Joan Weber

New Jersey-born Joan Weber was just 18 years old in 1955 when she hit the big time with a #1 song, "Let Me Go, Lover." Intent on a career as a professional singer, she met up with manager Eddie Joy, who was impressed with the teenager's strong voice, and he subsequently set up a meeting with Charles Randolph Grean, a songwriter/producer (who had several years earlier written Phil Harris' hit novelty song "The Thing" and would later write the theme song to the hit TV series Dark Shadows (1966)) at the famous Brill Building in New York. Impressed with Weber's demo tape, Grean gave it to producer Mitch Miller at Columbia Records, who signed her. Miller picked a song called "Let Me Go, Devil", changed the name to "Let Me Go, Lover", and had Weber record it. It was arranged for her to perform the song on the TV show Studio One (1948). That exposure propelled the song to #1 on the charts, selling a half-million copies. However, by the time the record became a certified hit Weber had given birth to a child, and couldn't devote the kind of time needed to promote both the song and her career. Columbia dropped her after her contract was up, and she never managed to have another hit record.