"Stupid Cupid" is a song written 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 ...

and

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 ...

which became a hit for

Connie Francis Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero (born December 12, 1937), known professionally as Connie Francis, is an American pop singer, actress, and top-charting female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Called the “First Lady of Rock & Roll” ...

in 1958.

Recording history

After almost three years of failure, Connie Francis finally had a hit in the spring of 1958 with a rock ballad version of the standard " Who's Sorry Now?" Unfortunately, her next pair of singles were less successful. ''I'm Sorry I Made You Cry'' only reached #36 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and ''Heartaches'' failed to chart at all. Francis recalls: "I knew I had to come up with a hit on the third record. It was crucial. I listened to every publisher's song in New York, but nothing was hitting me." Eventually

Don Kirshner Donald Kirshner (April 17, 1934 – January 17, 2011) was an American music publisher, music consultant, rock music producer, talent manager, and songwriter. Dubbed "the Man with the Golden Ear" by ''Time'' magazine, he was best known ...

Aldon Music Aldon Music was a New York-based music publishing company, founded by Don Kirshner and Al Nevins in 1958. Aldon is regarded as having played a significant role in shaping the Brill Building Sound in the late 1950s and 1960s. History Nevins was ...

had Greenfield and Sedaka, who were staff writers for Aldon, visited Francis at her home to pitch their songs, but she and close friend

Bobby Darin Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto; May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was an American musician and actor. He performed jazz, pop, rock and roll, folk, swing, and country music. He started his career as a songwriter for Connie ...

argued that the slow, dense ballads they were offering didn't appeal to the teenager market. Francis asked if they had something faster and bouncier. Greenfield asked Sedaka to play "Stupid Cupid", an uptempo number intended for the Shepherd Sisters. Sedaka objected that Francis, a "classy lady," would be insulted to be pitched such a puerile song; but Greenfield dismissed Sedaka's objection, saying, "What have we got to lose, she hates everything we wrote, doesn't she? Play it already!" After hearing only a few lines Francis recalls: "I started jumping up and down and I said, 'That's it! You guys got my next record!'" Francis cut "Stupid Cupid" on 18 June 1958 at Metropolitan Studio (NYC);

LeRoy Holmes Alvin LeRoy Holmes (September 22, 1913 – July 27, 1986) was an American songwriter, composer, arranger, orchestra conductor and record producer. Biography Holmes graduated from Hollywood High School, studied music at Northwestern Universi ...

conducted the orchestra while Morty Kraft produced the session. Noteworthy in the recording is the uncredited

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

work; a complex and energetic riff that has survived the decades and has proven to be one of early rock and roll's best recorded bass guitar sessions. A version of " Carolina Moon" recorded at Metropolitan Studio that 9 June with Kraft producing and

Joe Lipman Joseph P. Lippman (April 23, 1915 - January 21, 2007) was an American composer, arranger, conductor, pianist, and songwriter working in jazz and traditional pop. His musical career was over five decades long, having started at age 19 with the Ben ...

conducting was utilized as the B-side. "Stupid Cupid" provided a reasonably strong comeback vehicle for Francis reaching the Top 15 that August with a ''Billboard'' Hot 100 peak of #14. Francis would have to wait until 1959 to make her return to the Top 10 with " My Happiness". In the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

Francis had made more chart impact than in the US with both "Who's Sorry Now?" (No. 1) and "I'm Sorry I Made You Cry" (No. 11). This trend continued with "Stupid Cupid" which, as a double sided hit with " Carolina Moon", spent six weeks at No. 1. Francis would remain a potent UK chart force for the next four years with fifteen Top Twenty singles, eight of them Top Ten, but she would never again reach the top of the UK Singles Chart despite topping the US charts three times in the early 1960s.

, one of the song's co-writers, recorded his own version in 1959, and it saw a single release in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

on the

RCA Italiana RCA Italiana was an Italian record company founded in 1949 and active until 1987, the date on which, together with the parent company RCA Records, it was bought by BMG Entertainment. History Founded in Rome in 1949 under the Vatican's protec ...

label.

Other versions

Patsy Cline Patsy is a given name often used as a diminutive of the feminine given name Patricia or sometimes the masculine name Patrick, or occasionally other names containing the syllable "Pat" (such as Cleopatra, Patience, Patrice, or Patricia). Among I ...

sang the song on stage. The song is featured on her posthumous albums ''Live Volume 2'' and ''

Live at the Cimarron Ballroom ''Live at the Cimarron Ballroom'' is a live album released by MCA Records to promote a concert by country singer Patsy Cline performing live in 1961. The album was recorded at a concert held at the Cimarron Ballroom at West 4th Street and South D ...

