Inspiration and Information
from
Baubles, Bangles, Ambrose and Estelle
in my favorite archive
(
Leave Me Alone Ruby Red Dress and Delta Dawn.
Don't forget to flip the "Ambrose Part V" single over! The B-side, Ooh, What A Lover.
"I have several of her records, including "Ambrose Returns", which is hard to find. It's kind of noisy, but it's pretty good, and is on the order of Ambrose 5.
My father was the late songwriter / producer Bert Russell Berns. He wrote and produced two songs with Linda Laurie on his Keetch label in 1964 called "Jose He Say" and "Chico." 
Jerry Osborne DEAR JERRY:
I know about the hit “Ambrose (Part 5),” by Linda Laurie. Then came the follow-up, “Forever Ambrose.”
What I'd like to know more about are Parts 1 through 4 of the story. What happened to them, if there are such recordings? Or did she just begin with Part 5?
Did Linda Laurie ever have any other hits? Did she have an album to go along with the Ambrose series?
Any information about this would be greatly appreciated as I have wondered about “Ambrose” for many years.
—Robert Baldwin, New Hartford, N.Y.DEAR ROBERT: The musical adventures of Linda Laurie and Ambrose, really did begin with Part 5. Though they are no longer walking in the subway, and it isn't marked as such, I suppose “Forever Ambrose” (Glory 290) could be thought of as Part 6.
Four years later, Linda did reconnect briefly with Ambrose in “The Return of Ambrose” (Rust 5061).
Neither “Forever Ambrose” (Glory 294) nor “The Return of Ambrose” charted, but (“Ambrose (Part 5)” ranked in the Top 60 in early 1959 (Glory 290).
Linda Laurie did make other recordings, as is usually the case with one-hit wonder artists.
From 1960 through '64, she waxed the following: “Stay with Me” (Andie 5015); “Chico” (Keetch 6001); “Lucky” (Recona 3502); “Prince Charming” (Rust 5022); and “Stay-At-Home Sue” (Rust 5042), a musical rejoinder to Dion's “Runaround Sue.”
In a binge of research about Linda Laurie yesterday, I posted what was her FIRST record release (from July, 1958) on YouTube yesterday. As it turns out, Linda first recorded with her friend, Susan Yellin, as the Knott Sisters (sometimes noted as the Not Sisters), "Undevided Attention". This song was written by both girls, Linda under her real last name "Gertz". This was about 5 months before Ambrose got into the picture. The main side, as by the Shades featuring the Knott Sisters, was called "Sun Glasses" written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman. Both sides were produced by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, though that tidbit is not on the label. The sheet music for "Sun Glasses" features the two girls (in sun glasses of course), Linda on the left and Susan on the right, accompanied by two guys in shades. I haven't proven it beyond doubt just yet, but I believe Linda herself provides the vocals for the Shades, or at least the speaking Shade guy, the predecessor to Ambrose. If so, you can label the record as "Ambrose, Part 1-4".