He’s So Fine

1962 single by The Chiffons

“He’due south So Fine”
Single by The Chiffons
from the album He’s So Fine
B-side	“Oh My Lover”
Released	Jan 1963 (U.s.a.) Feb 1963 (Tin) March 1963 (UK) April 12, 1963 (AUS) May 1963 (Germany)
Recorded	December 1962
Genre	Pop, doo-wop
Length	ane:53
Label	Laurie Records
Songwriter(s)	Ronald Mack[i]
Producer(s)	Phil Margo, Mitch Margo, Jay Siegal, and Hank Medress
The Chiffons singles chronology
“He’south So Fine” (1963) “Lucky Me” (1963)

“He’south Then Fine” is a song written by Ronnie Mack. Information technology was recorded past The Chiffons who topped the
Billboard
Hot 100 for four weeks in the leap of 1963. One of the most instantly recognizable golden oldies with its
doo-lang doo-lang doo-lang
background song, “He’south So Fine” is also renowned equally the plaintiff song in the famous plagiarism case confronting George Harrison’southward “My Sweet Lord”.

Country music singer Jody Miller scored a top-ten hit of her ain in 1971 with her cover of “He’s And so Fine”.

The Chiffons version

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Background

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“He’s So Fine” was written by Ronald Mack, an acquaintance of the Chiffons’ members who ready himself up as their director after overhearing them harmonise in their high schoolhouse’s lunch room. Mack elicited the interest of Brilliant Tunes Corporation, a production company run by the Tokens, who produced the Chiffons singing “He’s So Fine”, and two other Mack compositions at Capitol Recording Studios (New York, 165 West. 46th St.)

The Tokens themselves – who had never previously played on a recording session – provided the instrumentation, with the services of drummer Gary Chester.^[two]

Originally one of the two other songs: “Oh, My Lover”, was considered the potential striking. But the completed track for “He’due south Then Fine” with its now-archetype ‘Doo-lang doo-lang doo-lang’ groundwork vocal – the suggestion of the session’s sound engineer Johnny Cue – seemed an obvious boom. However Capitol Records (for whom the Tokens were business firm producers) rejected the rail: Jay Siegal of the Tokens recalled Capitol’south president Voyle Gilmore dismissing the track as “too trite…too unproblematic”. The Tokens shopped “He’due south So Fine” to x labels before placing information technology with Laurie Records. Co-ordinate to Siegal, “We played it, and they locked the doors and said ‘You’re not getting out of here. We desire that record.’…Of grade we’d already been turned down by x companies. Give usa eighty cents and we’d have given you the tape.”^[three]
[4]

The Chiffons’ ii later Peak 10 hits both contain echoes of “He’due south So Fine”, although neither song was written by Ronald Mack, who died shortly after the Chiffons had recorded his song. “I Fine Day” was written by Carole Male monarch and Gerry Goffin, and “Sugariness Talking Guy” – in which the background vocalists sing “he’s then fine” – was co-written by the co-founder of Laurie Records, Eliot Greenberg.

“He’south So Fine” by The Chiffons is too featured on the soundtrack album to the 1979 picture
Quadrophenia
by the English ring The Who.

Reception

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Released in early 1963, “He’due south So Fine” entered the national charts in February 1963 attaining the No. 1 position on March 30 and remaining No. 1 for a four-week period and also made it to number one on the soul singles chart.^[5]
Billboard
ranked the tape equally the No. 5 song of 1963. “He’southward So Fine” was as well a No. 16 hit in the UK.
Billboard
named the song No. 73 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Grouping Songs of All Time.^[6]

Chart performance

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Nautical chart (1963)	Meridian position
Canada (CHUM)[7]	ane
New Zealand (Lever Striking Parade)[eight]	one
Uk Singles (The Official Charts Company)[ix]	16
US Billboard Hot 100	1
US Hot R&B Singles (Billboard)	1

All-fourth dimension charts

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“My Sweet Lord” lawsuit

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On February 10, 1971, Bright Tunes Music Corporation filed conform alleging the and so electric current George Harrison hit, “My Sweet Lord”, was a plagiarism of “He’southward So Fine”. The case did not go to trial until Feb 1976 when the judge ruled on the liability portion of the suit in favor of Bright Tunes, determining that Harrison had committed “subconscious” plagiarism.^[11]
The accommodate to determine damages was scheduled for November 1976 but delayed until February 1981, by which fourth dimension Allen Klein, Harrison’southward onetime manager who had been his legal adviser in the kickoff phase of the adjust, had become the plaintiff by virtue of purchasing Vivid Tunes. The last conclusion was that Harrison himself would buy Bright Tunes from Klein for $587,000—the amount Klein had paid for the corporation—and although litigation continued for at least ten more years that decision was upheld.^[12]
In 1975 the Chiffons would record a version of “My Sweet Lord”, attempting to capitalize on the publicity generated by the lawsuit. Harrison’south “This Vocal” was written in reaction to the plagiarism adapt.

