Please Love Me Forever
#12 in 1961


The Roommates were originally a duo formed by 15-year olds Steve Susskind and Bob Minsky, of Russell Sage Junior High in Queens, New York. After coming second in a local talent show - behind another duo, Tom & Jerry, who later became better known as Simon & Garfunkel - they became a quartet. For their first release they recorded 14 year old Cathy Jean Giordano singing "Please Love Me Forever", a song that had been a minor hit in 1958 for Tommy Edwards, and would become a hit again in 1967 for Bobby Vinton. Before releasing the record, overdubbed harmonies by the Roommates was added. Cathy Jean and the group had never met in person when the record was issued. Steve Susskind later became a successful character actor. He died in an automobile accident on January 21, 2005, and Bob Minsky died on August 25, 2006. Art Loria died in October 2010 after a successful, post-Roommates, career performing and recording with such acts as the Belmonts, Larry Chance and the Earls and the Doo Wop All Stars. Cathy Jean Giordano married and, as Cathy Jean Ruiz, hosted a Long Island radio show in the late 1980s. She recorded a comeback single, "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me", in 1991. Soon afterwards, she formed a new version of Cathy Jean and the Roommates, who continue to perform in and around New York as of 2012. Current members of the Roommates are Jerry Pilgrim, Shelly Wengrovsky, and Carlos Rampolla.
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