The “Golden Hits Of The 50s”
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TUNE WEAVERS
“HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY”
(Margo Sylvia, Gilbert Lopez)
Checker 872
No. 5 October 28, 1957
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Frank Paul, a former bandleader and music director for off-Broadway shows, had acquired master
recordings from the DuBonnett and Onyx record labels. By 1952, Frank was releasing some of these
masters on a label he called CasaGrande, after his old Boston-based big band.
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Nearby, Frank’s brother-in-law ran a school that taught pattern-making for men’s clothing. One of his
students, Gilbert Lopez (b. July 4, 1934), had been singing with an a cappella group of relatives for about
four months, so he pestered Frank to check out these “Tone Weavers,” as they initially called themselves.
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“I thought jeez . . . just another group,” Frank recalled to Goldmine’s George Moonoogian. “So finally, one
Sunday in October of ’56, they were coming over to my brother-in-law’s house in Medford, and I went over
to hear them.”
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The group, based in Roxbury, Massachusetts, consisted of Lopez, a tenor, his sister and lead singer, Margo
Sylvia (b. April4, 1936), her husband and bass singer Johnny Sylvia (b. Sept. 8, 1935), plus Margo’s
cousin, obligato and opera student Charlotte Davis (b. Nov. 12, 1936). They played some tapes for Paul and
sang some songs a cappella. When the Tone Weavers broke into a new tune that Margo and Gil had just
written, “Happy, Happy Birthday Baby,” “Paul jumped up and said, ‘That’s it! That’s the one we’re going to
record!’ I could then see its hit potential.
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“I wrote that song for Donald Clements,” Margo explained in an exclusive interview. “He and I had been
an item. He was in the Sophomores and they’d recorded some of my songs; “He” and “I Get a Thrill.” I
had no musical training and when I’d sing as a child my mother would tell me to ‘shut up.’ I turned to
poetry and quietly sang in my head. Donald and his group were the first to record my stuff. Just before
his birthday, he told me he found a girl that had more going for her than I did. I felt I needed to write him
something: ‘Happy, Happy Birthday Baby/Although you’re with somebody new/Thought I’d drop a line to
say/That I wish this happy day would find me beside you…’ The words came so easily. It was real:’
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Contracts were drawn up, Paul became their manager, and on March 7, 1957, the renamed Tune Weavers
were ushered into Boston’s Ace Recording Studio to record two tracks, “Happy, Happy” and its initial flip
side, “Old Man River.” “That session–just two songs–took 18 hours to record. I was eight months
pregnant. At one point–during the take that became the record–I thought I’d pass out.” Once the promo
copies got around, it took eight months before it became apparent that “Happy, Happy Birthday Baby”
could be a big, big hit, and Paul made arrangements with Phil Chess to have the disk distributed on Chess’
Checker subsidiary.
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The response was phenomenal: sales eventually totaled 2 million copies. The Tune Weavers toured the
nation, making stops at the Apollo Theatre, Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand” and the Paramount
Theatre, for a Alan Freed rock’n’roll show.
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“I was a kid, a rock and roll fan, and I couldn’t believe they paid us to sing,” said Margo of her appearance
on the legendary Freed show. “I stood in the wings with this wild beast in back of me. It was Little
Richard, the most beautiful man I’d ever seen. He’d squeeze me and whisper, ‘Aren’t they wonderful: I
don’t know who was performing; it was all unreal.”
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The following year, Charlotte dropped out of the group, and was replaced by another relative by ·marriage,
William “Bucky” Morris, Jr., formerly of the G Clefs, known for “Ka Ding Dong” (#24, 1956). The flip side
of “Happy, Happy” began receiving heavy airplay. A marketing decision was made to pull “Old Man River”
and release it as a separate single. Instrumentals, created by New Orleans keyboard wiz Paul Gayten
were assigned to each release as “B” sides. An album and some nifty follow-ups appeared, but a major
mistake was made…. “I Remember Dear” and Margo’s compositions “I’m Cold,” “There Stands My Love,”
and “Little Boy” all received zip in the way of airplay, and all bombed.
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“Frank Paul got greedy. He was impressed with the sales that Chess Records was getting with us and
violated the contract with them by having us record ‘I Remember Dear.” He didn’t give that disk and the
others to Chess. He only printed 2,500 copies of each and almost no stores were able to get them.”
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The group also experienced some major problems when it came to compensation. “I wrote ‘Happy’… and
Gil paid $6 to copyright the song,” Margo complained. “[As of December 1988], neither my brother nor I
have received any money as artists. Corruption and greed are the reasons I stopped singing.
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“It never got out of my system, though. To have made it so big while so young and then to have lost it and
not gotten the money–l’ve never gotten over it. You’re talking to an endangered species. I’m frightened
that I’ll die before things are made right.
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Margo and John have since divorced. Margo raised a family of six, pursuing an on-and-off again solo
singing career. In 1989, Margo recorded again under the Tune Weavers name, singing all the harmony
parts, on two singles–“Merry, Merry Christmas Baby” and “Come Back to Me” b/w “I’ve Tried”–for Bruce
Patch’s Classic Artists label.
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Margo Sylvia died October 25, 1991, six months to the day after the interview for this book. Her fifth
child, Mark Sylvia, went on to become a producer for Howard Huntsberry and Klymaxx.
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John runs a TV and video store. Gil, who lives in San Francisco, became a mental health worker.
Charlotte has been a Boston housewife. Donald Clements, the object of Margo’s infatuation, is still living
in Boston. Until the end, Margo and Donald kept in touch.