"Diane Renay" most notably famous for her 1964 Hit Recording, "NAVY BLUE" was born Renee Diane Kushner in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (where many other famous recording stars such as, Bobby Rydell, Fabian, Frankie Avalon, Dee Dee Sharp, and Chubby Checker) just to name a few, also hailed from the South Philadelphia area!

As a point of personal interest, Diane's Mother told Diane after "NAVY BLUE" became a hit, that when she was pregnant with Diane, she went to see a Fortune Teller, who told her "that she was going to have a Girl Child, who would one day be a STAR!"

As soon as Diane started talking, she started singing along with any song she would hear on the radio or record player that was playing in her parents home.

By the time she was 12 years old, she started taking voice lessons with a well known vocal teacher/coach in Philadelphia, by the name of Artie Singer. Artie Singer at that time, was managing a hot new Philadelphia recording group called "Danny & the Juniors", who had a major hit record at the time entitled "At The Hop".

Diane's vocal teacher told her that she had the talent and makings of a future recording artist, and when she gets a little older, she should try and cut a record!

So Diane  begged her parents to let her cut a Test Demo in a real recording studio in Philadelphia, so that she could prove to them that she had the talent to pursue a career as a professional recording artist.

Finally, by the time Diane  was 14, she entered into a recording studio, and with the assistance of 4 Boys (who were her friends and with whom she also often sang with, Diane  sang lead and they sang the Do Wop Background for her, hanging out on the street corners at night, in South Philly), she recorded several songs, but her favorite cut was "ZING WENT THE STRINGS OF MY HEART"!

After her parents heard the outcome of this Demo Session, they were shocked at the outcome of what they heard, and thought that Diane's vocal coach was right in telling her when she was only 12, that when she gets older, she should pursue a career as a recording artist.

Diane's parents had a well known and successful jewelry business in center city Philadelphia, and one of their very good customer's was the cousin of a very successful record producer/song writer named Pete De Angelis, who worked with Frankie Avalon, Al Martino, and many other successful recording artists.

At the request of Diane's father, he asked his good customer if he could arrange for a meeting, whereby Diane would meet with record producer/song writer Pete De Angelis and sing for him, so that he could give Diane's parents his honest opinion, as to whether or not he thought that she had the vocal talent to pursue a recording career.

Well, within a short period of time, on a Sunday afternoon, Diane's parents drove her over the Walt Whitman bridge that connected Philadelphia to New Jersey, where Pete De Angelis lived. Diane's parents sat down on a sofa, Pete De Angelis sat at his piano and Diane began to sing several standard songs of her own choosing as Pete followed along on his piano.

Within 15 minutes, after Diane sang several songs for Pete, he turned to her parents and said, "Mr. & Mrs. Kushner, your daughter has a wonderful and very marketable singing voice and I can get her a record contract, without any trouble!"

Pete De Angelis was able to obtain a recording contract for "Diane Renay" with the ATCO RECORD COMPANY. He produced her very first professional recording session, for which he wrote several songs that she recorded in addition to recording a well known standard song titled "LITTLE WHITE LIES". It was Diane's first record release in 1962, she was only 16 years old at the time.

For her second ATCO recording session, the President of ATCO RECORDS at the time who was Jerry Wexler, decided to call in one of the best and hottest record producers at the time, "BOB CREWE" to write material and produce Diane's next session. That session resulted in her second single release "TENDER".

Although both of Diane's single releases on ATCO, received airplay and charted on many area radio stations' play lists, neither songs hit the big Billboard, or Cashbox charts high enough to warrant ATCO to want to pick up their option to renew her recording contract for another two single releases, and they dropped Diane's contract.

That was the best thing that could have happened to her, because after she left ATCO, "BOB CREWE" personally signed her on as one of his recording artists, that he both wrote songs and produced for her.

The rest is HISTORY, the very first recording session that "BOB CREWE" produced and wrote songs for "Diane Renay" to sing, now that she was under contract to him personally, resulted in the production and release of "NAVY BLUE"! The song hit the Top 10 Billboard Chart with a Red Bullet in the week of February 19th, 1964, "Diane Renay" was not yet 18 years old and was still in High School.

Shortly thereafter, followed an album release also titled "NAVY BLUE" from which "Diane Renay's" fourth single release titled "KISS ME SAILOR", was on. It did well on the Billboard Chart, but could not top the success of "NAVY BLUE".

Although Diane never had another hit as major as "NAVY BLUE" again, she continued to record many other single releases, such as "GROWIN UP TOO FAST", "HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROKEN HEART", and the tough girl punk classic most notably titled and remembered as "WATCH OUT SALLY"!

"Diane Renay" was a part of the Girl Group Phenomenon of Pop Music in the early 60's, when Rock n' Roll was still in it's infancy. There will never again be an era of Rock n' Roll music like that of the 50s & 60s, when it all began.

And so, although "Diane Renay" only had one major hit recording, "NAVY BLUE", both her song and "Diane Renay" will always be remembered as a part of Rock n' Roll history when it was in the makings!