#27: Why Oh Why by Kathy Linden

City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: August 1958
Peak Position in Hull ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~did not chart
YouTube: “Why Oh Why”
Lyrics: N/A

Kathy Linden was born in 1938 in Moorestown, New Jersey, south of Philadelphia. Linden’s talents appeared early. Her first public appearance was as a tap and ballet dancer when she was five years old. Since then, she acted in school plays and musicals, appeared in public pageants, played piano and violin in several local symphony orchestras, and with an all-girl string quintet called the Singing Strings. She attended the University of New Hampshire Summer Youth Music School in 1954, was a soprano soloist with the All State Chorus in 1955, and studied at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. As featured vocal soloist with the Singing Strings, she appeared in many well-known spots in Philadelphia and around New Jersey. She also sang with several local bands. At 19, she was discovered by record producer, bandleader, and trumpeter Joe Leahy when she auditioned for him. He was so intrigued with her sound that he recorded her and her first release was “It’s Just My Luck to Be Fifteen.” The single made the Top 5 in Buffalo.

Leahy transferred Linden’s recording contract to Felsted Records, a subsidiary of the brand new London Records. In 1958, she debuted on Felsted with a cover of the 1911 song “Billy”. It climbed to #7 on the Billboard pop chart. In Canada, “Billy” reached #2 in Ottawa, #4 in Toronto and Smiths Falls (ON), and #7 in Vancouver.

Her next single release was “You’d Be Surprised”. Originally, the Irving Berlin song was recorded in 1919 by Eddie Cantor and featured on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre production of Ziegfeld Follies of 1919. It reached #5 in Smiths Falls (ON). The B-side of the single was “Why Oh Why”.

“Why Oh Why” is a song about a gal who is perplexed that the guy she’s been going steady has pulled back. She observes, “no longer do you take me out to dine and dance.” He doesn’t take her walking under the moonlight and having “sweet romance.” Consequently, she sits at home and cries. She wonders what the problem is. “Is there someone new?” She notes “you don’t hug and kiss me like you did before.” The absence of his affections only make her want him more and more. She’s got it bad for him, as she laments “I’ll keep wondering ’til I die: why oh why, oh why.”

“Why Oh Why” was cowritten by Herb Miller and trumpeter Irving Berger. Miller had songs he wrote recorded by pop and R&B artists beginning around 1952. His songs were recorded by Jackie Wilson, Cathy Carr, Patti Page, Jimmy Jones, Della Reece, Little Peggy March, Skeeter Davis, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and others.

“Why Oh Why” peaked at #2 in Hull (PQ).

Kathy Linden’s next release, in 1958, was another cover of a Tin Pan Alley hit. This time “Oh Johnny Oh”, which was a written in 1917 by Ed Rose. It became a #2 hit in 1939 for Orrin Tucker and His Orchestra. Two more releases followed in 1959 titled “Kissin’ Conversation” and “Somebody Loves You”. But neither broke out beyond a few local radio markets.

Later in 1959, Kathy Linden returned to the Top 40 with a #11 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 titled “Goodbye Jimmy Goodbye”. She appeared on Dick Clark’s Saturday Night Beechnut Show to sing the song.

Photo: Kathy Linden on Saturday Night Beechnut Show

“Goodbye Jimmy Goodbye” reached #8 in Hull (QC), #9 in Vancouver and Toronto, and #11 in Montreal. Late that year “You Don’t Know Girls” stalled at #92 on the Hot 100, and was Kathy Linden’s last nationally charting single. She released nine more singles variously with Monument, RPC and Capitol Records. “So Close To My Heart” made the Sensational Sixty on CKWX in Vancouver in the summer of ’59.

In 1962, Linden hoped a lingering fondness for “Goodbye Jimmy Goodbye” would rub off on her new release “Remember Me (To Jimmy)”. The song made the Top 40 in Winnipeg. But got little attention elsewhere. While “Take Me Home Jimmy” in 1961, and “Billy Is My Boyfriend” failed to catch on. Any nostalgia for her hits in 1958-59 was replaced with the dance craze for The Twist, the Bristol Stomp, the Peppermint Twist and more; and for emerging hitmakers at the start of the 60s like Brenda Lee, Bobby Rydell, Bobby Lee and Roy Orbison. Linden retired from show business in 1963 to devote more time to her family and other personal interests.

In 2015, Linden gave her first and only radio interview since her retirement. She told former Casey Kasem interviewer Ronnie Allen that her life had changed enormously around 1980 when she became a Christian and started writing inspirational songs and singing and leading worship at many churches. In 1985, she was interviewed and sang on the Joy Program on TV. In 1992, she made a pilgrimage to Israel and led worship on the boat on the Sea of Galilee. She also led worship in both maximum and minimum security prisons of Southern California for three years.

In 2019, Linden recorded a new album of original inspirational, country and instrumental songs called The Love That’s In My Heart, her first release in more than 55 years.

September 25, 2024
Ray McGinnis

References:
“Kathy Linden photos,” Kathylinden.com.
“Herb Miller,” discogs.com.

CKCH 970-AM Hull (QC) Top Ten | August 9, 1958