You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry

Question: In 1963, what British act had a hit on the US Hot 100 which started a 38-year run of at least one UK act on the American chart, finally ending on April 27, 2002? Hands up all of you who said The Beatles. It was actually female pop duo The Caravelles, whose light, breathy cover vocal style found favor across the Atlantic two months before the Fab Four started the British Invasion.

The song was a cover of a 1950 Ernest Tubb Country hit, penned by Bob Merrill and Terry Shand. It was later reworked by Tennessee Ernie Ford as the flip side of his 1955 hit "Sixteen Tons."

The Caravelles were Andrea Simpson and Lois Wilkinson. Lois met Andrea when they worked in a car showroom, but by night Lois was playing jazz at the Tatty Bogle club in Soho. Her ambition was to become a session guitarist. "People said, 'Girls can't play guitar,'" she recalled to Mojo magazine February 2012. "I struck up an acquaintance with Andrea because of music, she played clarinet."