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Little Eva
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Little Eva's real name was Eva Narcissus Boyd. She was born in 1943 in Belhaven, North Carolina. As a teenager she worked as a housekeeper and earned extra money as a babysitter for the songwriting couple Carole King and Gerry Goffin. Her story shows how close writing, recording and releasing lay together in the hit factory of the Brill Building.
Music and breakthrough
Goffin and King wrote The Loco-Motion hoping that Dee Dee Sharp would record it. Sharp did not want to. Eva Boyd had sung the demo, and so she got her chance. Don Kirshner released the song in June 1962 on his label Dimension Records, under the name Little Eva. It became a number 1 in America that year. The backing vocals are by Carole King herself. The lyrics describe a dance, but it did not yet exist: Boyd made up the steps only once the song was a hit. Keep Your Hands Off My Baby (1962) and Let's Turkey Trot (1963) followed. With Big Dee Irwin she sang Swinging on a Star in 1963, although her name was not on the label.
Influence
Her own career remained short. The song, however, lived on. Grand Funk Railroad reached number 1 in America with it in 1974. Kylie Minogue had a number 1 with it in Australia in 1987, and a year later a hit in England and America in a version by Stock Aitken Waterman, the hit factory of the 1980s. Eva Boyd died in 2003 in Kinston, North Carolina.
Listening
The Loco-Motion · Little Eva, 1962Apple Music ↗
Discography
Studio albums
- 1962Llllloco‐Motion
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Mixtape 12: The Hit FactoryNL Reader
Mentioned in other articles
- The Loco-Motion Song
That demo sounded so good that it was released as a single, under the name Little Eva.