"See You in September", is a song written by Sid Wayne and Sherman Edwards in 1959 which was a Top 30 hit that summer as first recorded by the Tempos; when remade by the Happenings in 1966 the song reached #3.
Sid Wayne would recall the song's inception: "I was in the habit of going from my home on Long Island every day to Brill Building, on Tin Pan Alley [to] meet with different songwriters there. We'd eat at Jack Dempsey's or The Turf Restaurant and then we'd go up to one of the publishers' offices and work in the piano room. We'd sit around saying to each other, 'What do you want to write today? A hit or a standard?'" At 11 a.m. on a Friday in June 1959 Wayne thus met up with Sherman Edwards: "he said, 'What do you want to write?' 'I'd like to write a song called See You in September,"' I said. We talked it back and forth and I think I may have contributed part of the opening music, but with Sherman it didn't matter, because he could throw me back half the lyric - that's how he worked. I think probably by two in the afternoon we got the song finished. It needed to be written; it was like boiling inside of us."
By 4:30 p.m. that day Wayne and Edwards had reworked their composition, simplifying it so as to appeal to the teen demographic, and proceeded to make the rounds of publishers to pitch the song which, after one rejection, met with an enthusiastic reception from Jack Gold, owner of the local Paris label, who by 8 p.m. had telephoned the Tempos1 in their hometown of Pittsburgh. The group had been flown in to New York City by the next day: Saturday. Sid Wayne - ""By Monday the record was cut [with the Billy Mure orchestra], test pressings were Thursday, and by Friday the song was played on WNEW in New York. The thing took off like wildfire....Five hundred dollars to split between the two of us [ie. Wayne & Edwards]...was a damn good week's pay in 1961."
In fact the Tempos' "See You in September" failed to become a hit in the New York City area and despite breaking in San Francisco in June of 1959 the single did not reach the national charts until that July. Despite a subsequent swift ascent of the Billboard Hot 100, the single's momentum fell sharply at the end of August with a resultant #23 peak. Although overshadowed by the Happenings' #3 remake, the Tempos' version of "See You in September" did gain considerable currency in 1973 by virtue of its inclusion on the American Graffiti soundtrack.
I'll be alone each and every night
While you're away, don't forget to write
See you in September
See you when the summers through
Here we are
Saying goodbye at the station
Summer vacation
Is taking you away
Have a good time but remember
There is danger in the summer moon above
Will I see you in September
Or lose you to a summer love
Counting the days till I'll be with you
Counting the hours and the minutes too
Have a good time but remember
There is danger in the summer moon above
Will I see you in September
Or lose you to a summer love
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