The “Golden Hits Of The 50s” 

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Poni-Tails

“BORN TOO LATE“

(Fred Tobias, Charles Strouse)

ABC-Paramount 9934

No. 7    September 15, 1958

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Toni Cistone (lead vocals), Karen Topinka (low harmony), and La Verne Novak (high harmony) began

singing together at Brush High School in Lyndhurst, Ohio.  Discovered while performing at a benefit,

they were introduced to a music publisher named Tom Illius.  The girls showed him “Que La Bozena,”

a song that they had written; Tom liked the tune and the girls’ voices.  He offered to become their

manager and to hawk their song around town.

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Soon after, parental pressure forced Karen to quit the group; Patti McCabe replaced her.  Point

Records, a subsidiary of RKO Pktures, recorded the Poni-Talls singing “Que La Bozena” and another

innocent number, “Your Wild Heart.”   The latter, the “B” side, was nearly a hit, but a young Chicago

voice named JOY I.AYNE beat the Poni-Tails to the punch with more frenzied cover version of the

song.

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After “Can I Be Sure” slipped from sight, lllius man­aged to interest Don Costa–later to arrange/produce

 for Paul Anka, Frankie Avalon, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra; and found DCP Records–at ABC-Paramount

in recording the girls.  “Just My Luck to Be Fifteen” stiffed, but “Born Too Late” did as well as the trio of

teens could ever have hoped.   They appeared on “American Bandstand.”   They received fan mail and

some spending money.   And although their platter about an older boy has yet to be certified as a million

seller, “Born To Late” was a rock’n’roll classic, a “girl group goldie,’ and a ’round the-world turntable

favorite…for a few, ever so few years…them oblivion.

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For the next two years, the Tails tried their best to recapture that magic.  Despite its suggestive title,

“Seven Minutes in Heaven” (#87, 1958) was innocuous.   “I’ll Be Seeing You” (#87, 1959) was a

rockaballad that went down well at hops as a “ladies’ choice” num­ber.   Both charted, but that was

about it for their recording success.

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Toni, Patti, and La Verne never wrote anymore songs.   The authors of their classic waxing did, however.

Tobias wrote “Good Timin'” (a major hit for Jimmy Jones, known also for “Handy Man”) and “One of Us”

(a hit for “the rage” Patti Page);  Strouse wrote the music for and “Those Were the Days,” the theme for

TVs “All in the Family.”

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“The three years were fun ” Toni told Goldmine‘s Carlo Wolff, “but I just wanted to get out of the record

business and  get back to normal living.”   Each Poni-Tail married and settled down.   Toni (Cistone)

Costabile worked at a high school in Shaker Heights, Ohio.   La Verne (Novak) Glavic, a grandmother five

times over, has lived in Menor, Ohio, and worked for a real estate agent.   Patti (McCabe) Barnes died of

cancer, January 17, 1989