The Poni-Tails were one of the first successful girl groups of the rock and roll era, along with the Chantels and the less youthful Chordettes. The original group consisted of Toni Cistone (lead), Karen Topinka (low harmony) and LaVerne Novak (high harmony). They were students of Brush High School in Lyndhurst, Ohio (an upper-middle-class suburb of Cleveland) when they started singing together. In 1956 they were introduced to a music publisher named Tom Illius, who liked the soft style of the trio and the song they had written, "Que La Bozena". Illius offered to become their manager and took them to the local Point label, who issued their first single, "Your Wild Heart"/"Que La Bozena" in January 1957. "Your Wild Heart" was nearly a hit, but 15-year old Mercury artist Joy Layne covered the song and took it to # 20 on the US Billboard charts.

Their second single, "Can I Be Sure", on the Marc label, didn't do as well as their debut recording. Parental pressure forced Karen Topinka to leave the group ; her replacement was Patti McCabe. Illius managed to get the girls signed to ABC-Paramount. "Just My Luck To Be Fifteen" vanished from sight upon release, but the next single (1958), with a similar theme, would secure the Poni-Tails a place in pop history. It was the Fred Tobias/Charles Strouse composition "Born Too Late", which reached # 7 in Billboard and # 5 in the UK and is now a girl group classic. Ironically, ABC originally pushed the other side, "Come On Joey, Dance With Me" as the A-side, until several Cleveland deejays started to promote "Born Too Late".

For the next two years, the Poni-Tails tried their best to recapture that magic, but only "Seven Minutes in Heaven" (# 85, late 1958) and "Pennies From Heaven" (# 87, autumn 1959) made a modest chart noise. However, In the UK, "Early To Bed", went to # 26 in April 1959, helped by heavy exposure on Radio Luxembourg.

UK HMV POP 516  10" 78rpm SHELLAC

A SIDE:- BORN TOO LATE    

B SIDE:  COME ON JOEY, DANCE WITH ME

CONDITION - EX-/VG+