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August 31: My Boyfriend’s Back (and You’re Gonna Be in Trouble)
The Angels’ recording of “My Boyfriend’s Back,” written by the Jewish songwriting team of Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein and Richard Gottehrer, hit Number One on the Billboard charts on this date in 1963, and stayed there for three weeks, eventually selling over a million copies. The song was inspired by a conversation Bob Feldman overheard between a high school girl and the boy she was turning down for a date. The following year, the songwriters formed the band The Strangeloves, who pretended to be from Australia and had a hit with their song, “I Want Candy.” To see the Angels singing their hit on the Ed Sullivan Show, look below.
“My boyfriend’s back and you’re gonna be in trouble.
(Hey, la-di-la, my boyfriend’s back.)
When you see him comin’, better cut on the double.
(Hey, la-di-la, my boyfriend’s back.)
You’ve been spreading lies that I was untrue.
(Hey, la-di-la, my boyfriend’s back.)
So look out now ’cause he’s comin’ after you.” —“My Boyfriend’s Back”
Lawrence Bush edited Jewish Currents from 2003 until 2018. He is the author of Bessie: A Novel of Love and Revolution and Waiting for God: The Spiritual Explorations of a Reluctant Atheist, among other books. His new volume of illustrated Torah commentaries, American Torah Toons 2, is scheduled for publication this year.
