward Love (born March 15, 1941) is an American singer and songwriter who co-founded the Beach Boys with his cousins Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson and their friend Al Jardine. Characterized by his nasal tenor and occasional bass-bari ...

on lead. This version was never released by The Beach Boys but was re-recorded by Mike Love for his first solo album, '' Looking Back with Love''. In 1978, Purina Cat Chow also did a commercial using a track called "Calendar Cat", which sounds like Neil Sedaka's "Calendar Girl". In 1991, Mexican pop band

OV7 OV7, formerly known as La Onda Vaselina, is a Mexican Latin pop group formed in 1989, but it was not until the early 1990s that Onda Vaselina would begin to make their impact. La Onda Vaselina was formed with the members being children, but it was ...

(then "La onda vaselina"") recorded a version in Spanish were entitled "Calendario de Amor". Also in 1991, Neil Sedaka recorded a new version of "Calendar Girl", which was included as the B-side of his newly released single "The Miracle Song". In 1998, the Brazilian singer

Eliana Eliana Assyrian/Akkadian, אֱלִיעָנָה (Hebrew), Ηλιάνα (Greek), إليانا (Arabic), is a female given name found with that spelling in Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Origin & meaning Many sources derive it from via He ...

recorded the song on his sixth studio album, titled "Um Calendário do Amor". In 2012,

J-Pop J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively also known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1 ...

singer

Aimer is a Japanese pop singer and lyricist signed to SACRA MUSIC and managed by agehasprings. Her name comes from the verb "Aimer" in French, which means "to love". Aimer uses the name aimerrhythm for lyrics credits. Debuted in 2011, she has releas ...

recorded the song on her cover album ''Bitter & Sweet''. In 2013,

Shakey Graves Shakey Graves (born Alejandro Rose-Garcia; June 4, 1987) is an American Americana musician from Austin, Texas. His music combines blues, folk, country, and rock and roll. Rose-Garcia received his stage name at Old Settler's Music Festival in 200 ...

(Alejandro Rose-Garcia) recorded a cover of "Calendar Girl" for his album ''Story Of My Life''. In 2019, American punk artist Negative XP released a cover of the song for the collaboration album "MKUltra Support Group Volume 2".

Personnel

The personnel on the original recording include

Al Caiola Alexander Emil Caiola (September 7, 1920 – November 9, 2016) was an American guitarist, composer and arranger, who spanned a variety of music genres including jazz, country, rock, and pop. He recorded over fifty albums and worked with some of ...

, Buck Pizzarelli,

Art Ryerson Arthur Ryerson (May 22, 1913 – October 27, 2004) was a jazz guitarist who emerged in the 1930s, playing acoustic and electric guitar, as well as the banjo. He played with jazz orchestras and bands in the 1930s and the 1940s. In the early 19 ...

and Bill Suyker on guitar,

George Duvivier George Duvivier (August 17, 1920 – July 11, 1985) was an American jazz double-bassist. Biography Duvivier was born in New York City, the son of Leon V. Duvivier and Ismay Blakely Duvivier. He attended the Conservatory of Music and Art, where ...

on bass,

Ernie Hayes Ernest George Hayes (6 November 1876 – 2 December 1953) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Surrey, Leicestershire and England. Ernie Hayes was a right-handed batsman, usually batting at No 3 and strong at driving and pull ...

on piano,

Jerome Richardson Jerome Richardson (November 15, 1920 – June 23, 2000) was an American jazz musician, tenor saxophonist, and flute player, who also played soprano sax, alto sax, baritone sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, alto flute and piccolo. He played with Ch ...

on sax, and

David "Panama" Francis David Albert "Panama" Francis (December 21, 1918 – November 13, 2001) was an American swing jazz drummer who played on numerous hit recordings in the 1950s. Early life Francis was born in Miami, Florida, on December 21, 1918. His father was ...

on drums.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Calendar Girl 1960 songs 1960 singles 1961 singles Neil Sedaka songs The Beach Boys songs Songs written by Neil Sedaka Songs with lyrics by Howard Greenfield Brill Building songs List songs RCA Victor singles Number-one singles in Canada Number-one singles in Japan