Joan Weber(1935-1981)
- Actress
- Soundtrack
New Jersey-born Joan Weber was just 18 years old in 1955 when she hit
the big time with a #1 song, "Let Me Go, Lover." Intent on a career as
a professional singer, she met up with manager Eddie Joy, who was
impressed with the teenager's strong voice, and he subsequently set up
a meeting with Charles Randolph Grean, a songwriter/producer (who had several years
earlier written Phil Harris' hit novelty song "The Thing" and would later
write the theme song to the hit TV series Dark Shadows (1966)) at the famous Brill
Building in New York. Impressed with Weber's demo tape, Grean gave it
to producer Mitch Miller at Columbia Records, who signed her. Miller picked
a song called "Let Me Go, Devil", changed the name to "Let Me Go,
Lover", and had Weber record it. It was arranged for her to perform the
song on the TV show Studio One (1948). That exposure propelled the song to #1 on
the charts, selling a half-million copies. However, by the time the
record became a certified hit Weber had given birth to a child, and
couldn't devote the kind of time needed to promote both the song and
her career. Columbia dropped her after her contract was up, and she
never managed to have another hit record.