Forever No. 1: Shelley Fabares, ‘Johnny Angel’
Categoria: Musica
When she dethroned Connie Francis, it marked the first time female singers had back-to-back No. 1s on the Hot 100.
Por Billboard | 25/08/2026
Forever No. 1 is a Billboard series that pays special tribute to the recently deceased artists who achieved the highest honor our charts have to offer — a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single — by taking an extended look back at the chart-topping songs that made them part of this exclusive club. Here, we honor the late TV star Shelley Fabares, whose “Johnny Angel” reached No. 1 in April 1962. “Johnny Angel” is so innocent, so chaste, that it immediately conjures a simpler time. It has that in common with such other defining hits of the era as The Chordettes’ “Mr. Sandman” (1954) and The Teddy Bears’ “To Know Him, Is To Love Him” (1958). “Johnny Angel” is a classic “crush” song, in which the singer pines about a boy who is utterly oblivious:”Johnny Angel, how I love him/ He’s got something that I can’t resist/ But he doesn’t even know that I exist.” Related Gone But Not Forgotten: Musicians We Lost in 2026 Forever No. 1: Connie Francis, ‘My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own’ Forever No. 1: Connie Francis’ ‘Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool’ Singer and actress Shelley Fabares , who died on Sunday (Aug. 23) in Los Angeles at age 82, recorded the song in September 1961 when she was just 17. She performed it in her role as daughter Mary Stone on The Donna Reed Show in the episode (“Donna’s Prima Donna”) that aired on Feb. 1, 1962 (by which time she had turned 18). The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 two months later. Lyn Duddy and Lee Pockriss wrote “Johnny Angel,” which is distinguished by a lilting and lovely pre-chorus: “I’m in heaven, I get carried away/ I dream of him and me/ And how it’s gonna be/ Other fellas call me up for a date/ But I just sit and wait/ I’d rather concentrate/ On Johnny Angel.” The song also has a nice line in the chorus: “And I pray that someday he’ll love me/ And together we will see/ How lovely Heaven will be.” Darlene Love and her group, the Blossoms, sang backup vocals on the track. (They also sang, uncredited, on The Crystals ’ far earthier “He’s a Rebel,” which likewise topped the Hot 100 later in 1962.) Musicians who played on “Johnny Angel” include Hal Blaine on drums, Carol Kaye on bass and Glen Campbell on guitar – legends all. It wasn’t Fabares’ idea to make records. The decision was forced on her. Reed’s husband, Tony Owen, produced The Donna Reed Show , which ran for eight seasons (1958-66). During the 1961-62 season, Owen decided to follow the lead of another long-running family series, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952-1966), which saw its ratings jump when younger son Ricky Nelson performed his pop hits on the series. During the run of the show, two of Nelson’s hits, “Poor Little Fool” (1958) and “Travelin’ Man” (1961), reached No. 1 on the Hot 100. Owen told Fabares and Paul Petersen, who played her younger brother Jeff on the series, that they would record pop tunes to perform on the series. Note that he didn’t ask