''.

Maureen Evans Maureen Evans (born 23 March 1940, Cardiff, Wales) is a Welsh pop singer who achieved fame in the 1950s and 1960s. Career Evans career began as a singer with Waldini's Gypsy Band in the mid-1950s, mainly doing summer seasons at UK holiday r ...

made her first known recording with a 1958 cover of "Stupid Cupid"/ "Carolina Moon" cut for the

Embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually den ...

label which produced soundalike versions of current hits for Woolworths to sell at lower price than the original hit.

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

included "Stupid Cupid" in the rock 'n' roll medleys in their live shows during the 1970s, including the concert released on '' Live at the Rainbow '74''. In 1982, Taiwanese singer Fong Fei-fei released a version of the song which she entitled "Another Kind of Confession" (另一種表白). "Stupid Cupid" has also been recorded by

Wanda Jackson Wanda LaVonne Jackson (born October 20, 1937) is an American singer and songwriter. Since the 1950s, she has recorded and released music in the genres of rock, country and gospel. She was among the first women to have a career in rock and roll, ...

, by

Jo Wyatt Jo Wyatt is an English actress. She is known for her voice as Tweak in '' The Octonauts'', Little Miss Helpful, Little Miss Naughty, Little Miss Scary and Little Miss Sunshine in '' The Mr. Men Show''. She also voiced Daisy Kribotnik in ''Lov ...

(of

Minipops ''Minipops'' is a television series broadcast in 1983 on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. Designed primarily for younger viewers, it consisted of music performances on a brightly coloured set featuring preteen children singing then-contempora ...

) whose 1982 version reached #1 in France''Whatever Happened to the Minipops?'' Channel 4 and #45 in the Netherlands, and by

Mandy Moore Amanda Leigh Moore (born April 10, 1984) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She rose to fame with her debut single, "Candy (Mandy Moore song), Candy", which peaked at number 41 on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Her de ...

for ''The Princess Diaries'' soundtrack, and in the motion picture, for her character Lana Thomas sings. Danny Mann ( de) recorded the German language rendering "Sexie Hexy" in 1958 while the Portuguese rendering: "Estúpido Cupido", recorded by Brazilian singer

Celly Campello Célia Campello Gomes Chacon, born Célia Benelli Campello, known by her stage name Celly Campello (18 June 1942 – 4 March 2003), was a Brazilian singer and performer, a pioneer in Brazilian rock. She also acted in the telenovela ''Estúpido Cu ...

, was the #1 single in Brazil for the year 1959.

Arja Koriseva Arja Koriseva (born 21 April 1965) is a Finnish singer. She first came to fame as a tango singer; her repertoire now includes evergreen, pop, musical theatre, and sacred music. Koriseva has sold over 330,000 certified records, making her the sev ...

featured a Finnish rendering of "Stupid Cupid": "Tuttu juttu", on her 1990 self-titled album. In 2003,

Jordan McCoy ''American Juniors'' is an American reality television singing competition series that was broadcast for one season from June 3 to August 19, 2003, on Fox. The series was a spin-off of ''American Idol'', but with younger contestants. The show h ...

performed the song on '' American Juniors''. The song was included in the Korean musical drama ''What's Up!'', released in 2011. Kim Ji-won's character Park Tae Yi performed the song as she told

Lim Ju-hwan Lim Ju-hwan (; born May 18, 1982) is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his leading roles in the television dramas '' Tamra, the Island'' (2009), '' Ugly Alert'' (2013), ''Uncontrollably Fond'' (2016) and ''The Bride of Habaek'' (2017). ...

's character the story of how her parents met. The song recurs several times more throughout the remainder of the episodes. The song is also a part of North America's version of Donkey Konga, released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2003-2004.

References

{{Neil Sedaka 1958 singles Disney songs UK Singles Chart number-one singles Connie Francis songs Neil Sedaka songs Mandy Moore songs Songs written by Neil Sedaka Songs with lyrics by Howard Greenfield 1958 songs RCA Records singles Brill Building songs Cupid in music

Recording history

Other versions

See also

References