Today I have a special treat for you. It's the story behind one of the most-loved hits of rock's golden era: "Little Darlin'" by the Diamonds.

This comes from the liner notes I penned to The Best of the Diamonds: The Mercury Years (PolyGram, 1996):

Never has so much charm been packed into 126 seconds as when the Diamonds recorded "Little Darlin'." Originally conceived as your basic lightweight love song, the Diamonds transformed it into a sparkling catalogue of Fifties doo-wop in all its beauty and excess....

On an afternoon in February of 1957, the Diamonds were in a Chicago studio, rehearsing four original numbers for a planned midnight session. By dinnertime, they felt prepared and went back to their hotel to relax. It was then that their manager, Nat Goodman, telephoned them to summon them back to the studio. He had just heard the Gladiolas' "Little Darlin'" (written and sung by Maurice Williams, who would later hit with the Zodiacs' "Stay") and decided that the Diamonds had to cut it. The Diamonds returned to the studio and learned "Little Darlin'" in half an hour.

The night's recording session went smoothly until 3:30 a.m., when it was time to record the last song, "Little Darlin'." The group had forgotten how to sing it, so they had to relearn it on the spot. At the last minute, [singer] David Somerville asked the group if they could raise the song half a key so that his weary voice would have more of an edge. By that time, the studio clock was ticking towards four a.m., the point at which the musicians would have to be paid overtime. The Diamonds polished off "Little Darlin'" in one take and the session was complete.

The group was surprised to find that it was "Little Darlin'," and not one of its originals, that was rush-released as a single. A massive seller, it landed in the #2 position on both the pop and R&B charts. On the pop chart, it stayed at #2 for eight weeks, kept from the top by Elvis Presley's "All Shook Up."

To some listeners, part of the appeal of "Little Darlin'" is in its seeming satire of doo-wop in all its earnestness, from Somerville's Italianization of words like "lov-ah" and "wrong-ah," to [bass singer] Bill Reed's Ink Spots-style declaration of love. Those listeners may be surprised to learn that, to this day, Somerville insists that the Diamonds really meant "Little Darlin'." "We weren't putting anyone on," he protests. "It was serious stuff."