B-side "I've Cried Before" Genre Doo wop Label Laurie | Released March 30, 1959 Length 2:40 Writer(s) Doc Pomus, Mort Shuman | |
"A Teenager in Love" is a song written by Doc Pomus and partner Mort Shuman and was originally sung and released by Dion and the Belmonts in March 1959. It reached #5 on the Billboard pop charts. In May 1959, the song held three positions in the British Top 20, the other two versions being by Marty Wilde and Craig Douglas. The song is considered one of the greatest songs in rock and roll history.
The song was covered by Bob Marley with The Wailers. In 1965 recorded on the Coxsone label, it was covered by Simon and Garfunkel in their final show as a recording duo at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in Queens, New York.
This song was covered several other times, for example by The Fleetwoods, by Helen Shapiro in 1963, by Connie Stevens and the Mutations on The Muppet Show in 1976, by Less Than Jake on their 2002 album, Goodbye Blue & White, by the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2002 as a B-Side to the single By The Way and on their 2012 release, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Covers EP, and by The Overtones in their 2013 album Saturday Night at the Movies.
It is also featured as a playable song in the Nintendo Wii Game Rayman Raving Rabbids 2.
The Fugs parodied the song as "Septuagenarian in Love" on The Fugs Final CD Part 1. This version turns the teenager into a senior citizen who is having trouble getting an erection. The Four Preps parodied the song in "More Money for You and Me."