Paul Evans, born March 5, 1938, in Queens, New York, is an American rock and roll singer-songwriter who emerged from a musically inclined family in the 1950s, with early performances at high‑school shows and a brief stint as a ship’s singer on the SS France. His hit single, "Seven Little Girls Sitting in the Backseat" (1959), recorded with the Curls, reached number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959. In 1961, he released the album Hear Paul Evans in Your Home Tonight! and continued to record folk‑inspired material during the Hootenanny era. The 1978 single "Hello This is Joannie" gained international attention, charting in the UK and Australia, while his 1963 composition "Live Young" appeared in the film Palm Springs Weekend. Evans also wrote hits that were recorded by Elvis Presley, Jimmy Dean, and Bobby Vinton, the latter achieving a U.S. Billboard Number 1 with "Roses are Red (My Love)". After decades of touring and songwriting, he published his autobiography Happy Go Lucky Me: A Lifetime of Music in 2021, documenting his six decades in the industry.
