You can listen to the song below:
Songfacts:
Len Barry (credited by his real name: Leonard Borisoff) wrote this with the Philadelphia songwriting/production team of John Madara and David White, who also wrote the hits "You Don't Own Me" and "At The Hop." In an interview with Forgotten Hits, Madara explained: "In 1965, with '1-2-3' being the #1 record in the country, we were sued by Motown during the period when Berry Gordy was suing anyone whose records sounded like a Motown record. We were sued, saying that '1-2-3' was taken from a B-Side of a Supremes record called 'Ask Any Girl.' The only similarity between the two songs are the first three notes where the Supremes sang 'Ask Any Girl' and Lenny sang '1-2-3.' After that, there were no similarities, but their lawsuit said that our goal was to copy the Motown sound. Well, needless to say, Motown kept us in court, tying up all of our writers' royalties, production royalties and publishing royalties, and threatened to sue us on the follow-up to '1-2-3,' which was 'Like A Baby.' So after battling with them for two years and having a ton of legal bills, we made a settlement with Motown, giving them 15% of the writers' and publishers' share.
We never heard 'Ask Any Girl.' The only influence for making '1-2-3' was to make a ballad with a beat. And the sound of '1-2-3' was definitely the sound of the era. Listen to 'The In-Crowd' - that's not the Motown Sound, that's the sound of the era - and '1-2-3' definitely had a beat! Motown was suing a lot of people at the time."
Barry was a member of the successful vocal group The Dovells before starting a solo career. In the liner notes to his Greatest Hits CD, Barry wrote: "It was the second take. We did it live in the booth. There were no overdubs, no punches. It was great! It had never sounded like that - ever! I said to myself, 'The Man upstairs is hearing me.' If you listen to '1, 2, 3', I have sung better, but I have never communicated with the public like that, ever. Because on that song, the vocal is total desperation. I was saying to the public, 'Look, I'm 22, let's get serious because I don't know what I'm gonna do if you don't buy this record.' That desperation was in the performance."
Madara explained to Forgotten Hits: "We were set to have a writing session at the office for Lenny's recording session, and I walked in with the melody and a title of '1, 2, and 3.' Lenny said, 'Let's make it 1-2-3.' So we sat and wrote the song."
Lyrics:
1-2-3, oh, that's how elementary it's gonna be
C'mon, let's fall in love, it's easy (it's so easy)
Like takin' candy (like takin' candy) from a baby
A-B-C (A-B-C) fallin' in love with you was easy for me (easy for me)
And you can do it, too, it's easy (it's so easy)
Like takin' candy (like takin' candy) from a baby
Baby, there's nothin' hard about love
Basically, it's as easy as pie
The hard part is livin' without love
Without your love, baby, I would die
It's easy (it's so easy)
Like takin' candy (like takin' candy) from a baby, yay
One and one are two (one and one are two)
I know you love me and oh,oh, how I love you (how I love you)
Don't try to fight it 'cause it's easy (it's so easy)
Like takin' candy (like takin' candy) from a baby, yay
1-2-3 (1-2-3) oh, that's how elementary it's gonna be (it's gonna be)
C'mon, let's fall in love, it's easy (1-2-3)
FADE
Oh, that's how elementary
About: Len Barry
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Len Barry
Background information
Birth name Leonard Borisoff
Born June 12, 1942 (1942-06-12) (age 67)
West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Genres Pop, Blue-eyed soul
Occupations Singer, songwriter
Years active 1958–1982
Labels Brunswick, RCA, Decca
Associated acts The Dovells
Len Barry (born Leonard Borisoff, June 12, 1942, West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States)[1] is a retired American vocalist, songwriter and record producer.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Career
* 2 Legacy
* 3 Discography
o 3.1 Singles
+ 3.1.1 The Dovells (as lead singer)
+ 3.1.2 Solo
o 3.2 Albums
* 4 See also
* 5 References
* 6 Additional sources
* 7 External links
Career
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Barry had little thought of a show business career while still in school. Instead, he aspired to become a professional baseball player upon his graduation. It was not until he entered military service and had occasion to sing with the Army bands, and was so encouraged by the response of his soldier audiences, that he decided to make music a career.[citation needed]
Upon his discharge from military service, Barry returned home to Philadelphia and joined The Dovells as their lead singer. His is the lead voice on their best selling records "Bristol Stomp", "Hully Gully Baby" and "You Can't Sit Down", among others. "Bristol Stomp" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.[2] Barry also made film appearances with The Dovells in films such as Don't Knock the Twist, as well as guest appearances on US television on The Dick Clark Show, Shindig, and Hullabaloo. Soon after leaving the group, Barry recorded his first solo single "Lip Sync".[2]
As a predominately blue-eyed soul singer, he recorded two hits in 1965 for Decca Records in the US and released by Brunswick Records in the UK: "1-2-3", and "Like a Baby", both of which made the Top Ten of the UK Singles Chart.[3] Those songs also peaked at #2 and #27 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart respectively. "1-2-3" sold over one and three quarter million copies, and gave Barry his second gold disc.[2] Both "1-2-3" and "Like a Baby" were composed by Barry, John Madara and Dave White, one of the original Juniors from Danny & the Juniors. Barry also covered "Treat Her Right" by another blue-eyed soul act, Roy Head and the Traits.
