"TEACH ME TONIGHT" (1953)

"Teach Me Tonight" has been covered by hundreds of musicians, but only a case of DJ "flip-itis" prevented its first hit recording from becoming a flop. In the early 1950s the Abbott Record Company, a well-established country and western label that was looking for new talent and a change of pace, signed the De Castro Sisters. The three-sister singing act, originally from Cuba, featured harmony in the style of the McGuire and Andrews Sisters but with a Latin flavor, and in the 1940s and 1950s the trio was quite popular performing live in Las Vegas and Los Angeles clubs. During one of their club dates in Hollywood, Fabor Robison, the owner of Abbott Records, happened to catch their show and signed them. Their first record for Abbott recorded in October of 1954 featured "It’s Love" on the "a" side, the song that disc jockeys were supposed to plug, and "Teach Me Tonight" on the "b" side. "It’s Love" was not creating much enthusiasm, and when legendary Cleveland, Ohio, DJ Bill Randle (WERE-AM) flipped over the record and played "Teach Me Tonight", it became an overnight hit. It stayed on the Billboard charts for 20 weeks and peaked at second place.
Gene De Paul, who wrote the music for "Teach Me Tonight", collaborated with a number of lyricists, including Johnny Mercer on the film score for "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" and the Broadway play "Lil’ Abner" and Donald Raye for such memorable standards as "I’ll Remember April" and "You Don’t Know What Love Is". However, "Teach Me Tonight", possibly his best known song, was his only notable collaboration with Sammy Cahn. During his songwriting career Cahn had major collaborations with several other composers, including Saul Chaplin, Jule Styne and Jimmy Van Heusen, and wrote lyrics for over 2,400 songs.
"Teach Me Tonight" was the greatest hit the De Castro Sisters and Abbott Records had, selling over 5 million copies. Almost immediately after its radio debut, four cover versions of the song were released, including Dinah Washington’s well-known recording that hit the R&B charts in December 1954. The song has been recorded in numerous musical styles, ranging from folk to easy listening to a cha-cha-cha, and singers frequently have modified its lyrics as well. However, the most drastic modification came from the song’s lyricist himself, Sammy Cahn. Cahn was a good friend of Frank Sinatra and when Sinatra recorded the song for his "L.A. is My Lady " album in 1984, Cahn added other verses that made reference to Sinatra’s numerous love affairs. The original lyrics are below, followed by the version written specifically for Sinatra.