Throwing back to the week of April 5, 1955, we have a trio of repeats atop the Billboard chart: Bill Hayes’ ‘The Ballad of Davy Crockett,’ Johnny Maddox’s ‘The Crazy Otto Medley,’ and The McGuire Sisters’ ‘Sincerely.’

At #4 that week, on its way to peaking at #3, was Georgia Gibbs’ recording of ‘Tweedle Dee.’ Gibbs had another song — ‘Dance With Me Henry (Wallflower)’ — in the top ten at the same time.

Unfortunately, much of Gibbs’ success came on the backs of Black artists whose work was copied for a white audience. ‘Dance With Me Henry (Wallflower)’ was a cover of Etta James’ ‘Wallflower’ and ‘Tweedle Dee’ was a mirror version of LaVern Baker’s song of the same name.

For this ‘Tweedle Dee,’ the label hired the same arranger and musicians who worked on Baker’s version, and Gibb copied the vocal treatment as well. As a result, Baker’s single moved up the R&B charts but never had a chance at wider success.

Baker unsuccessfully lobbied her congressman to introduce a bill making it illegal to copy a song’s arrangement. That wouldn’t happen for a couple of decades.

Baker was rightfully sore about all of this, but she had a sense of humor. She reportedly took a life insurance out on herself and made Gibbs the beneficiary, writing to her “You need this more than I do because if anything happens to me, you’re out of business.”