Little Eva

Eva Narcissus Boyd (June 29, 1943 – April 10, 2003), known by her stage name Little Eva, was an American singer best known for her 1962 hit "The Loco-Motion".

Biography Boyd was born in Belhaven, North Carolina, in 1943 and had twelve siblings. At the age of fifteen, she moved to the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, New York. After the success of "The Loco-Motion", Boyd was stereotyped as a dance-craze singer and was given limited material.

The same year, Goffin and King wrote "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)" (performed by the Crystals), after discovering that Boyd was being regularly beaten by her boyfriend. When they inquired why she tolerated such treatment, Boyd replied without batting an eyelid that he hit her because he loved her. Boyd also recorded the song "Makin' With the Magilla" for an episode of the 1964 Hanna-Barbera cartoon series The Magilla Gorilla Show.

In 1963, American Bandstand signed Boyd with Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars national U.S. tour and she was set to perform for the tour's 15th show, scheduled for the night of November 22, 1963, at the Memorial Auditorium in Dallas, Texas, when suddenly the Friday evening event was cancelled, moments after U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while touring Dallas in an open car caravan.

Boyd continued to tour and record throughout the sixties, but her commercial appeal plummeted after 1964. She retired from the music industry in 1971. Boyd never owned the rights to her recordings. Although the prevailing rumor in the 1970s was that she had received only $50 for "The Loco-Motion", it seems $50 was actually her weekly salary at the time she made her records (an increase of $15 from what Goffin and King had been paying her as nanny). Penniless, Boyd returned with her three young children to North Carolina, where they lived in obscurity.

Interviewed in 1988 after the success of the Kylie Minogue recording of "The Loco-Motion", Boyd stated that she did not like the new version; however, its then-current popularity allowed her to make a comeback in show business.

Death Boyd continued performing until she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in October 2001. She died on April 10, 2003, in Kinston, North Carolina, at the age of 59. She was buried in a small cemetery in Belhaven, North Carolina. Boyd's gravesite was sparsely marked until July 2008, when a report by WRAL-TV of Raleigh, North Carolina, highlighted deteriorating conditions at the cemetery and efforts by the city of Belhaven to have it restored. A simple white cross had marked the site until a new gravestone was unveiled in November of that year. Boyd's new grey gravestone has the image of a steam locomotive prominently engraved on the front and the epitaph reads: "Singing with the Angels".

Singles Year Title Chart positions US USR&B UK CAN 1962"The Loco-Motion" 1 1 2 1"Keep Your Hands Off My Baby" 12 6 30 11 1963"Let's Turkey Trot" 20 16 13 23"Swinging on a Star" 38 — 7 —"Old Smokey Loco-Motion" 48 — — 18"What I Gotta Do (To Make You Jealous)" 101 — — —"Let's Start the Party Again" 123 — — — 1964"Makin' with the Magilla" — — — — 1966"Mama Said" — — — 96 "Bend It" — — — — 1967"Just One Word Ain't Enough" — — — — 1972"Loco-Motion" — — 11 — 1973"Loco-Motion" — — — — 1986"Loco-Motion" — — 87 —