Representative Albums: "The Best of Little Eva," "Llll-Little Eva!: The Complete Dimension Recordings," "Greatest Hits and Rare Items"
Representative Songs: "The Loco-Motion," "Keep Your Hands off My Baby," "Let's Turkey Trot"
Biography
Little Eva Narcissus Boyd was a babysitter for Carole King and Gerry Goffin when the songwriting team was inspired to write "Locomotion," a song based on a dance that Eva would do around the house. Eva also got to sing on their demo, which impressed Don Kirshner enough to release it as it was. One of the greatest girl group hits, "Locomotion," hit number one in 1962; the follow-up, "Keep Your Hands Off My Baby," was also written by Goffin-King. Almost as good as her debut, it reached the Top 20, and was even covered by the Beatles on stage in their early days (though they never recorded it in the studio). Unfortunately, Eva was then pigeonholed as a dance-craze singer and given inferior material. She never again reached the soulful heights of her first two singles; "Let's Turkey Trot" (1963) was her only other Top 20 hit, although she continued working until October 2001. She succumbed to cervical cancer in April of 2003. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
Eva Narcissus Boyd (June 29, 1943 – April 10, 2003), known by the stage name of Little Eva (after a character from Uncle Tom's Cabin), was an Americansinger.
Born in North Carolina, she moved to the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, New York at a young age. As a teenager, she worked as a maid and earned extra money as a babysitter for songwriters Carole King and Gerry Goffin. Amused by Boyd's individual dancing style, they wrote "The Loco-Motion" for her and had her record it as a demo (the record was intended for Dee Dee Sharp).[citation needed] Music producer Don Kirshner was impressed by the song and Boyd's voice and had it released just the way it was.[citation needed] The song became an instant smash, reaching #1 in the United States in 1962. The two songwriters also wrote the song "He Hit Me (It Felt Like A Kiss)", performed by The Crystals, after Boyd revealed that her boyfriend regularly beat her. When asked why she put up with it, she replied that it showed that he loved her.[1]
After the success of "The Loco-Motion", Boyd was stereotyped as a dance-craze singer and was given limited material.
She continued to tour and record throughout the sixties, but her commercial potential plummeted after 1964. She retired from the music business in 1971.
Interviewed between 1987 and 1988 after the success of the Kylie Minoguecover version of "The Loco-Motion", Boyd stated that she did not like the new version; however its then-current popularity allowed her to make a comeback in show business.[citation needed]
She returned to live performing with other artists of her era on the cabaret and oldies circuits. She also occasionally recorded new songs.
She continued performing until she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in October 2001. She died 18 months later in Kinston, North Carolina, aged 59, and is buried in a small cemetery in Belhaven, North Carolina. Her gravesite was sparsely marked until July 2008, when a report by WRAL-TV of Raleigh, North Carolina highlighted deteriorating conditions at the cemetery and efforts by the city of Belhaven to have it restored. [1] A simple white cross had marked the site until a new gravestone was unveiled in November of that year [2].
