He's So Fine - The Chiffons Version

The Chiffons Version

"He's So Fine" was written by Ronald Mack, an acquaintance of the Chiffons' members who set himself up as their manager after overhearing them sing in their high school's lunch room. Mack elicited the interest of Bright Tunes Corporation, a production company run by the Tokens who produced the Chiffons singing "He's So Fine" and two other Mack compositions at Capitol Recording Studios; the Tokens themselves - who'd never previously played on a recording session - provided the instrumentation.

Originally, "Oh, My Lover", one of the two other songs, was considered the potential hit but the completed track for "He's So Fine" with its now classic 'Doo-lang doo-lang doo-lang' background vocal - the suggestion of the session's sound engineer Johnny Cue - seemed an obvious smash, although Capitol Records for whom the Tokens were house producers rejected the track: Jay Siegal of the Tokens would recall Capitol president Voyle Gilmore dismissing the track as "too trite...too simple". The Tokens shopped "He's So Fine" to ten labels before placing it with Laurie Records. Siegal - "We played it and they locked the doors and said, 'You're not getting out of here. We want that record.'...Of course, we'd already been turned down by ten companies - give us eighty cents and we'd have given you the record."

Released in December 1962, "He's So Fine" entered the national charts in February 1963 attaining the #1 position on March 30 and remaining #1 for a four week period and also made it to number one on the soul singles chart. "He's So Fine" was also a #16 hit in the UK.

The Chiffons' two later Top 10 hits both contain echoes of "He's So Fine", although neither song was written by Ronald Mack, who died soon after the Chiffons had recorded his song. "One Fine Day" was written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin who had had Little Eva record the song before shopping it to the Chiffons after the group hit with "He's So Fine", and "Sweet Talking Guy" - in which the background vocalists sing: "He's so fine" - was co-written by the co-founder of Laurie Records, Eliot Greenberg. Also after the Chiffons had had hits with "He's So Fine" and "One Fine Day"1 the Tokens especially wrote the song "A Love So Fine" to be their next single: it managed a #40 peak.

• 1The Chiffons actually had the non-charting single release "Lucky Me" between "He's So Fine" and "One Fine Day".

• "He's So Fine" by The Chiffons is featured on the soundtrack album to the 1979 film 'Quadrophenia'.