In 1969 Barry and Madara co-produced The Original Version: Journey To The Moon LP for Buddah Records. According to Madara, "Neil Bogart wanted to be the first record company out with authentic conversations with the astronauts and others, including President Nixon, using original music that we composed."[4] Barry used Madara's studio band (including Daryl Hall of future Hall & Oates fame) that would become Gulliver: (Tim Moore (guitar), Tom Sellers (bass), Daryl Hall (keyboards), Jim Helmer (drums) and named them the 'Sound of Genesis' for this album. Sellers arranged it and it was billed as being recorded live on Earth, in Space and on the Moon. According to Madara, this album "was approved by NASA, who sent in the tapes every day to us of the moon flight, which we used on the LP."[4]
Barry, obsessed with Indian culture, then went on to write and produce "Keem-O-Sabe" (which his longtime friend, sometime manager, and America's first club DJ Alan White called the first disco hit record), and was later instrumental in the creation of the Philadelphia disco sound.[5] Again, Sellers arranged it and the future Gulliver performed it (this time as The Electric Indian) in conjunction with two musicians, Bobby Eli (guitar) and Vince Montana (vibraphone), who would go on to fame with MFSB and the Salsoul Orchestra. "Broad Street", the single's B-side, also written and produced by Barry and never issued on an LP, was an instrumental.
Even after his period of hit records ended, Barry continued performing his entertaining stage act, and later moved into songwriting and production work with WMOT Productions.[6]
In May 2008, Barry reinvented himself as a writer with the publication of the semi-biographical novel, Black-Like-Me. The storyline involved a pair of Caucasian siblings growing up in a largely African-American neighborhood, accepted by some, rejected by others; in a sort of reverse-perspective morality tale.[7]
[edit] Legacy
* The song "1-2-3" was featured on the soundtrack for the film, Mr. Holland's Opus.
* "1-2-3" was one of the songs that appeared in John Lennon's jukebox.
* Motown Records sued the songwriters, Len Barry and Dave White, claiming that "1-2-3" was a reworked copy of Holland-Dozier-Holland song "Ask Any Girl". The songwriters did admit to taking the composition and the lawsuit led to Holland-Dozier-Holland getting equal credit for writing "1-2-3" as noted on the Billboard Top 10 official album.[citation needed]
* In December 2005, Welsh singer-songwriter Cerys Matthews recorded a new version of "1-2-3" in Nashville, Tennessee.[8]
* In 1994, Scottish star, Edwyn Collins, sampled "1-2-3" for part of his hit "A Girl Like You".
Discography
Singles
The Dovells (as lead singer)
* "Bristol Stomp" (1961) - #2 US Billboard Hot 100
* "The Continental" (1962) - #37 US Billboard Hot 100
* "Bristol Twisting Annie" (1962) - #27 US Billboard Hot 100
* "Hully Gully Baby" (1962) - #25 US Billboard Hot 100
* "You Can't Sit Down" (1963) - #3 US Billboard Hot 100
