Friday, March 11, 2011

Jean Dinning, R. I. P.

NYTimes.com: Jean Dinning, who wrote the hit high school tragedy song “Teen Angel,”died here on Feb. 22. She was 86.

Her death was confirmed by her daughter Cynthia Wygal, The Orange County Register said.

Ms. Dinning’s younger brother Mark performed “Teen Angel,” which is about an untimely death. A couple’s car stalls on railroad tracks and they safely get out, but the girl runs back to get the boy’s high school class ring and a train hits the car. The song was released in October 1959 and became an instant hit.

[. . . .}

In the 1930s and ’40s, Ms. Dinning performed with her sisters as The Dinning Sisters, making records and appearing on the radio and in the movies. Their biggest hit was the song “Buttons and Bows” from the film “The Paleface,” starring Bob Hope and Jane Russell.

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

5 comments:

Deb said...

I always get that song confused with "Last Kiss" ("Oh where, oh where can my baby be...."). Jeez, there were some morbid songs back in the day.

Anonymous said...

"Teen Angel" was 1959.
"Tell Laura I Love Her" was 1960.
"Last Kiss" was 1964.

OK?

Signed,

Mr. Trvia

PS - I hadn't realized Mark Dinning himself died at 52.

PPS - "Teen Angel" is the one with the classic lyrics:

Just Sweet Sixteen and now you're gone
They've taken you away,
I'll never kiss your lips again
...They buried you today.

Unknown said...

And "Ebony Eyes" was 1961.

Deb said...

Does anyone remember "Hello, This Is Joni" from the mid-1970s? The guy and his girlfriend had a fight and she was killed in a car accident that night, so the guy keeps calling her answering machine to hear her voice. (I think this might have been when answering machines were still a novelty.) From around the same time, there was "Run, Joey, Run" about a boy who gets a girl "in trouble," and stands in front of her to take the bullet from her father's gun. Lots of subtext going on in that one.

The list goes on...

/Jeez, I seem to know so much about this topic, I feel like Todd Mason.

Unknown said...

And let's not forget "Leader of the Pack."