Diane Ray born 1 September 1945

Diane Ray (1 September 1945 – 14 March 2020) was an American pop and rock and roll singer of the early 1960s. She is best known for her 1963 hit single, "Please Don't Talk to the Lifeguard". Without any further chart presence, Ray remains a one-hit wonder.

Petite blonde Carol Diane Ray grew up in Gastonia, North Carolina, about 20 miles west of Charlotte. By the time she graduated from Ashley High in 1963 she'd been performing around town at dance hops and private parties, sometimes with local band The Continentals. In July she entered a talent competition in Charlotte, winning a unanimous first place vote over more than one hundred other entrants. Mercury Records A&R head Shelby Singleton was on the judging panel and offered her a contract on the spot. In short order the 17-year-old was in Mercury's Nashville studios making her first recordings.

"Please Don't Talk to the Lifeguard," produced by Jerry Kennedy (who usually worked in Mercury's country division), came out of that session, the tempo a tad faster than Andrea Carroll's original, clocking in at an economical 1:42. Andrea, by the way, finally appeared on the charts in July with "It Hurts to Be Sixteen" on the Bigtop label, soon finding herself competing with Diane Ray (sans first name), who debuted two weeks later and ultimately climbed higher with a remake of Andrea's two-year-old "Please Don't Talk" song.

                              

When Diane's single was released, Gastonia radio station WLTC played the song every ten minutes throughout an entire day; rival station WGAS also put the record in heavy rotation. Diane was offered a chance to do a daily radio show on WLTC; for several months she had a weekday slot from 3:05 to 4PM, a unique distinction considering there were very few female radio hosts to be found anywhere. Father Bill Ray acted as her manager and kept a tight rein on the proceedings. In September, Diane's brisk take on the dilemma a girl faces when she carries a torch for a "hands-off" lifeguard hit the national top 40. 

Summer ended and a new single was unleashed, the Shelby-produced "Where is the Boy." Written by Ben Raleigh and Mark Barkan (who penned "She's a Fool" and other hits for Lesley Gore), it seemed to have the right elements to be a teen-angst smash along the lines of the gold records Gore had been accumulating since spring. But a smattering of airplay in a few scattered cities failed to help it reach the charts.

Autumn turned to winter and Diane sang about building a "Snow Man" to take the place of a cheating former boyfriend; the single was promoted during the holiday season, though it had nothing to do with Christmas. She'd done enough material for an album, so Mercury released The Exciting Years, which included one final single in early 1964, a remake of the mid-'50's tune by Art Crafer and Jimmy Nebb, "No Arms Can Ever Hold You."

Diane had one exciting year, at least, before her life in Gastonia took a different, less glamorous, turn. As her recording career was wrapping up, movie houses from coast to coast were screening Fun in Acapulco starring Elvis Presley, whose character in the film fit the image, perhaps, of the ideal 1960's lifeguard, just the kind of guy a love-struck young lady might go to dangerous extremes over, as evidenced in the lyrics of Diane Ray's one hit song: '...guess I'll swim way out into the sea...and then I'll meet him when he rescues me!'

After 1963, Diane Ray fell off the record charts, off the radar and out of the spotlight. Whatever happened to the “gal who made lifeguard famous” is still to be discovered, as she’s left no online trail behind. Some sources say that after a short tour she gave up the music business to start a family.

The latest news was that Diane Peoples Waldrop, of Charlotte, North Carolina, passed away March 14, 2020.Age 74.

(Mainly edited from an article by Michael Jack Kirby @ Way back attack)