Customer Reviews

Best Of Little Eva

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There have been a few artists who, armed only with the natural gift of voice, have enjoyed brief but phenomenal success in the music industry. Their success ended up being hampered by either their lack of knowledge as it pertains to the business end of the industry, rapidly changing music trends, or the sometimes unfair treatment by the recording industry executives themselves (i.e. paying an artist "scale" only to see the finished product go on to make millions). "Big Mama" Thorton was such an artist; so was "Little" Eva.

By now, most of us know the "babysitter-for-Carole-King-with-a-marketable-voice" story (for those of you who don't, check the liner notes)--what bothers me most about Eva's story is that Dimension, her label, made a ton of money from "Loco-motion", while Eva netted peanuts by comparison. Moreover, as evidenced from listening to the CD, there are several tracks that Eva recorded that had enormous potential.

Overall, the audio quality of the CD is exceptional--whoever preserved these musical gems deserves praise. It's just a shame that Eva Boyd made songwriters and a record company a huge sum of money while she now ( as of 1991 ) works as a kitchen cook in her hometown of Bellhaven, North Carolina.

Other tracks NOT on this disc are available via import, but this CD is a good intro to the life and times of "Little" Eva.

Although she had other hits too, Little Eva will forever be remembered for Locomotion, which provided a huge hit for her in the early sixties. It was revived by Grand funk railroad in the seventies and again by the brilliant Australian singer, Kylie Minogue, in the eighties.

Keep your hands off my baby, the follow-up to Locomotion, was a top twenty hit in America, just making the top thirty in Britain, while her third hit, Let's turkey trot, was a top twenty hit on both sides of the Atlantic.

Her next hit was a duet with Big Dee Irwin, although Little Eva was not credited. The song, Swinging on a star, was originally a number one American hit for Bing Crosby, but the sixties version is very different. I enjoy both versions in different ways. It provided them with a top ten British hit, but barely made the American top forty.

That marked the effective end of Little Eva's chart career, though there were to be a couple of minor hits in America.

This compilation contains all the essential Little Eva tracks, though a complete collection of her Dimension recordings (which conveniently filled a CD) used to be available.

I remember the feeling "Keep Your Hands Off My Baby" gave me when I first heard it; wouldn't you like YOUR girl to show that much passion for you? Little Eva was just a teenager when she hit the big time with the "LocoMotion" song. Everybody was looking to create a new dance craze like the "twist" and many would. Little Eva didn't last that long because the Beatles and the like were just around the corner (plus turmoil, cynicism about everything including romance, etc). Little Eva is no longer with us but this CD contains all you need to hear from that most impressive woman.

Eva Narcissus Boyd - aka Little Eva - had four charted single hits on her own and one shared with Big Dee Irwin in the early Sixties. And then she, like so many others, got run over by the massive influx of British artists, beginning in 1964.

Born on June 29, 1945 [some references say 1943] in Bellhaven, North Carolina, her first big hit was the Goffin-King composition, The Loco-Motion, which, aided admirably by the backing of Carole King herself, shot to # 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts in August 1962 on the Dimension label, b/w He Is The Boy. Later that year she was back with Keep Your Hands Off My Baby which peaked at # 6 R&B/# 12 Hot 100 in December, b/w Where Do I Go?

The hits continued in 1963 when Let's Turkey Trot [which is based on the same melody as Little Girl Of Mine - a 1956 hit for The Cleftones] rose to # 16 R&B/# 20 Hot 100 in March, b/w Down Home, followed by Swinging On A Star which, billed to Big Dee Irwin (with Little Eva) reached # 38 Hot 100 in July b/w a solo effort by Irwin. Eva then closed out her hit singles career with her version of On Top Of Old Smokey called Old Smokey Locomotion, a # 48 Hot 100 also in July b/w Just A Little Girl. Strangely, however, neither song made any impact whatsoever on the R&B charts.

With the arrival of The Beatles et al, she and many other budding North American artists, as well as quite a few who had been around for several years, suddenly found air time and juke box space difficult to come by and they just sort of drifted off into the ether.

Little Eva did try her hand at a few other labels like Amy and Spring, but without luck. Her sister Idalia also tried her hand briefly with Dimension [e.g. Hula Hooping] but never had a charted hit.

As "best of" compilations go this one is fairly complete, although it would have been nice to see all the flipsides included. As it is, only Where Do I Go? is here. Even so, it rates 4 stars and is well worth the price.

Little Eva was one of rock & roll's biggest female artists. Rest in rock & roll heaven !!