When You're Young and in Love
Encyclopedia
"When You're Young and in Love" is a song composed by Van McCoy
Van McCoy
Van Allen Clinton McCoy was an accomplished musician, music producer, arranger, songwriter, and orchestra conductor. He is known best for his 1975 internationally successful song "The Hustle", which is still played in dance halls and on radio to this day more than thirty years since his death...

. The first recording of the song was by Ruby & the Romantics
Ruby & the Romantics
Ruby & the Romantics was an American R&B group in the 1960s. They had several pop and R&B hit records, but are sometimes considered as a one-hit wonder for topping the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1963 with their first recording, "Our Day Will Come", written by Mort Garson and Bob Hilliard...

; like all the group's singles on Kapp Records
Kapp Records
Kapp Records was an independent record label started in 1954 by David Kapp, brother of Jack Kapp . David Kapp founded his own label after stints with Decca Records and RCA Victor Records. Kapp licensed its records to London Records for release in the UK.In 1967, David Kapp sold his label to MCA Inc...

 the track was produced by label a&r head Allen Stanton. Released in September 1964, Ruby & the Romantics' "When You're Young..." reached the Top Five in Honolulu but otherwise failed to register strongly in any US market reaching #48 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 in November 1964. Ruby & the Romantics would score one subsequent Hot 100 placing, with "Does He Really Care For Me" (#87).

The song was remade in 1967 by the Marvelettes
The Marvelettes
The Marvelettes were an American singing girl group on the Tamla label. Motown's first successful female vocal group, the Marvelettes are most notable for recording the company's first #1 Pop hit, "Please Mr...

 with the track - produced by James Dean and William Weatherspoon - reaching #23 on the Hot 100 that June; its R&B peak was #9. Although not one of the Marvelettes' very biggest hits, "When You're Young..." became the only record by the group to achieve hit status in the UK with a #13 peak in July 1967. The track is also one of the last Marvelettes' singles to feature Gladys Horton
Gladys Horton
Gladys Catherine Horton was an American R&B and pop singer, famous for being the founder and lead singer of the popular Motown all-female vocal group The Marvelettes.-Biography:...

 although the lead is by Wanda Young
Wanda Young
Wanda Young is an American singer, famous for being the member and later lead singer of the popular Motown all-female singing group The Marvelettes.-Biography:Wanda was born in 1943 and raised in the western Detroit suburb of Inkster, Michigan...

. Besides Horton and veteran Marvelette Katherine Anderson, Rogers' vocal backing on "When You're Young..." features Motown's premier session singers the Andantes
The Andantes
The Andantes were a prolific female sessions group for the Motown record label during the 1960s. Composed of Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps, the group sang background vocals on numerous Motown recordings, including songs by Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, The Temptations, Stevie...

 while the original instrumental backing on the track by the Funk Brothers
The Funk Brothers
The Funk Brothers was the nickname of Detroit, Michigan, session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown Records recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972...

 was augmented by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. Its main performance center is Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood...

.

In the autumn of 1975 competing versions of "When You're Young..." by Ralph Carter
Ralph Carter
Ralph Carter is an American actor, and singerCarter is best known for his work as a child and teenager, both in the Broadway musical Raisin and as the character Michael Evans, the youngest member of the Evans family, on the 1970s sitcom Good Times...

 and the Choice Four
The Choice Four
The Choice Four were an American soul/disco group from Washington, D.C. who recorded for RCA Records. Several of the group's members had previously sung in The Love Tones and The Stridels. They had several minor hits on the Billboard charts in the mid 1970s.-Albums:*The Finger Pointers *On Top of...

 charted R&B with the Carter version reaching #37 on the R&B charts where the Choice Four peaked at #45; both versions were also minor Hot 100 crossovers with respective peaks of #95 (Carter) and #91 (Choice Four). Ralph Carter would belatedly promote his version with a performance on the 2 March 1976 episode of his Good Times
Good Times
Good Times is an American sitcom that originally aired from February 8, 1974, until August 1, 1979, on the CBS television network. It was created by Eric Monte and Michael Evans, and developed by Norman Lear, the series' primary executive producer...

sitcom; his recording was produced by Norman Bergen
Norman Bergen
Norman Bergen is an American pianist, music arranger, record producer, band leader, musical director, and vocalist.- Early years:...

 and Reid Whitelaw. The Choice Four version was produced by the song's composer Van McCoy
Van McCoy
Van Allen Clinton McCoy was an accomplished musician, music producer, arranger, songwriter, and orchestra conductor. He is known best for his 1975 internationally successful song "The Hustle", which is still played in dance halls and on radio to this day more than thirty years since his death...

