Moment of Zen: Chantilly Lace and a Pretty Face

"Chantilly Lace" is the name of a rock and roll song written by Jerry Foster, Bill Rice, andThe Big Bopper, who released the song in 1958. The single was produced by Jerry Kennedy.

Originally cut for Pappy Daily's D label, the recording was purchased by Mercury Records and released in the summer of 1958. The song reached #6 on the pop charts and spent 22 weeks on the national Top 40. It was the third most played song of 1958.

A 1972 version by Jerry Lee Lewis was for three weeks a #1 hit on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart and a top fifty pop hit in the US and a top forty pop hit in the UK. 

The song depicts one side of a flirting telephone conversation, with a young man talking about what he likes about his girlfriend, including:

Chantilly lace and a pretty face
And a pony tail hangin' down
A wiggle in the walk and a giggle in the talk
Make the world go 'round.

"Chantilly Lace" inspired an answer song by Jayne Mansfield titled "That Makes It" based on what the girl may have been saying at the other end of the line.

The phrase "Oh Baby That's What I Like," said in falsetto by Richardson in "Chantilly Lace," was sampled by DJs project Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers with the music collage track "That's What I Like", which included samples from Jerry Lee Lewis, Chubby Checker, The Surfaris, The Ventures and other rock and roll singers and bands from late 50's to early 60's scene.

Van Halen's song "Good Enough" from the 1986 album "5150" begins with singer Sammy Hagar calling out "Hello Baby," imitating Big Bopper's hook in "Chantilly Lace."