"The Birds and the Bees" was a 1964
single release by
Jewel Akens that is said to have been written by the twelve-year-old son of
Era Records owner Herb Newman; the songwriting credit on the Jewel Akens recording of "The Birds and the Bees" reads Barry Stuart, which is the song's standard songwriting credit.[1]
History
"The Birds and the Bees" was written with a lyric based on the "
birds and the bees"
idiom commonly referenced with regard to affording young people their introduction to
sex education. An international
hit in 1965, "The Birds and the Bees" was reminiscent of such 1950s'
honky tonk-style hits as "
Blueberry Hill" by
Fats Domino and "
Kansas City" by
Wilbert Harrison.
Some subsequent recordings (i.e. by artists other than Akens) identify the composer as Herb Newman (Newman had written "
The Wayward Wind" a 1956 No.1 hit for
Gogi Grant). Jewel Akens had recorded one single for Era as frontman for the
doo-wop group the Turn-Arounds in 1964 when Newman pitched "The Birds and the Bees" as the group's next recording; as Akens was the only group member to favor the song he recorded it solo, working through four or five different arrangements and thus considerably honing the song's original format.[2] Musicians on the recording included
Billy Strange and
Ervan Coleman on guitar, Bob West and Arthur Wright on bass,
Hal Blaine on drums and
Leon Russell on piano.
Chart performance
Recorded at
Gold Star Studios - with sound engineer
Stan Ross employing the innovative technique of "chorusing" by patching the session guitarist into an organ speaker [3] - "The Birds and the Bees" afforded Akens a Top Ten hit in the first quarter of 1965 reaching No.2 on the
USCash Box singles chart and No.3 on the US
Billboard Hot 100 chart: the single also reached No.21 on the US BillboardHot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart.[4] The disc also had strong chart impact internationally reaching No.3 in Australia, No.6 in Belgium (Flemish Region), No.3 in the Netherlands and No.4 in Norway. In the UK "The Birds and the Bees" afforded Akens a more moderate hit, reaching No.29,[5] with Akens besting a
cover version by
Johnny Kidd & the Pirates that failed to chart.
Other recordings
Alma Cogancovered Akens's hit for release in Scandinavia[6] and was afforded a No.1 hit in Sweden for three weeks in the summer of 1965, and also a Top Ten hit in both Denmark and Norway, with respective peaks of No.8 and No.4 (Cogan's version of "The Birds and the Bees" matching the Norwegian chart peak of Akens' original).
Alma Cogan is often credited with a UK cover of "The Birds and the Bees"; in fact her UK single of that name - No.25 in 1956 - was a recording of "
(The Same Thing Happens with) The Birds and the Bees".
A 1966 single release by
Rufus and
Carla Thomas was more simply titled "Birds and Bees".
Bobby G. Rice recorded "The Birds and the Bees" in 1971 to serve as
B-side for his No.33
C&W chart hit "
Suspicion", with "The Birds and The Bees" being featured on Rice's 1972 debut album Hit After Hit.
An Italian-language rendering of "The Birds and the Bees", "Sulla sabbia c’era lei", was recorded by
Sonia e le Sorelle (
it), and was an entrant in the 1965
Cantagiro festival;
Nicola Salerno wrote the lyrics which typically of the song's non-English renderings are independent of the English original, the title translating as "On the sand there was you".
Also in 1965,
Drafi Deutscher (
de) & His Magics recorded a German rendering of "The Birds and the Bees" entitled "Heute Male Ich Dein Bild [today I paint your image],
Cindy Lou" which reached No.3 in Germany and No.5 in Austria while the French rendering "Bientôt les vacances" (Soon the holidays) by
Monty (
fr) reached No.11 in France;
Québécois artist
Donald Lautrec also recorded a French take of "The Birds and the Bees" in 1965, that being "Tu Dis Des Bêtises" (You say the nonsense)
The Cindy Lou spawned a parody recording by
Jacques Desrosiers entitled "Il Y'a Des Bibites" (There are some bugs).
Ambrus Kyri (
hu) recorded a Hungarian rendering of "The Birds and the Bees" entitled "Madarak és Méhek" (Birds and bees) in 1967.
A recording was made in Danish as "Blomster og bier" (flowers and bees) by
Birthe Kjær in 1974
"The Birds and the Bees" was done in Swedish as "Blommor och bin" (Flowers and bees) by lyricist
Keith Almgren and recorded by
Little Gerhard 1965 (SweDisc SWDS 1093) and
Sten & Stanley (
sv) on their album Musik, dans & party 8 (1993).
It was also performed in Finnish by
Laila Kinnunen as "Kuinka kuu katoaa".