Diane Renay

Diane Renay is usually identified as a one-hit wonder, but that's not only not quite true (she did have a second hit), but it implies a somewhat more ephemeral talent and output than was the case. Additionally, for a time in 1964, she was the major distaff voice for the songwriting and production work of Bob Crewe, one of those often overlooked 1960's producers who note only had a golden touch in the studio but helped define the era in a serious way. Diane Renay was born Renee Diane Kushner, and was a graduate of Northeast High in Philadelphia. She met Bob Crewe during the early 1960's, just as he was branching out to a major national scale career as a producer-writer. Crewe (and his partner Frank Slay) had previously helped put Philadelphia's budding pop music business on the map by writing and producing the hit "Silhouettes" by the Rays, which put Cameo Records on the map, later made Freddie Cannon into a star for Swan Records, as well as taking an outfit called the Four Lovers to the top of the charts around the world as the Four Seasons. Kushner had a voice that was not only pleasing but managed to be sexy and impish--like a healthy American teenage girl, which is what she was--at the same time, and she could play both sides of it at once, or emphasize one or the other. A late 1963 session yielded a handful of songs including "Navy Blue," written by Crewe and singer Eddie Rambeau ("Concrete and Clay" with Bud Rehak. Signed to 20th Century-Fox Records as Diane Renay, her debut single was issued in early 1964 and managed to place at No. 6 in the late winter of 1964, a time when the Beatles were chewing up practically the entire top 10. Renay followed this up in the spring with the equally attractive "Kiss Me, Sailor" by Rambeau and Rehak, which seemed to recall both...