Born Lawrence Kendall Hall, 30 June 1940, Hamlett, Ohio
Died 24 September 1997, Oregon

Larry Hall was another one-hit wonder, whose only hit, "Sandy", peaked at # 15 in Billboard during the week ending January 4, 1960. Not long after winning a talent contest sponsored by Cliffie Stone, Larry was approached by Terry Fell, with a song he wrote called "Sandy". For $ 50 Larry recorded the song, using Les Paul's hand- me-down equipment. With copies pressed on his self-constructed Hot label, Larry and his mum ran up and down the West Coast imploring DJs to add the disk to their playlists. "Sandy" was a soft, but very commercial teen tune. The New York based Strand label picked up distribution for the disk and acquired Hall's contract. The follow-up was a forgettable Burt Bacharach item called "A Girl Like You". For the next few years, Strand Records spared no expense with Larry, securing hit songwriters and Jimmie Haskell as producer. But it was all for naught ; after a few more singles for Gold Leaf, Larry checked out of the business, though he returned long enough to co-produce big hits for Terry Stafford ("Suspicion") and Dobie Gray ("The In-Crowd"). Within months of the hits, Larry and his family moved to Oregon where they have remained operating a small cattle ranch. He died of cancer in 1997.

(Adapted from: Wayne Jancik's entry for Larry Hall in "The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders", revised edition 1998, page 90.)

CD: Sandy (Collectables CD 5582). 18 tracks.