FLEETWOODS Come Softly to Me 1959 Do Wop Sheet Music

Printed music. 4 pages, including exterior ­­ 2 pages of music & words; The front features a nice ultramarine-tinted photograph of Gary, Gretchen and Ellen ... the girls are dressed in white and Gary wears a smart "sweater suit" ...nice flat-top, Gary!

CONDITION:

This is a used and well worn bit of rock history. This sheet music was owned by a performer who did covers of various pop songs at the time that the songs were new and fresh. He annotated the music in pencil with his own chord progressions and playing instructions, etc. The exterior surface wear and edge wear is mild -- there is a small nick near the bottom fore-edge corner with a tiny loss to paper -- there is a crease across the bottom of the fold and a shallower crease across the top fore-edge corner ---
Other than the penciled annotations, the interior is clean and presentable. All things considered - the music - the stars - the popularity - -- this is a very nicely preserved piece of Doo - Wop history. There are very few of these circulating on the market.

The original owner, a performer of pop song covers, bought this music when it was new. It was part of his working collection, and he annotated the music in pencil in order to learn and perform it in public; just think of that young rock fan -- a performer himself, trying out this song when it was new and fresh. That's pretty nifty in my book!

Penciled on the first page of the music the date 14/18/59 and notes: "Fill in R H" - "left hand in octaves" - "use all ideas to date" "thumb on note in treble clef" - both pages of the music are annotated

This is the sheet music of a great old Doo Wop hit from 1959, written and performed by The Fleetwoods, who were Gary Troxel, Gretchen Christopher and Barbara Ellis. Hard to imagine that anyone who lived through that time had not heard this song, either on Dick Clark's Show or on the radio; it must have been played a hundred times each day for a while. That's because it was a great song - now its a truly great oldie!

HERE IS THE WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE ON THE FLEETWOODS:

The Fleetwoods were a singing trio from Olympia, Washington, United States; formed in the late 1950s. They were responsible for the hit song "Come Softly to Me". The song was originally called "Come Softly", and the group was originally named Two Girls and a Guy, but both were changed en route to the song's becoming a hit.

Gary Troxel (b. November 28, 1939, Centralia, Washington) and Gretchen Christopher (b. February 29, 1940, Olympia, Washington) were two high school students waiting for Christopher's mother to pick them up after school. They started singing and humming a song together, and liked it enough to ask Christopher's friend and singing partner, Barbara Ellis (b. February 20, 1940, Olympia, Washington), to join them as a trio to perform it.

They performed the song twice at school functions, and their classmates wanted recordings of it so they could learn the song. After six months, they got the track recorded. They sang it a-cappella, then dubbed the instrumental accompaniment, consisting only of Latin-styled acoustic guitar and the rhythmic shaking of Troxel's car keys. It would top the pop charts and make it to the top five of the rhythm & blues charts. "Come Softly to Me" was also recorded by Frankie Vaughan and The Kaye Sisters, who had a chart hit in the United Kingdom with the song. The Fleetwoods' version of "Come Softly To Me" can be heard on a portable radio at one point in the 1986 movie, Stand By Me, which was set in Washington state.

Bob Reisdorf and Bonnie Guitar, the owners of Dolphin Records (later changed to Dolton Records), were responsible for the changes to the group name and song title. They thought that the title was too risque and not commercial-sounding enough, so had it changed to "Come Softly to Me". They also thought that the group's original name wasn't commercial-sounding enough. The new name of the group, The Fleetwoods, was based on the telephone exchanges in the areas where the three members lived, Fleetwood2-xxxx and Fleetwood7-xxxx.

The Fleetwoods continued to record into the 1960s, with a number of other successes. Their second hit, "Mr. Blue," also topped the pop charts. They would hit the top ten one more time with "Tragedy" in 1961. The beginning of the end for the group came when Troxel was drafted into the U.S. Navy.

The group was inducted into the Doo-Wop Hall of Fame in 2005.

This is the original sheet music - not a modern reproduction.