The Stroll

Album: The Best Of The Diamonds (1957)
Charted: 4
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Songfacts®:

  • This was a cover version of a Chuck Willis hit written by Clyde Otis and Nancy Lee. This song made "The Stroll" a dance craze in the late '50s and was a popular and continuously played song on ABC TVs American Bandstand.

    Far more staid than The Twist, The Monkey, The Watusi, or most other dances of the ear, The Stoll was a mellow slide-step dance, as the name implies. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Bob - Comox, B.C., Canada

Comments: 8

  • Seventhmist from 7th HeavenFor years, I thought Elvis sang this. I think Somerville was trying to sound like him.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn December 5, 1957, the Diamonds performed "The Stroll" on the Dick Clark ABC-TV weekday-afternoon program, 'American Bandstand'...
    Ten days later on December 15th the song entered Billboard's Top 100 Sides chart at position #87*, four weeks later it would peak at #4 {for 1 week} on Billboard's Most Played by Jockeys chart and it spent twenty one weeks on the Top 100...
    It reached #5 on Billboard's R&B Best-Sellers in Stores chart...
    Between 1956 and 1961 the Canadian quartet had sixteen records on the Top 100 chart, three made the Top 10, besides the above "The Stroll", their two other Top 10 records were "Little Darlin'" {#2 in 1957} and "Silhouettes" {#10 in 1957}...
    Lead singer David Somerville passed away at the age of 81 on July 14th, 2015...
    May he R.I.P.
    * The week the Diamonds' "The Stroll" entered the Top 100 at #87,their covered version of "Silhouettes" was at #60 on the chart.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyDavid Somerville of the Diamonds passed away July 14th, 2015 at the age of 81.
    May he R.I.P.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn March 23rd 1958, Alan Freed's 'Big Beat Show' played the Convention Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...
    One of the show's acts was the Diamonds and at the time the group's "The Stroll" was tied at #29* on Billboard's Top 100 chart, the month before on February 2nd it peaked at #5...
    "The Stroll" was the group's second biggest hit, their biggest was "Little Darlin'", which peaked at #2 in 1957...
    * The week it was at #29, the record it was tied with was "My Bucket Has a Hole in It" by Ricky Nelson.
  • Betty from Dayton, OhI first heard this awesome song in the movie "Night of the Creeps" Back in the 80's Loved this song then, and now!
  • Belet from Kent, United KingdomI have just seen on MySpace the page from the author of "The Stroll" why not go and ask her the questions she is Nancy Lee
    www.myspace.com/nancyleeericksen

    blessings to all
  • Alan from Sault Ste. Marie, OnI love watching and dancing to the Stroll. I've seen it in numerous films such as "American Graffiti" and videos such as Elton John's "I Guess Thats Why They Call It The Blues".
  • Walter from Antwerp, BelgiumThis was certainly NOT a cover, but written by the authors after seeing teenagers do a dance called the stroll during the C.Willis hit 'CC Rider' on TV. Therefore Willis was nicknamed "King of the Stroll" in the process, but he never had a recording by that name.

    "Seeing the future the Diamonds sought an original song to record. In the late spring of 1957, Chuck Willis' "C.C. Rider" became the first of a string of rhythm and blues songs based on a dance named the Stroll. Clyde Otis, a songwriter who had with Nancy Lee written a song based on the new dance, approached the Diamonds. "The Stroll" became a huge hit partly as a result as a result of repeated airings on American Bandstand. "The Stroll" was perfect for television because it was exuberant and photogenic."

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