.

A 1979 remake of "When You're Young..." is notable as the debut single for Stacy Lattisaw
Stacy Lattisaw
Stacy Lattisaw is an American R&B, dance, and gospel singer. Since the 1990s, she has exclusively sung gospel music, as a callback to her Christian roots.-Career:...

 and also for being produced by composer Van McCoy
Van McCoy
Van Allen Clinton McCoy was an accomplished musician, music producer, arranger, songwriter, and orchestra conductor. He is known best for his 1975 internationally successful song "The Hustle", which is still played in dance halls and on radio to this day more than thirty years since his death...

; however the McCoy produced album Young and in Love proved neither a critical or commercial success upon release in July 1979 - the month of McCoy's death - with the "When You're Young..." single barely registering on the R&B charts at #91.

"When You're Young..." had its strongest chart impact via a 1983 cover version by the Flying Pickets
The Flying Pickets
The Flying Pickets are a British a cappella vocal group, who had a Christmas number one hit in 1983 in the UK Singles Chart with their cover of Yazoo's track "Only You".-History:...

 - produced by the group with John Sherry Sonet - which reached #7 UK.

Gitte
Gitte Hænning
Gitte Hænning is a Danish singer and film actress, who rose to fame as a child star in the 1950s.Because her name was relatively unique, she was known primarily without a surname in Europe. She moved to Sweden in 1958. Her first hit in Swedish was "Tror du jag ljuger" from 1961...

 made a recording of "When You're Young and in Love" on 23 October 1964. The song has also been recorded by Donny
Donny Osmond
Donald Clark "Donny" Osmond is an American singer, musician, actor, dancer, radio personality, and former teen idol. Osmond has also been a talk and game show host, record producer and author. In the mid 1960s, he and four of his elder brothers gained fame as the Osmond Brothers on the long...

 and Marie
Marie Osmond
Olive Marie Osmond is an American singer, actress, doll designer, and a member of the show business family The Osmonds. Although she was never part of her family's singing group, she gained success as a solo country music artist in the 1970s and 1980s...

 - as "(When You're) Young and in Love" - and the Jets
The Jets (band)
The Jets are a family band from Minneapolis, Minnesota, composed of brothers and sisters who specialize in pop, R&B, and dance music, particularly Latin freestyle.The group officially formed in 1985, with the original lineup fizzling out by 1990...

.

Ruby & the Romantics version

  • Lead vocal by Ruby Nash
    Ruby Nash Curtis
    Ruby Nash Garnett , is an American singer who led the rhythm and blues group Ruby & The Romantics.-Career:...

  • Background vocals by Ed Roberts, George Lee, Ronald Mosley, and Leroy Fann
  • Instrumentation by Unknown

Marvelettes version

  • Lead vocal by Wanda (Young) Rogers
    Wanda Young
    Wanda Young is an American singer, famous for being the member and later lead singer of the popular Motown all-female singing group The Marvelettes.-Biography:Wanda was born in 1943 and raised in the western Detroit suburb of Inkster, Michigan...

  • Background vocals by Gladys Horton
    Gladys Horton
    Gladys Catherine Horton was an American R&B and pop singer, famous for being the founder and lead singer of the popular Motown all-female vocal group The Marvelettes.-Biography:...

     and Katherine Anderson and The Andantes
    The Andantes
    The Andantes were a prolific female sessions group for the Motown record label during the 1960s. Composed of Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps, the group sang background vocals on numerous Motown recordings, including songs by Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, The Temptations, Stevie...

  • Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers
    The Funk Brothers
    The Funk Brothers was the nickname of Detroit, Michigan, session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown Records recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972...

     and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
    Detroit Symphony Orchestra
    The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. Its main performance center is Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood...

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