The “Golden Hits Of The 70s”
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EDDIE HOLMAN
“HEY THERE LONELY GIRL”
(Earl Shuman, Leon Carr)
ABC 11240
No. 2 February 21, 1970
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With more than 30 years of recording history behind him, Eddie Holman is still best remembered for his
soulful, falsettoed/sex-changed recycling of Ruby & The Romantics’ big-time smoothie from 1963, “Hey
There Lonely Boy.”
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Eddie was maneuvered toward a musical career not long after the third day in June 1946, when he was
born in Norfolk, Virginia. As a child performer, he appeared in Off-Broadway theaters as Little Eddie;
was a regular on NBC-TV’s “The Children’s Hour.” Minor releases appeared on Leopard and Ascot. He
trained in the ways of sounds at the Victoria School of Music and Art in New York City, and later attended
Cheyney State College in Philadelphia. While in Philly in 1965, Eddie connected with Parkway Records
and won himself his first Top 20 R & B charting with “This Can’t Be True” (#57, 1966). Another Parkway
single, “Am I a Loser” (#17), rode onto the R & B listings before the record label collapsed.
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After a brief stay with Bell, Eddie hit his stride with ABC Records and arranger/producer Peter DeAngelis.
Pete dressed Eddie’s high-pitched voicings in the sticky-sweet strings of the Philadelphia Symphony
Orchestra; the very same organization utilized by MFSB. The first DeAngelis-Helman collaboration, “I
Love You” (R&B: #30, 1969), was a fruitful one, but their second creation, “Hey There Lonely Girl,” went
almost to the pinnacle of popularity.
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“[Peter] recommended I do the song,” Holman told Goldmine’s Stu Fink. “I really didn’t want to do it.
The only reason I did is because my wife asked me to–and that’s a very good reason.”
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A re-release of “Don’t Stop Now” (#48, 1970) b/w a take on the Skyliners’ sorrowful “Since I Don’t Have
You” (#48) was a double-sided mini-success, both in pop and R&B; years later, Eddie’s voice would once
again grace the pop charts with “This Will Be a Night to Remember” (#90, 1977). In 1974, Holman’s
smash was re-released and soared to the Top 10 in England.
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