#1: Makin’ Love by Floyd Robinson

City: Red Deer, AB
Radio Station: CKRD
Peak Month: October 1959
Peak Position in Red Deer ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #20
Peak Position on Norwegian Singles chart ~ #7
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #9
YouTube: “Makin’ Love”
Lyrics: “Makin’ Love”

Floyd Robinson was born in 1932 in Nashville, Tennessee. He was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry at the age of 17. In 1954, he released a hillbilly song he wrote titled “G-I-R-L, Girls”. It contained the lyric “We can penetrate the ocean, we can fly around the world. But there just ain’t no answer for G-I-R-L girls.” This was followed later that year with “Love, Love, Love”. He wrote “Little Space Girl” (uncredited according to Wikipedia) which was a Top 20 for his cousin Jesse Lee Turner in early 1959. Robinson recorded “The Man In The Moon Is A Lady” but it got little notice. Both “Little Space Girl” and “The Man In The Moon Is A Lady” used the Chipmunk-like high-pitched squeaky vocals found in “The Chipmunk Song”. Robinson’s followup was “Makin’ Love”.

Robinson’s self-penned “Makin’ Love” involves a pair of teens who are playing hooky. This is a deliberate absence from compulsory education by a student’s own free will which is intentional, unjustified, unauthorized or an illegal absence. The narrator (a male student) asks “What would the people say? What would the people do? What would the people do, if the people knew I was with you makin’ love?….Instead of being off to school all day I was with you makin’ love?” The ‘people’ in this case are surely the principal, the teacher (as the lyrics also ask “What would the teacher do? What would the teacher say?”) and the parents of both students. The narrator boasts in a bridge “I don’t care what they think. I don’t care what they do. I don’t care what they care about, all I ever care about is you.” The innocent melody was a tad risqué with its hint of rebelliousness.

“Makin’ Love” was produced by Chet Atkins.

“Makin’ Love” climbed to #1 in Red Deer (AB), Renton (WA), Carlsbad (NM), Miami, Great Falls (MT), and Seattle, #2 in Mount Vernon (WA), and Buffalo, #3 in Vancouver (WA), Rochester (NY), Greenville (SC), Toronto, and Austin (TX), #4 in Birmingham (AL), Arlington (VA), Norfolk (VA), Denver, and Albany (NY), #5 in San Francisco, Worcester (MA), Duluth (MN), Fall River (WA), Tampa (FL), and Bellingham (WA), #6 in Santa Rosa (CA), Montreal, Newport News (VA), Peoria (IL), Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Des Moines (IA), #7 in Phoenix, and Lexington (KY), #8 in Carbondale (PA), Vancouver (BC), Lansing (MI), and Providence (RI), and #10 in Salt Lake City.

Internationally, “Makin’ Love” was a #7 hit in Norway and reached #9 in the UK. Cover versions of “Makin’ Love” were recorded in French, German, Dutch, Italian and Spanish.

His followup was a cover of the 1926 Gene Austin hit, “Tonight You Belong To Me”, recently revived in 1956 by Patience and Prudence. Robinson’s rendition reached #9 in Melbourne, Australia, in 1959. The B-side, “Let It Be Me (Je T’appartiens)” was a cover of the minor 1957 hit by Jill Corey (originally a Top Ten hit in France by singer-songwriter Gilbert Bécaud). It was successfully covered by the Everly Brothers (1960) and later a duet by Betty Everett and Jerry Butler (1964). However, Floyd Robinson’s next releases in 1960, “Little Sir Echo (Little Miss Echo)”, “I Believe In Love”, and “Boys And Girls” (the latter a song about the birds and the bees), were commercial flops. Even “Why Can’t It Go On” written by Boudleaux Bryant got few spins by DJs. (Bryant wrote “Bye Bye Love”, “Wake Up Little Susie”, “All I Have To Do Is Dream”, “Problems”, “Bird Dog”, “Devoted To You” and others for the Everly Brothers; And “Love Hurts” for Roy Orbison, and “Raining In My Heart” for Buddy Holly among others).

In early 1961, “Out Of Gas” and the B-side “The Magic Lamp” reached #19 hit in Vancouver (BC). But these failed to crack the Billboard Hot 100. After eight releases on the RCA label, Robinson switched to Dot Records. Late in 1961, he released “The Art Of Making Love” followed in 1962 with a song he wrote titled “Show Boat”. As these went nowhere, he moved on to United Artists to release his self-penned “I Got A Sweetheart”. But success once again daunted him. Robinson moved on to Jamie Records to release “Mother Nature”. The single had a few nods to the melody in “Makin’ Love”, as did “The Art Of Making Love”. He moved on to Groove Records in 1964 to release the novelty tune “My Little Martian”, a vocal-technique cousin of “Little Space Girl”. Robinson’s last single release was in 1966 with “Motorcycle Man” back with United Artists. That year he also wrote a song recorded by The Browns titled “Coming Back To You” which was a Top 20 country hit.

From approximately 1973 to 1977, Robinson recorded and released religious-themed children’s albums, as characters Charlie the Hamster, Ricky the Cricket, and Woody Woodchuck. In 1977, the estate of David Seville (Ross Bagdasarian) sued Robinson because his recordings supposedly sounded too much like The Chipmunks. The matter was settled out of court, and Robinson discontinued making his animal records.

In the 1990s Robinson self-published two books. The first was in 1992, an instruction manual titled Guitar Playing Made Easy. Two years later he released a novel titled The Guitar. He Floyd Robinson went on to own a used car dealership. But he kept active with occasional performances and wrote more songs. Floyd Robinson died at age 83 in 2016 after a long illness.

December 24, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
Greg Adams, “Makin’ Love: Floyd Robinson,” AllMusic.com, 1994.
Robert K. Oermann, “Pop/Country Stylist Floyd Robinson Passes,” Music Row, June 3, 2016.
Jesse Lee Turner, “Little Space Girl“, Carleton Records, 1958.
Floyd Robinson, “G-I-R-L, Girls,” King Records, 1954.
Floyd Robinson, “Why Can’t We Go On“, RCA Victor, 1960.
Floyd Robinson, “My Little Martian“, Groove Records, 1964.
Floyd Robinson, “Motorcycle Man” United Artists Records, 1966.

CKRD 700-AM Red Deer (AB) Top Ten | October 10, 1959