Joan Weber (December 12, 1935 — May 13, 1981) was an
American popular music singer.
New Jersey-born Joan Weber, fresh out of high school in
1954, had been auditioning around the New York area without catching a break.
Already married and expecting a child (though her condition wasn't yet
physically obvious), she was intent on a career as a professional singer.
She met up with manager Eddie Joy, who was impressed with
the teenager's strong voice, and he subsequently set up a meeting with Charles
Randolph Grean, a songwriter/producer (who had several years earlier written
Phil Harris' hit novelty song "The Thing," Joa
n made a demo recording
of "Marionette," a pop tune that revealed an emotionally weepy vocal
approach, a bit exaggerated when compared to the other popular singers of the
day. Grean, a producer and bandleader with RCA Victor,
couldn't convince the label's executives to give her a shot, so he sent the
demo to Mitch Miller, the head of artists and repertoire at Columbia Records.
n made a demo recording
of "Marionette," a pop tune that revealed an emotionally weepy vocal
approach, a bit exaggerated when compared to the other popular singers of the
day. Grean, a producer and bandleader with RCA Victor,
couldn't convince the label's executives to give her a shot, so he sent the
demo to Mitch Miller, the head of artists and repertoire at Columbia Records.
Miller took a song entitled "Let Me Go, Devil" by Jenny Lou Carson and Al Hill and
had it rewritten as "Let Me Go,
Lover!" for Weber, who recorded it on the Columbia label. She recorded
"Let Me Go Lover," backed by Jimmy Carroll and his orchestra, with
songwriting credits going to Carson and the pseudoynm Al Hill in place of the
trio of lyrics-revisers. It was released in November '54 with
"Marionette" on the B side.
Mitch pulled some strings and suddenly Let Me Go Lover had
become the title of an episode of Westinghouse Studio One, a long-running CBS
anthology program. Broadcast on November 15, 1954, the teleplay concerned a
disc jockey involved in a murder. Joan's recording of the song was featured six
times during the episode in varying lengths ranging from excerpts to the entire
song.
Miller, anticipating demand for the unique recording, had arranged for
thousands of 45s and 78s to be shipped to record stores across the country
prior to the airing. Immediately, his hunch paid off...the 
record began selling
like crazy the very next day. To further promote the single, Joan, recently
turned 19 and noticeably pregnant, made appearances on television variety shows
including Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town in December.
record began selling
like crazy the very next day. To further promote the single, Joan, recently
turned 19 and noticeably pregnant, made appearances on television variety shows
including Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town in December.
Joan gave birth to her daughter while the record was
cresting the charts. At the first opportunity, Miller got her back into the
studio for a follow-up single, the Ivory Joe Hunter song "It May Sound
Silly," a record survey no-show overshadowed by The McGuire Sisters' hit
pop version and Hunter's R&B original. Momentum slipped away with
successive efforts, varied in style and quality ("Lover-Lover," a
misguided attempt at recapturing the magic of the first single, "Goodbye
Lollipops, Hello Lipstick," a stab at the teen scene, and
"Gone," a cover of Ferlin Husky's massive country and pop hit). By
the time "Saturday Lover - Sunday Stranger" came out in the spring of
1957, it had become obvious a second hit wasn't in the cards. After 
Columbia
dropped her, she performed whenever possible in clubs and at minor events
before abandoning what was left of her show business career.
Columbia
dropped her, she performed whenever possible in clubs and at minor events
before abandoning what was left of her show business career.
Mitch Miller, in a 2004 interview for the Archive of
American Television, recalled that Weber's husband assumed total control of the
singer's activities, thus depriving Weber of experienced career guidance.
Consequently the song was her only recording to chart. Columbia dropped her
after her contract was up, because she could not promote her music and be a
mother at the same time.
At some point it seemed as though Joan had vanished into
thin air. No one at Columbia Records had a clue as to where she was. In 1969
the company mailed a royalty check to her last known residence, but it was
returned stamped "address unknown." For years her whereabouts were a
mystery until she turned up in a New Jersey mental facility sometime in the
1970s. In May 1981, while still institutionalized, Joan Weber died of heart
failure. She was 45 years old. (Info from mainly watbackattack.com)
I first heard about Joan Weber on the Casey Kasem radio program "America's Top 40 Disappearing Acts" in 1973, and the story intrigued me. Later, I learned through the 1989 edition of Joel Whitburn's book of Top 40 hits that she had passed away in 1981. Just recently, I was reminded of her again for some reason, and was determined to learn more. The best source of information turned out to be newspaper articles from the period, which chronicle her career with greater clarity. When "Lover" began its climb, she and her husband, who became her road manager, toured extensively to promote the record, even to Juarez, Mexico, while Joan's mother took care of the baby back home. Her husband is not mentioned in articles published after 1955. In the 1955 articles, her husband appears as someone trying to keep her steady with all the insanity going on with the promotion of the hit. What eventually led to their divorce is not mentioned in any of the articles I was able to read. In 1956, it was reported that Joan took some time off to hone her skills as a performer, dyed her hair blonde to remake her image into a more mature one, then spent a few years performing at a variety of venues to see if she could be successful, though not as extensively as in the past and without the clout of a recent hit to get her into larger engagements. One critic wrote that he had noticed her lack of experience on her first tour, and was pleasantly surprised to note that her show was more polished than on the first tour. Roughly in 1960, around the same time her marriage ended, she made the decision to return home and focus her attention on her daughter, who was approaching school age. She made the occasional local appearance in Philadelphia or South Jersey and had a part in a 1964 movie titled "The Block," filmed in Atlantic City. The last interview I could find for her was in 1966, when she was a restaurant hostess in Philadelphia. The headline read "Singer Gives Up $1,500-A-Week To Care for Her Young Daughter." In that interview, she explained her decision to retire from show business. After that, there is only speculation as to her whereabouts. From what is available, there is a thread of the anguish she experienced in dealing with the sudden fame, and hints at anxiety and depression at various phases in her life. I remind myself that the treatment of mental illness was not the same in that period as it is today, and that it's possible that a person in her situation now may have access to better information and resources to obtain treatment, and may not have had to be institutionalized. My conclusion is that she held it together as long as she could, and tried to keep her priorities in the right place in spite of everything. I am grateful that I'm able to listen to the other songs (on a Collectables CD) that didn't chart to get an idea of how her voice progressed, though it would really have been great to hear what songs she performed during the second round of touring.
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