Trivia time: Who was the youngest female artist ever to top the Billboard Hot 100?  If you answered "Little" Peggy March, we will follow you!  The Pennsylvania-born singer was just fifteen years old when "I Will Follow Him" resided at the chart's top spot for three weeks in April-May 1963.  The teenager's sweet ode of devotion ensured Peggy's place in the annals of popular culture, referenced in films, commercials, and hip-hop samples.  But "I Will Follow Him" was just the tip of the iceberg for her international recording career.

Ace Records has recently placed a long-overdue spotlight on the artist's repertoire with a new collection, If You Loved Me: RCA Recordings from Around the World 1963-1969.  Among its 26 tracks in English, Japanese, Italian, French and German are rarities from the pens of Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Randy Newman, Brian Wilson, Paul Anka, and Peter Allen, and productions and arrangements from Charlie Calello, Garry Sherman, Jimmy "Wiz" Wisner, and even Ennio Morricone.  These tracks vividly demonstrate the singer's tremendous stylistic versatility and musical joie de vivre.

Young Margaret Battavio had a passion for singing.  A family connection led to an audition with Hugo and Luigi, RCA Victor's star songwriting and production team with hits by Elvis Presley ("Can't Help Falling in Love"), The Tokens ("The Lion Sleeps Tonight") and The Isley Brothers ("Shout!").  The seasoned duo was impressed by the diminutive (4'10") starlet with the big, distinctive voice.  In her compelling liner notes, Sheryl Farber quotes Peggy on one secret of her success: "A voice that is very, very recognizable has a better chance of making it than one that sounds like everybody else.  And I never wanted to sound like anybody else.  And so, if someone said, 'Oh, you sound like Connie Francis,' well, I hated that!  I didn't want to be Connie Francis.  I wanted to be me."  Margaret - rechristened by Hugo and Luigi to her chagrin as "Little" Peggy March, the surname derived from her birth month - had no problem sounding simply like herself.  (Thankfully, the "Little" moniker didn't last long.)

Perhaps surprisingly, this non-chronologically-sequenced collection only touches upon "I Will Follow Him," presenting the familiar tune in its Japanese-language version.  "I Will Follow Him" had its origins in a French instrumental, "Chariot," underscoring the ease with which Peggy absorbed the music of various cultures around the world.  Numerous tracks on If You Loved Me are heard in both their English versions and international counterparts, including the powerfully frenetic "This Heart Wasn't Made to Kick Around" (recorded in Germany) in English and German, and the jangly beat rocker "He Couldn't Care Less" in English and Japanese.  The latter was penned by Australian "brother act" (not real brothers!) Chris and Peter Allen with Dick Everett, prior to Peter's rise to solo stardom.

The title track, "If You Loved Me," was, like "I Will Follow Him," first composed as an instrumental.  The dramatic melody by French singer-songwriter Michel Polnareff and striking vocal by Peggy were accompanied by Al Gorgoni's orchestration, fully embracing the splendor of the era with evocative, baroque flourishes calling to mind early Harry Nilsson or even Brian Wilson.  Gorgoni, a sometimes partner of Chip Taylor, arranged some of the most stunning tracks here including a Wilson/Mike Love cut from The Beach Boys' Wild Honey: the sweetly bouncy "Aren't You Glad."  Gorgoni also helmed Ted Daryll and Billy Vera's seemingly Bacharach-inspired "Thinking Through My Tears."  The mature lead on the 1968 single left no question that "Little" Peggy March had grown up.

Likewise, the sleek soul stylings of 1965's "Losin' My Touch," a sophisticated Frank Catana/Sal Trimachi ballad produced by Joe Rene with a Peter De Angelis chart, showcased March's tremendous vocal power.  Perhaps no song was more rangy and complex than "Try to See It My Way," a beguiling and all-too-unknown Burt Bacharach/Hal David number from their 1967 television musical On The Flip Side.  Sympathetically aided by the orchestra of Jimmy Wisner, March beautifully navigated the contours of Bacharach's typically angular melody and David's impassioned plea.

In addition to the international territories, RCA didn't restrict Peggy's work on American shores to the label's East Coast operations.  "Let Me Down Hard" was cut in 1967 with producer Danny Davis and veteran "Nashville Sound" arranger Bill McElhiney, for a country-meets-rock fusion.  Appropriate for a Pennsylvania-bred artist, Peggy dabbled in embryonic Philly soul with Leon Huff's perky, girl-group-styled "Can't Stop Thinkin' About Him," arranged by Charlie Calello of neighboring New Jersey.

