Everybody's Somebody's Fool

Album

Single

Label

MGM Records

Genre

Country

Composer(s)

Jack Keller;Howard Greenfield

Entered Chart

May 9, 1960

Peak Date

Jun 27, 1960

Released

April 7, 1960

Recorded

1960

Catalog #

MGM 12899

B-Side

Jealous Of You (Tango Della Gelosia)*

"Everybody's Somebody's Fool" was written with music by Jack Keller and lyrics by Howard Greenfield. Despite thirteen previous charting Top 40 hit singles, this was her very first #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. The same year that this song came out, Francis had also released an album One For The Boys, to coincide with the release of her film where she also had a starring role, Where the Boys Are. So this song got shoved back a bit on album release in the thick of Francis' busy career, ending up on a greatest hits compilation. In the US, this song was actually the B-side to "Jealous of You (Tango Della Gelosia)," however, in Germany, this song formed the A-side under the title "Die Liebe ist ein Seltsames Spiel." The intriguing story of why this was so told below: Rich Podolsky's book Don Kirshner: The Man with the Golden Ear, tells the story of this song's genesis. In the first place, Keller and Greenfield didn't even have Francis in mind for "Everybody's Somebody's Fool," but instead the Blues singer Laverne Baker. However, having previously worked with Connie Francis on "Stupid Cupid," she came to them looking for a Country & Western tune - based on research by her father who had toured Europe and discovered that US C&W hits were big in Germany. Keller was stunned when Greenfield told him that Francis wanted it done as a Country tune, but Keller shrugged and adapted it, even adding the organ opening in the arrangement to give it a more authentic feel. When the trio met with MGM publisher Arnold Maxim about this song, he told them, "If you put out that Country song, I think your career is finished." Francis firmly believed otherwise, citing the creative control clause in her contract. The song was released in May of 1960 and shot to #1 by July. When Francis got a framed copy of the commemorative single, she mailed it to Maxim in a box - along with a set of salt-and-pepper shakers. Always the sassy one, that Connie! The follow-up song to this one was "My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own," also written by Keller and Greenfield. This was the 30th #1 single on the Hot 100 and the first by a solo female. The only previous chart-topper sung by a member of the fairer sex after the launch of the listing on August 4, 1958 had been "To Know Him Is To Love Him" by The Teddy Bears with lead vocals by the act's Annette Kleinbard. "With 'Everybody's Somebody's Fool,' I knew going in that it was a #1 song," Francis told DISCoveries Magazine. "I knew that even before the recording session, I really did just because the lyrics were so great. It had to be a hit because everything like it was. The only music that doesn't seem to change much is country music."

The tears I cried for you could fill an ocean
But you don't care how many tears I cry
And though you only lead me on and hurt me
I couldn't bring myself to say goodbye

'Cause everybody's somebody's fool
Everybody's somebody's baby
And there are no exceptions to the rule
Yes, everybody's somebody's fool

I told myself it's best that I forget you
Though I'm a fool, at least I know the score
Yet darlin', I'd be twice as blue without you
It hurts, but I'd come running back for more

'Cause everybody's somebody's fool
Everybody's somebody's baby
And there are no exceptions to the rule
Yes, everybody's somebody's fool

Someday you'll find someone you really care for
And if her love should prove to be untrue
You'll know how much this heart of my is breakin'
You'll cry for her the way I cried for you

Yes, everybody's somebody's fool
Everybody's somebody's baby
And there are no exceptions to the rule
Yes, everybody's somebody's fool