Hooray for Hazel

Album: Sweet Pea (1966)
Charted: 6
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Songfacts®:

  • This was one of Roe's self-penned hits, the tale of this song is similar to Bob Kuban and the In-Men's hit "The Cheater," only this time the "cheater" is a girl (the title role). Hazel wins the hearts of every man and then mistreats them all. The narrator (who happens to be one of her victims) predicts that all the hurt she caused will soon come right back at her. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Jerro - New Alexandria, PA
  • Many of Roe's songs were recorded in Nashville or Muscle Shoals, but his later work was done in Los Angeles with some of the top West Coast musicians. The players on this track were the same ones he used for "Sweet Pea," and included Ben Benay and Mike Deasy on guitars and Jerry Scheff on bass.

Comments: 6

  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn October 10th 1966, Tommy Roe performed "Hooray for Hazel" on the week-day afternoon ABC-TV program 'Where The Action Is'...
    Exactly one month earlier on September 10th he performed the same song on Dick Clark's other ABC-TV program, 'American Bandstand'...
    {See next post below}
    And on November 21st it reached #2 {for 1 week} on the Canadian RPM Singles chart; the week it was at #2, the #1 record for that week was "The Poor Side of Town" by Johnny Rivers.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn September 10th 1966, Tommy Roe performed "Hooray for Hazel" on the ABC-TV program "American Bandstand'...
    The very next day on Sept. 11th it entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #75; and on October 30th, 1966 it peaked at #6 {for 1 week} and spent 13 weeks on the Top 100...
    On the same 'Bandstand' show he also performed "Sweet Pea"; earlier in the year on July 24th, 1966 it peaked at #8 {for 2 weeks} on the Top 100...
    Between 1962 and 1973 he had twenty-two Top 100 records; six made the Top 10 with two reaching #1, "Sheila" for 2 weeks on August 26th, 1962 and "Dizzy" for 4 weeks on March 9th, 1969...
    Thomas David Roe celebrated his 72nd birthday four months ago on May 9th {2014}.
  • Matt from Mattlove1@gmail.com, Mi...to Aviary's masochistic "Feel The Heart" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92oTZf4hKsk) in which the narrator predicts the "cruel girl" will run through all available boys, to eventually return to him.
  • Matt from Mattlove1@gmail.com, MiThere could be an association with the TV series "Hazel" in the mind of a child (there was in mine) but the sexy girl in the song, and the middle-aged live-in domestic (based on the comic strip by Ted Key) share nothing but a name in common. It wasn't a very popular name at the time, so it was easy to see why an association was made. The serial cheater who gets hers is a common pop song trop, from Frankie Sardo's Fake Out (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td8YqZ-9SlQ) in which Betty Lou comes back to one of her victims, the narrator, only to be rebuffed...
  • Steve from Whittier, CaI've always loved this. Very catchy song, and last top ten Tommy Roe song until January 1969's #1 "Dizzy".
  • Ted from Phoenix, AzActually, in both "The Cheater," and this song, the wrongdoer is the woman. Also, if memory serves, at the time this song was released, some thought it was about the lead character of a TV sitcom titled Hazel.
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