cousin-article-graphic
ROCK & ROLL CALL📞📞☎️📞
We got to know our guest CAROL CONNORS as the lead voice of Phil Spector’s trio The Teddy Bears and their number one smash hit “To Know Him Is To Love Him” (1958).
Carol was seriously injured in a car accident in 1960 and in the years that followed she interrupted her music career and attended UCLA. Gradually, Carol found her way back to music. This time focusing on writing as well as performing.
It didn’t take long and one of her earliest triumphs was “Hey Little Cobra,” a 1963 hot‑rod hit recorded by the Rip Chords. The song raced up the charts and even earned her a Cobra sports car.
Carol meets Rocky! Her amazing achievement as a writer is co‑writing “Gonna Fly Now,” the soaring theme from the 1976 film Rocky, with composer Bill Conti and lyricist Ayn Robbins. The song became a worldwide hit, and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song,
According to Rock & Roll mythology. The key phrase “Gonna fly now”, came to her in the shower as the perfect way to express Rocky’s sense that he was ready to claim victory even if he hasn’t won yet.
Her life and work have also become the subject of memoir and documentary treatments, including the audiobook Elvis, Rocky and Me: The Carol Connors Story, which earned a Grammy nomination in the Best Audiobook category.
From teenage lead singer on a number one pop ballad to a
twice‑Oscar‑nominated songwriter, Carol Connors stands as an important bridge between the early innocent 1950s hitmaking and the cinematic success of today’s popular music.
Join The Cuz and let’s welcome Carol Connors to MUSICRADIO this Saturday 1/24/26.
CB
