Joanie Sommers
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Joanie Sommers (born Joan Drost on 24 February 1941) is an American singer and actress.
[edit] Career
Born in Buffalo, New York, she began using Sommers because she did not think Drost was good as a professional name.
She sang "Your Cheating Heart" on a Buffalo television show at the age of 10 and won a prize for the performance. The family moved to California when she was 14. As a student at Venice High School (Los Angeles) she sang at school dances with the band. By the time she was 18 she had appeared on the television series 77 Sunset Strip and had sung with Edd Byrnes ("Kookie's Love Song") on an album and on a solo album (Positively the Most!).
Sommers was a popular singer during the 1960s. In 1962 she reached #7 in the Billboard Hot 100 with the single, "Johnny Get Angry", on Warner Bros. Records. (Will Ryan wrote and produced a sequel song, Johnny Got Angry, for Sommers during the 1990's.) She also charted with "One Boy," from the musical Bye Bye Birdie, which reached No. 54 in 1960; and "When the Boys Get Together," a No. 94 single in 1962. She also appeared on numerous television shows as a singer and as an actress, and acted in two movies in the early 1960s. Joanie was also a game show contestant during the 1960's on: Everybody's Talking, Hollywood Squares, You Don't Say, The Match Game, and so on, etc. She also appeared on Dick Clark's, "Where the Action Is."
In the early 1960s, she sang "It's Pepsi, For Those who Think Young" in commercials for Pepsi-Cola and came to be often referred to as 'The Pepsi Girl.' Years later, uncredited, she sang "Now You See It, Now You Don't, oh, Diet Pepsi" for the sugar-free companion product.
Her 1965 track 'Don't Pity Me' (Warner Bros. 5629 - Don't Pity Me / My Block) became a huge Northern Soul hit in the UK and still fills the dance floors every time it is played.
In the early '70s she withdrew from the music scene in favor of family life. She began making public appearances again during the 1980s including two appearances on KCRW's satirical radio program, "The Cool & the Crazy," hosted by Art Fraud (Ronn Spencer) and Vic Tripp (Gene Sculatti).
[edit] Album Discography
- 1959: Positively the Most!
- 1961: Joanie Sommers
- 1962: For Those Who Think Young
- 1962: Johnny Get Angry
- 1962: Let's Talk About Love
- 1963: Sommers' Seasons
- 1964: Softly, the Brazilian Sound
- 1965: Come Alive!
- 1982: Dream
- 1988: Tangerine
- 1992: A Fine Romance
- 2004: Here, There and Everywhere!
