Australian singles charts:
Come Softly to Me entered the Kent charts on 25 April 1959 and peaked at #7. It was #61 on the Top 100 of 1959.
Album:
The song is on The Fleetwoods’ 1959 album Mr. Blue.
Songwriters:
Gretchen Christopher, Barbara Ellis, Gary Troxel
Producer:
Bob Reisdorff
Record label of Australian release:
London
Wikipedia:
The Fleetwoods were Gretchen Christopher, Barbara Ellis and Gary Troxel, who wrote the first of the group’s seven songs to make the Top 100 in Australia, Come Softly to Me. It was also their biggest hit in this country.
The original title was Come Softly, but was changed en route to its becoming a hit. Bob Reisdorf, the owner of Dolphin Records in America, which in 1960 changed to Dolton Records, was responsible for the title change. He thought that “Come Softly” might be too obvious and considered risqué, so he had it changed to Come Softly to Me. The title phrase never appears in the song’s lyrics.
Recording the song at home, the group sang it a cappella with the rhythmic shaking of Troxel’s car keys. The tape was then sent to Los Angeles where the sparse instrumental accompaniment was added, including an acoustic guitar played by Bonnie Guitar (Bonnie Buckingham), herself a successful singer-songwriter (Dark Moon) and Reisdorf’s in-house record producer.
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_Softly_to_Me
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