Let Me Go, Lover

About Let Me Go, Lover

"Let Me Go, Lover!", a popular song, was written by Jenny Lou Carson and Al Hill, a pseudonym used by Fred Wise, Kathleen Twomey, and Ben Weisman. It is based on an earlier song called "Let Me Go, Devil", about alcoholism. "Let Me Go, Lover" was featured on the television program Studio One on November 15, 1954, and caught the fancy of the public. The episode was a murder mystery that revolved around a hit record and a disc jockey. Producer Felix Jackson asked Columbia Records' Mitch Miller for a recording to use in the show, and Miller provided Joan Weber's version of "Let Me Go, Lover". Miller took advantage of the recording's exposure on national television and sent copies of the record to 2,000 disc jockeys, who began to play it on their radio stations. Weber was pregnant when she recorded the song. A result of the program was to illustrate how efficiently a song could be promoted by introducing it to the public via radio or a TV production. The recording was released by Columbia Records as catalog number 40366. Mitch Miller stocked national record stores the week before the program and because of its availability the record sold over 100,000 the first week of its release. It first reached the Billboard magazine charts on December 4, 1954. By January 1955, Weber's record of the song had hit No. 1 on all the Billboard charts (the Disk Jockey chart, the Best Seller chart, and the Juke Box chart). The song reached No. 16 in the UK Singles Chart, and was awarded a gold record. It was also quickly covered by a number of other singers. One artist to cover it was Lucille Ball, in the March 18, 1955 episode of I Love Lucy, entitled "Bull Fight Dance". more »