Oh Sweet Lorraine

Album: Single Release Only (2013)
Charted: 42
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Songfacts®:

  • This features the Peoria, Illinois-based Green Shoe Studio CEO/producer Colgan Jacob Colgan and Fred Stobaugh, who penned the song. 96-year-old Stobaugh wrote "Lorraine" for his wife of 72 years, who died in April 2013. "Well, after she passed away," he recalled in the song's official documentary video , "I was just sitting in the front room one evening by myself. It just [came] to me. I kept humming it. It just seemed like it fit her."
  • Stobaugh entered his tune in a songwriting contest that Green Shoe studio was running. Colgan remembered receiving his letter. "What made Fred's entry so special was instead of a video, it was a large manila envelope titled Green Shoe Studio Singer Songwriter contest. It's an online contest. People [were] supposed to upload their videos," he said. "But, we received a manila envelope. Lo and behold, it was a letter from a 96-year-old man who said, 'I've written a song for my [late] wife.'"

    Colgan added: "I started to read the lyrics and was so touched by the song and without even meeting Fred we thought, we're going to do something."
  • According to Colgan, Fred joked in his letter about his inability to sing. "On the actual envelope itself, it says ' P.S. I don't sing, I would scare people, haha,'" said the Green Shoe Studio CEO.
  • The song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at #42, making Stobaugh the oldest-most credited artist to appear on the chart. He overtook Tony Bennett, who was 85 years and two months old when "Body and Soul" with Amy Winehouse, spent a week on the survey in 2011.

    Fred Stobaugh's record was broken in March 2024 when Ariana Grande's "Ordinary Things" featuring her 98-year-old gran, Marjorie "Nonna" Grande, debuted at #55 on the Billboard Hot 100.

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