THE CRYSTALS - WHAT A NICE WAY TO TURN 17

WHAT A NICE WAY TO TURN 17

THE CRYSTALS

SONGWRITERS: LARRY KOLBER & JACK KELLER

COUNTRY:

ALBUM: HE’S A REBEL

LABEL: PHILES RECORDS

GENRE: POP ROCK

YEAR: 1963

He's a Rebel is the second album issued by girl group The Crystals in 1963, and also the second LP in the Philles catalogue. This was an effort to take an advantage of the monster hit "He's a Rebel" which went to #1 US in 1962, written by Gene Pitney. The song was actually recorded by The Blossoms with Darlene Love on lead vocals and attributed to The Crystals. Notably on the LP is "He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)," a withdrawn single by the "real" Crystals group.

This was actually a repackaging of Twist Uptown, The Crystals' debut. Two of the original eleven tracks were taken from that album and replaced with "He's a Rebel" and its follow-up "He's Sure the Boy I Love" (#11 US, also recorded with The Blossoms) while "He Hit Me" was added for a twelfth track. The He's a Rebel album peaked at #131 US.

The Crystals were an American vocal group based in New York City, considered one of the defining acts of the girl group era in the first half of the 1960s. Their 1961–1964 chart hits, including "There's No Other (Like My Baby)", "Uptown", "He's Sure the Boy I Love", "He's a Rebel", "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Then He Kissed Me", featured three successive female lead singers, and were all produced by Phil Spector. The latter three songs were originally ranked #267, #114, and #493, respectively, on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. However, two songs were dropped from the magazine's 2010 update.

"Then He Kissed Me" was the opening song to which Elisabeth Shue danced around her bedroom in Adventures in Babysitting(1987); it was the song in which Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco enter the Copacabana on their first real date in the movie Goodfellas(1990); it was featured during the episode 'Homer and Marge Turn a Couple Play' on The Simpsons(2006). It was also covered by Asobi Seksu and used on their live album. "Da Doo Ron Ron" was played during a scene in a dance club in the 1979 film Quadrophenia, and by Russel/Harold Ramis to train ESL students in the 1981 comedy Stripes, "He Hit Me (and It Felt like a Kiss)" was used in the episode 'Mystery Date' on Mad Men(2012).

Crystal was the name of one of the girl group-inspired street urchin characters in the musical Little Shop of Horrors, along with Chiffon and Ronnette. Amy Winehouse cited "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)" as an influence when writing her album Back to Black. The American singer Lana Del Rey used the same phrase in the song "Ultraviolence" in the album of the same name.

My birthday candles

Have all gone out

The party's through

And I'm alone with you

Woah, what a nice way to turn seventeen

I feel your sweet lips

Against my cheek

The lights are off

Your shoulder feels so soft

What a nice way to turn seventeen

My friends all bought me

So many gifts

But yours is the one I'm proudest of

A golden heart

Inscribed to me

"Happy birthday with all my love"

It feels like heaven

Here in your arms

Don't let me go

'Cause gee, I love, oh, I love you so

What a nice way to turn seventeen

I'm seventeen.