Emile Ford And The Checkmates - What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For 1960

The song was written by Joseph McCarthy, Howard Johnson and James V. Monaco in 1916 for the Broadway production “Follow Me”, in which it was performed by Henry Lewis. In October 1959, Emile Ford and the Checkmates had recorded and released their doo-wop version of the song as the B-side of their single “Don’t Tell Me Your Trouble“. This B-side became more popular and it topped the charts for 6 weeks over the Christmas and New Year of 1959/60. It retained the #1 position for the first 3 weeks of 1960. This earned Ford his first gold disc for sales of over a million, which was “an incredible feat for an unknown singer with his debut recording“. The song was co-produced by Ford and Joe Meek. The song had reached #1 in the UK, Australia & Norway as well as #3 in the Netherlands.