Jody Miller version

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“He’s Then Fine”
Unmarried by Jody Miller
from the anthology He’s So Fine
B-side	“Your Number 2”
Released	May 12, 1971
Recorded	February 17, 1971
Genre	Countrypolitan
Length	two:35
Label	Epic Records
Songwriter(s)	Ronald Mack
Producer(southward)	Billy Sherrill
Jody Miller singles chronology
“If You lot Think I Love You Now (I’ve Just Started)” (1970) “He’southward Then Fine” (1971) “Baby I’1000 Yours” (1971)

Background

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Jody Miller had a Top X C&W striking with her remake of “He’s So Fine” recorded in a February 17, 1971 session at the Columbia studio in Nashville and issued May 12, 1971 as the advance unmarried from Miller’due south
He’s So Fine
album, that album—released August 1971—being Miller’due south 2nd full-length collaboration with producer Billy Sherrill. Miller’due south remake omits the original’s ‘doo lang’ groundwork vocal. Besides the title cut, the
He’s So Fine
anthology featured Miller’south remake of the 1965 Barbara Lewis striking “Baby I’grand Yours”: Miller’s 3rd Sherrill-produced album
In that location’s a Party Going On
afforded Miller C&Westward hit remakes of the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” and the Teddy Bears’ “To Know Him is to Dearest Him”.

Impressed by the 1968 Tammy Wynette hitting “Stand by Your Man”, Miller had contacted that runway’s producer Baton Sherrill in the hopes of reviving her own flagging recording career and after
Wait at Mine, Miller’s get-go album in Sherrill’s accuse, generated ii Top Twenty C&West hits in 1970, Sherrill opted for a new musical direction for Miller who recalls: “He said I didn’t phrase my words like a country singer, so we took some onetime, sexy popular songs and put in a little boppy steel guitar”.^[13]

Reception

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Miller’s cover version of “He’southward So Fine” peaked at No. 5 C&West in July 1971, and crossed over to the Pop charts and besides Easy Listening charts with July 1971 peaks of No. 53 Pop and No. 2 Easy Listening, the latter stat representing Miller’s alltime best chart showing. The vocal also peaked at number 28 in Commonwealth of australia.^[14]
“He’s So Fine” also afforded Miller a Acme Ten C&W hit in Canada with a No. iii top, with the track reaching No. ane on the Adult Gimmicky nautical chart for Canada and crossing over to No. 46 on the Canadian Pop chart.

1978: Jane Olivor / Kristy McNichol remakes

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In the spring of 1978 two disparate remakes of “He’s So Fine” were released every bit singles with both singles eventually ranking on the
Billboard
Hot 100. Jane Olivor recorded the song as a ballad for her anthology
Stay the Night, producer Jason Darrow having wanted a “lighter vocal” for the album: Olivor had been initially unmoved past Darrow’south endorsement of a slow version of “He’s So Fine” – whose lyrics Olivor found vapid – but the vocalizer saw the validity of her producer’s suggestion subsequently Darrow played Olivor the Chiffons’ 45 rpm unmarried at 331⁄iii
rpm.^[15]
Released equally a single in Apr 1978, “He’s So Fine” debuted on the Hot 100 dated xx May 1978 becoming the second of Olivor’s two Hot 100 entries and with its eventual summit of No. 77 becoming the more successful equally Olivor’s precedent Hot 100 unmarried “Some Enchanted Evening” had peaked at No. 91 in 1976. (Olivor would “bubble under the Hot 100” chart in 1980 when her single “Don’t Let Go of Me” peaked at No. 108.) “He’southward So Fine” would also afford Olivor her sole ranking on the
Billboard
Easy Listening nautical chart where its meridian would be No. 21, besides ranking in the Canadian singles chart with a No. 71 peak and rising as high as No. three on the Canadian Easy Listening nautical chart.^[16]

May 1978 saw the release of an attempted replication of the original “He’s So Fine” credited to Kristy and Jimmy McNichol although the runway just featured the quondam, being credited to the duo to reverberate its parent
Kristy and Jimmy McNichol
album which was produced by Philip Margo and Mitch Margo who – every bit members of the Tokens – had produced the Chiffons’ original: three members of the Chiffons: Patricia Bennett, Barbara Lee, and Sylvia Peterson, sang dorsum-upwardly on the McNichol remake of “He’s And then Fine.” Both the McNichol version of “He’s And so Fine” and that by Jane Olivor appeared in the
Record World
ranking of the singles at positions No. 101 to No. 150 as early on every bit the chart dated 20 May 1978 although the McNichol take would not debut on the
Record World
ranking of the top 100 singles until that dated v Baronial 1978 two weeks subsequent to the track’s debut on the
Billboard
Hot 100 dated 22 July 1978 (1 week later on the final Hot 100 appearance of the Jane Olivor take whose Hot 100 tenure ended equally of the nautical chart dated 15 July 1978): on the
Greenbacks Box
Top 100 the McNichol “He’s Then Fine” made its debut on the nautical chart dated xxx July 1978. The McNichol “He’southward So Fine” peaked at No. 70 on the Hot 100. (The chart fortunes of both the Olivor and McNichol takes on “He’s And then Fine” varied widely, according to which of the three music trade periodicals is cited:
Record World
affords a peak of No. 87 to both the Oliver and McNichol versions, while co-ordinate to
Cash Box, the Olivor take peaked at No. 67, McNicol’south at No. 83).^{[
citation needed
]}

References

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External links

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• Bob Shannon’south Behind The Hits: Stories: He’s So Fine