There were no teeny-boppers in the Fifties outside of Nabokov’s Lolita, a disturbing book that Stanley Kubrick had turned into an equally disturbing movie the year before. Girls interested in contraception were told to place an aspirin between their knees and hold it there.
Formed in a suburb of Cleveland, the Poni-Tails – Toni Cistone, Karen Topinka and Patti McCabe – started singing in high school. A local music publisher signed them, but their first release was covered by another artist for a national hit. Bad luck! Topinka left the group and was replaced by LaVerne Novak.
They signed with ABC-Paramount and released one failure after another. Then came a strange twist of fate.
The “B” side of yet another flop contained the song “Born Too Late.” This was a Brill Building effort by a lesser team of songwriters, but it had a melody that went beyond the simply memorable into the beautiful. The lyrics were heartbreaking.
This was the lament of a young girl in love with a guy years older, perhaps someone like the captain of the football team. In a time when such crushes didn’t cross the rigid bounds of the era’s attitude toward sexuality, this song tugged at people’s heartstrings.
The girls would eventually leave showbiz, take other careers, marry, and produce children and grandchildren. This was their one moment in the sun.