Peggy knew talent when she heard it; of Randy Newman's early song "Leave Me Alone" (swathed in Garry Sherman's haunting strings), she comments, "I may not have known what was commercial and what wasn't, but I knew what was good, and what wasn't.  And that was good."  Indeed: good may be an understatement.  Newman might not have found his signature voice yet, but his firm grasp of character and emotion were already intact in 1964.  Hence "Leave Me Alone" is more mature than the same year's Sherman-arranged, enjoyably frothy "Only You Could Do That to My Heart," from Brill Building tunesmiths Jack Keller and Tony Powers.  That same year, Peggy received a song from RCA labelmate Paul Anka: "(I'm Watching) Every Little Move You Make."  It's not nearly as sinister as it sounds, and the swinging little ditty is also featured here in Italian.

March recorded an entire album in 1965 for RCA with singer Bennie Thomas, recalling the experience as a less-than-ideal one.  Of the four duets on the LP, one has been reprised here.  "Catchin' On Fast" by the team of Bernie Baum, Florence Kaye and Bill Giant (best known for many of Elvis Presley's film songs) blends March and Thomas' voices in a brassy setting redolent of the Mamas and the Papas.  Far more curious than "Catchin' On Fast" is the offbeat folk lament "Kilindini Docks," recorded in Holland and issued on a 45 with the brash, uptempo "Too Long Away" from the same composer, Jacky Javelin.  Both sides, sung in English, are included here.

Peggy's unique international recordings are among the most fascinating tracks here.  "Passo su Passo," her Italian-language pop offering for the 1964 San Remo Festival wasn't nearly as oddball as "Kilindini Docks," and even boasted an orchestral arrangement by film maestro Ennio Morricone.  A 1965 French-language take on Sid Jacobson and Lou Stallman's "Let Her Go" is a more frantic counterpart to "I Will Follow Him."

In typical Ace fashion, If You Loved Me is lavishly packaged, with a 20-page full color booklet featuring numerous photographs, picture sleeves, label scans, and memorabilia images.  Sheryl Farber's notes encompass an introductory essay and track-by-track liner notes with Peggy's own memories of each song.  Duncan Cowell has superbly remastered each song.

Following the end of her RCA contract in 1969, Peggy concentrated largely on the European market, scoring major hits in Germany through the duration of the 1970s.  She notched another international success as co-writer in 1984 of "When the Rain Begins to Fall," as performed by Jermaine Jackson and Pia Zadora; the song went to No. 1 in four countries including Germany.  In 2010, Peggy recorded her first English-language album of new, original material in over 30 years with Always and Forever.  This anthology, chronicling the singer's American rarities and earliest international journeys, is a fitting celebration of the first chapter of a remarkable and enduring career.

Peggy March, If You Loved Me: RCA Recordings from Around the World 1963-1969 (Ace CDTOP 1498, 2017) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

1. If You Loved Me (RCA 47-9494, 1968)
2. This Heart Wasn't Made to Kick Around (RCA 47-9283, 1967)
3. He Couldn't Care Less (RCA 47-8710, 1965)
4. He's Back Again (RCA 47-8903, 1966)
5. Thinking Through My Tears (RCA 47-9494, 1968) (*)
6. Fool Fool Fool (Look in the Mirror) (RCA 47-9033, 1966) (*)
7. Losin' My Touch (RCA 47-8534, 1965)
8. Try to See It My Way (RCA 47-9033, 1966)
9. Aren't You Glad (RCA 47-9627, 1967) (*)
10. Let Me Down Hard (RCA 47-9359, 1967) (*)
11. Can't Stop Thinkin' About Him (RCA 47-8460, 1964)
12. Leave Me Alone (RCA 47-8537, 1964)
13. Only You Could Do That to My Heart (RCA 47-8418, 1964)
14. Watch What You Do with My Baby (RCA 47-8460, 1964)
15. Johnny Cool (RCA LP LSP 2732, 1963)
16. Catchin' on Fast - with Bennie Thomas (RCA LP LSP-3408, 1965)
17. (I'm Watching) Every Little Move You Make (RCA 47-8302, 1964)
18. Kilindini Docks (RCA 47-9655, 1966) (*)
19. Too Long Away (RCA 47-9655, 1966) (*)
20. Passo su Passo (RCA 45N-1389, 1964) (*)
21. Eh, Bravo (RCA 45N-1404, 1964) (*)
22. Ne Joue Pas Les Enfants (RCA EP 86.109, 1965)
23. Ale Nicht Den Teufel An Die Wand (RCA 47-9748, 1967)
24. Itsuwari No Koi (Victor SS-1713, 1967)
25. I Will Follow Him (Japanese Version) (Victor LP SHP-5363, 1963)
26. Wasurenaiwa (Victor SS-1850, 1969)

Stereo except (*) mono