The flipside of Shirley's first British top 10 hit, Banana Boat Song. In the charts of the 1950s, both sides of a record could chart, although unfortunately this flipside didn't follow Banana Boat Song into the British hit parade. Sadly the song has not yet been available on CD.

The song was probably one of the first examples of Shirley covering a song from a popular American film of the time, "Rock, Rock, Rock" (1956), with others of the era being "Fire Down Below" and "As I Love You", her first No. 1 in Britain.

In the film, a young girl, Dori, played by Tuesday Weld, tries to raise enough money to get a dress for her school prom, while her boyfriend Tommy (Teddy Randazzo) wins a talent contest and talks DJ Alan Freed (who coined the phrase "rock 'n' roll") into getting a number of big acts to play there. Contemporary rock 'n' roll stars such as Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Chuck Berry and The Flamingos all appeared and played their songs in this film. LaVern Baker sung the song "Tra La La"

In December 1956, two versions of the song "Tra La La" charted on the Billboard Pop charts. LaVern Baker, who sung the song in the film, could only get as high as #94, but a rival version by Georgia Gibbs made it to #39.
 

Junior Parker

The song was written by Junior Parker, an African-American blues singer who was born 27 May 1932. In 1952, thanks to Ike Turner, Little Junior Parker, as he was known then, got his first recording session at Modern Records. It produced the single "You're My Angel", and the following year him and his band, the Blue Flames came to the legendary Sun Records, who launched the careers of major acts such as Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. His time there yielded the future Elvis smash "Mystery Train", but before long Parker had moved on to Duke Records, where he garnered his first pop hit in 1957 with "Next Time You See Me" (#74). A few more hits followed, of which the biggest was "Annie Get Your Yo-Yo", #51 in 1962. After splitting from the label, his fortunes declined and subsequent ventures with Mercury's Blue Rock subsidiary label and Capitol failed to make an impression with the public. He died on November 18 1971 in Chicago, Illinois, not yet 40 years old. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001.
 

Lyrics

Cha cha cha
Cha cha cha cha

Cha cha cha
Cha cha cha cha

Tra la la
Tra la la
You're as sweet as a candy bar

Tra la la
Tra la la
I'm so happy that I could cry

Tra la la
Tra la la
You're as cute as a movie star

Tra la la
Tra la lo
I'd be crazy to let you go

Tra la la
Tra la lou
All my loving is just for you

Tra la la
Tra la lo
I wanna whistle but I don't know how so I'm singing

Tra la la
Tra la la
I love you just the way you are

Tra la la
Tra la lee
I'm as happy as I can be

<instrumental>

Tra la la
Tra la la
You're as sweet as a candy bar

Tra la la
Tra la la
I'm so happy that I could cry

Tra la la
Tra la la
You're as cute as a movie star

Tra la la
Tra la lo
I'd be crazy to let you go

Tra la la
Tra la lou
All my loving is just for you

Tra la la
Tra la lo
I wanna whistle but I don't know how so I'm singing

Tra la la
Tra la la
I love you just the way you are

Tra la la
Tra la lee
I'm as happy as I can be

Ooh
Cha cha cha
Cha cha cha cha
Tra la la la la la

Information kindly researched and provided by Theo Morgan