Beverly Ross

Beverly Ross
Born	1939
Origin	Brooklyn, New York, US
Genres	Pop, country, musical theatre
Occupation(s)	Songwriter
Years active	1954-present
Website	http://beverlyross.info

Beverly Ross (born 1939) is an American songwriter and musician who co-wrote several successful pop songs in the 1950s and 1960s, including "Dim, Dim The Lights", "Lollipop" — which she also recorded, as one half of Ronald & Ruby — "The Girl of My Best Friend", "Remember Then", and "Judy's Turn to Cry".

She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and as a child moved with her family to Lakewood, New Jersey where she learned the piano. While at school, she began writing poetry and song lyrics.

While living in The Bronx as a teenager, she began canvassing writers at the Brill Building with some of her songs. The first to be recorded was "Dim, Dim The Lights (I Want Some Atmosphere)", co-written with black songwriter Julius Dixson (or Dixon), which was recorded by Bill Haley and His Comets in 1954 and became a crossover hit in both the pop chart and R&B chart the following year. The song was the first rock and roll song recorded by a white singer to reach the R&B chart, and was hailed by Alan Freed as "the grand daddy song of rock n’ roll".

In 1958 she and Dixson wrote one of her most lasting songs, "Lollipop". When Dixson explained that he was late for a songwriting session because his daughter had gotten a lollipop stuck in her hair, Ross began writing the song, and later recorded a demo version with Dixson's neighbor, teenager Ronald Gumm (or Gumps). Dixson, who owned the master and had produced the demo, then agreed to let RCA Records release it as by "Ronald and Ruby". The pair's version rose up the chart reaching no.20, but when it was learned that Ronald and Ruby were an inter-racial duo, television appearances that had been previously booked got cancelled. Cover versions by The Chordettes (no.2 in the US) and The Mudlarks (no.2 in the UK) rose higher up the charts, and the song became an international hit.

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