Why Do Fools Fall in Love (2:20)

Why Do Fools Fall in Love is a song that was originally a hit for early New York City-based rock and roll group Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers in 1956. It reached #3 on Billboard magazine’s Pop Singles Chart, and number one in the UK Singles Chart. The song is ranked #307 on the Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Writing credits

Writing credits for the song were originally attributed to its singer Frankie Lymon and record producer George Goldner. Goldner’s name was later replaced by Morris Levy when Levy bought Goldner’s interest in Gee Records, the Teenagers’ record company.

After a lengthy court battle, song-writing credits were awarded to original Teenagers members Herman Santiago and Jimmy Merchant in December 1992.

However, four years later in 1996, this ruling was overturned by the Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit under the statute of limitations and authorship, because Santiago and Merchant did not bring the case to court soon enough. This gave the song rights back to Lymon and Levy. The current publisher of the song is EMI Music Publishing, which still lists these as the songwriters