Songfacts®:

• Peggy March was just 14 when she released "I Will Follow Him," a very catchy song that finds her crushing hard on a guy, willing to follow him to the ends of the earth because she's convinced he's her destiny. This was the golden age of girl groups and young female singers like March. The songs were targeted to a teenage audience and typically about a guy. When "I Will Follow Him" went to #1 on April 27, 1963, it took over from "He's So Fine" by The Chiffons.
• March was 15 plus a month and 13 days old when the song hit #1, making her the youngest female singer ever to top the Hot 100 (Brenda Lee was six months older when she went to #1 with "I'm Sorry"). Born Margaret Battavio, she took the stage name March after the month she was born. Her producers christened her "little" because she was about 4'10" at the time.
  
  Her follow-up singles were just minor hits, but March dropped the "little" and evolved to become an actress and songwriter. She co-wrote "When The Rain Begins To Fall" by Jermaine Jackson and "Manuel Goodbye" by Audrey Landers, which both did well in Europe.
• "I Will Follow Him" was originally a French song called "Chariot" composed by two famous French musicians, Paul Mauriat and Frank Pourcel (Mauriat under the pseudonym Del Roma, Pourcel as J.W. Stole). Petula Clark recorded it and her version was released in 1962.
  
  For the English translation March recorded, the music was adapted by Arthur Altman ("American Beauty Rose," "Don't Gild The Lily Lily") and lyrics were added by Norman Gimbel ("Bluesette," "Girl From Ipanema," "Killing Me Softly With His Song").
• This was produced by Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore, aka Hugo & Luigi, a popular songwriting/producing duo who worked out of New York City's famed Brill Building. Aside from this tune, they produced the hits "Twistin' The Night Away," "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," and "Shout," and co-wrote Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling In Love." Peggy March was thrilled to be teamed with the duo, who were getting a lot of press at the time.
  
  In a 2010 interview with blogcritics, she recalled her meeting with the producers: "I vividly remember walking into Hugo & Luigi's office and seeing 'I Will Follow Him' on their desk. It was really as simple as, 'This is your next recording." We went in and recorded it right away in December, and it was out a month later. There was a huge orchestra, at a studio on 23rd Street in New York, with timpani and strings. Everyone at that time recorded together; we didn't do separate tracks - except the male and female voices came in the next day. But everything else, including me in an isolation booth in the middle of the orchestra, recorded at the same time."
  
  She continued: "The song was range-y. I had worked with bands before, but certainly not that big. My reaction was, 'Wow, these people are all here for me. This is kinda cool!' But I was there to work. I had my Coca Cola next to me. Every time they called for another take, I said, 'Okay.' At that time, I was a freshman in high school. My Latin tests were a lot harder than doing this song 15 or 20 times. The next day, if it wasn't a weekend, I most likely had some English test. I had a dual life going on - I absolutely loved it. I was on TV a lot in the Philadelphia area. That part wasn't new to me, but getting on The Perry Como Show was an extremely big deal."
• The song was an international hit, going to #1 not only in the US but also in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Scandinavia. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Jerro - New Alexandria, PA
• If you're looking for a musical example of the rule of threes, you've found it. In the chorus, March repeats the key word or phrase in each line three times, making it hard to forget:
  
  I love him, I love him, I love him
  I'll follow, I'll follow, I'll follow
  My true love, my true love, my true love
  Forever, forever, forever
  
  Humans seems attuned to these triplets, which often show up in lists, lyrics, and lingo (we also like alliteration).
• The melody was interpolated into a piano line that plays throughout the 1999 song "Guilty Conscience" by Eminem and Dr. Dre.
• The song could be heard as a call to follow God, which is how it was used in the 1992 comedy Sister Act, with Whoopi Goldberg leading a chorus of nuns. March was busy traveling at the time and didn't know about the movie until a friend clued her in. After she saw it - and loved it - she learned the filmmakers had tried to contact her. "The right people didn't know where to get a hold of me," she explained. "Not that they needed my permission - but I wouldn't have minded playing one of the nuns!"
• March wrote a follow-up called "I Still Follow You" for her 2010 album Always and Forever.
• The word "follow" took on a new meaning in the age of social media. In the 2020 movie Spree, about a homicidal rideshare driver who becomes obsessed with his social media presence, "I Will Follow Him" plays at the end as a satire of this culture.

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