- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- Biggest Hits by Dee Dee Sharp includes “Mashed Potato Time”, “Slow Twistin’ ”. “Gravy (For My Mashed Potatoes)”, “Ride!”, and “Do the Bird”.
Dee Dee Sharp – Biggest Hits (1963): Biggest Hits by Dee Dee Sharp was probably in my very first order from Columbia Record Club. This album came out in the early 1960’s in the wake of the 1960 smash hit “The Twist” by Chubby Checker – deemed by Billboard magazine to be the biggest hit single of the 1960’s – when hit songs aimed at teenagers were usually about the latest dance craze. Dee Dee Sharp began singing background when she was just 13, and she was fortunate enough to be the second vocalist on one of Chubby Checker’s follow-up hits to “The Twist”, “Slow Twistin’ ”. The very next day, she recorded her biggest hit song “Mashed Potato Time” and became an overnight success at just 17. Born Dione LaRue, Dee Dee Sharp’s stage name came about because everyone called her “Dee”, and she sings in D sharp.
Considered to be the first Black female teen idol, Dee Dee Sharp was regularly seen in the teen magazine 16 and was along on many of Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars shows. Being from Philadelphia, the home of American Bandstand was also helpful to her career; she made regular appearances on this television show from 1962 to 1981. Other hit songs by Dee Dee Sharp followed, “Gravy (For My Mashed Potatoes)”, “Ride!”, and “Do the Bird”; all were Top Ten hits, and “Do the Bird” even made the U.K. charts. Biggest Hits was released early in Dee Dee Sharp’s career; the opening track, a minor hit called “Rock Me in the Cradle of Love” was probably her current single when Biggest Hits came out. The rest of Biggest Hits includes Dee Dee Sharp’s versions of songs that were hits for other artists in this era, such as “The Loco-Motion”, “Twist and Shout”, “Our Day Will Come”, and “Splish Splash”. Dee Dee Sharp began recording R&B songs by 1965 and also had a stint with Philadelphia International Records in the early 1980’s.