#18: While The Record Goes Around by the Playmates

City: London, ON
Radio Station: CKSL
Peak Month: October 1958
Peak Position in London ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “While The Record Goes Around”
Lyrics: “While The Record Goes Around”

The Nitwits were a vocal group that began performing in Waterbury, Connecticut, in 1952. They were a trio consisting of Chic Hetti (born Carl Cicchetti) on piano and lead vocals, drummer and vocalist Donny Conn (born Donald Clapps), and Morey Carr (born Morey Cohen) on vocals and bass. All three were born in the Waterbury area. Each had attended the University of Connecticut in the early 50’s and decided to form a comedy group that also sang songs. They toured lounges in the USA and Canada. Their routine and material resembled another vocal group from the mid-50’s into the early 60’s named the Four Preps. Over five years of touring, the Nitwits shifted their focus from comedy skits with songs to being primarily a  vocal group with comedic banter between tunes. In the spring of 1957, the Nitwits got a contract with Roulette Records, becoming the labels first vocal group. They changed their name from the Nitwits to the Playmates. In the middle of the calypso craze, they released an album titled Playmates Visit the West Indies. That year “Darling It’s Wonderful” peaked at #12 in Toronto.

Late in 1957, “Jo-Ann” reached #19 on the Billboard pop chart and #3 in Smiths Falls (ON) and #6 in Toronto. In the spring of 1958, “Don’t Go Home” reached #3 in Toronto, and #22 on the Billboard pop chart.

“While The Record Goes Around” was the B-side to “The Day I Died”.

“While The Record Goes Around” was co-written by Paul Vance (born Joseph Paul Florio) and Lee Pockriss. Together they wrote a number of hit songs including “Catch A Falling Star” (Perry Como – 1957), “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” (Brian Hyland – 1960), “Tracy” (the Cuff Links – 1969) and “Playground in My Mind” (Clint Holmes – 1972). Pockriss also wrote “Johnny Angel”, a hit for Shelley Fabares in 1962. “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weekie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” was actually inspired by Paul Vance’s shy 9-year old daughter, Paula, and an actual incident at a beach locker. Lee Pockriss went on to write the theme songs for the 1961 film One, Two, Three, the 1964 film The Subject Was Roses, and the 1966 film, Stagecoach. In later years Pockriss wrote a number of compositions for the TV series, Sesame Street. Vance and Pockriss also wrote a parody of the Shangri-Las’ 1964 #1 hit, “Leader Of The Pack”. Their Top 30 rejoinder was titled “Leader Of The Laundromat”, recorded by The Detergents.

Vance was born in 1929 and died in 1922 at the age of 92. Lee Pockriss was born in 1924 and died in 2011 at the age of 87.

“While The Record Goes Around” is a song about a couple who is variously dancing and locked in an embrace while a record keeps playing “over, and over, and over…” The guy concedes he could change the record, but he doesn’t want to let go of the embrace, the kiss. In fact, they’re “too much in love to hear it play.” In their passionate embrace, they’re “a million miles away while the record goes around.” The song opens:
“While the rec,
while the rec,
while the rec,
while the rec,
while the record goes around.”
This refrain put listeners at the time in that familiar experience of a needle on a 78RPM or 45RPM going around and around, and sometimes stalling at a skip on the disc.

Back in the day, when music was sold on vinyl records, from time to time a record would skip. One of the major culprits was dust and dirt. Even oil in your hands could cause a record to skip. So cleaning the disc from time to time resolved the issue. Another reason a record would skip was that the tonearm was out of balance.

“While The Record Goes Around” peaked at #6 in London (ON) and charted in San Diego. While the A-side was a Top Ten hit in Albany (NY) and Burlington (VT), and a Top 20 hit in Buffalo.

The Playmates appeared on American Bandstand on May 24, 1958, and June 4, 1960.

In 1958, they released their eighth single, a novelty tune called “Beep, Beep.” The group appeared on the Milton Berle Show in December. The single was their third Top 30 record, and it climbed to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. In Canada, the single reached #2 in Toronto, Montreal, and Oshawa (ON), #3 in Hamilton (ON), #5 in London (ON), #6 in Vancouver and Calgary, #8 in Edmonton (AB), and #9 in Winnipeg. Since “Beep Beep” mentioned the Nash Rambler in the lyrics, it created a bump in sales for that model. “Beep Beep” sold a million records and got The Playmates many invitations to tour around the USA and Canada. From 1958 to 1962 they charted ten songs on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1959, the Playmates had a Top 20 hit in the USA titled “What is Love?”

In the summer of 1959, the Playmates had another Top 30 hit titled “What Is Love?” The song’s answer was found in the lyrics: “five feet of heaven and a pony tail.” It peaked at #8 in Cornwall (ON).

Their next four single releases got little attention, although “On The Beach” made the local Vancouver charts for a few weeks in the winter of 1959. After four commercial flops, The Playmates released “Wait For Me”, which made the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100. Next, the Playmates had another Top Ten hit in Vancouver titled “Little Miss Stuck-Up”, which peaked at #4. However, the single stalled in the USA nationally at #70.

In 1961, the Playmates recorded a Jeff Barry song titled “Tell Me What She Said”. The song was successfully covered by British recording artist Helen Shapiro with “Tell Me What He Said” a year later, where she topped the pop charts in India. Shapiro also had a Top 5 hit with the song in the UK, Ireland, Israel, Norway and New Zealand.

The Playmates also released a single of “Wimoweh” in the fall of 1961. The song was reworked with the title, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, and a #1 hit for The Tokens a month later. A final Billboard Hot 100 single, “Keep Your Hands In Your Pockets”, stalled at #88 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1962.

The Playmates left Roulette in 1963 and released three singles with ABC-Paramount. All were commercial failures. They went on to Colpix and Congress with no better success. They were one of countless American recording acts overwhelmed and sidelined by the Beatles and the British Invasion. The Playmates split up in 1965 after releasing 29 singles and five studio albums. In 2025, Chic Hetti is the only surviving member of the Playmates.

February 24, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
“Obituary: Donny ‘Conn’ Claps,” Malibu Times, September 25, 2015.
Jay Warner, American Singing Groups: a History From 1940 to Today, (Hal Leonard Corporation, Milwaukee, WI), pp. 278-279.
Richard Sandomir, “Paul Vance, Lyricist behind ‘Itsy Bitsy’ Bikini Dies at 92,” New York Times, June 6, 2022.
“It’s Bitsy Bikini Songwriter Lee Pockriss Dies,” BBC, November 18, 2011.
David Richard, “Record Player Skipping (Why Records Skip And How To Fix It),” Top Record Players.com, December 31, 2013.

CKLS 1410-AM London (ON) Top Ten | October 11, 1958