Allee Willis, Childstar, by request (1974)

I would love to thank that anon. user way back when who brought my attention to this tiny perfect gem, which I had never heard of.  It was released as a CD in Japan and for this reason will have a brief appearance only here.  It reminds me a lot of Phoebe Snow's SSW stuff though the songwriting is most similar to Lauro Nyro's insistent diatonic chord changes, upbeat tempos, and bridges making use of the IIminor and IIIminor chords (i.e. most often Dm and Em in the key of C).  Some sparse info here.  I would note that her voice is very hard to get accustomed to, perhaps impossible for some less lenient than myself.  Particularly difficult is the manner in which it changes from song to song from a nasally Bette Midler to a more Laura Nyro-like sensibleness.  On the back there is a cute little blurb written by the artist:

"Allee Willis was a writer for the stars at Columbia Records. She rubbed shoulders and whatnot with the great, the near-great and the lame-- writing ads and album jacket notes for people like Eubie Blake, BST, Streisand, Lauro Nyro, etc.  One day Allee decided that making wonderful discoveries about the stars' toilet habits was no longer where it's at, so she bought a piano and a month later took "Ain't no man worth it," etc. to a friend who knew his beans... etc...."

You might be interested to read the remainder, showing her acumen at English writing (vs. composing, perhaps).  A good sample of her style of composition is the track called "What Kind of Shoes does September Wear?"  [ --note that the name of the month was misrepresented by the guy who did this rip-- oops that would be me]:

The lyrics are highly entertaining to the point where I would declare that the idea of Sept. running away in shoes so quickly made vividly concrete here really not only aspires to but achieves the level of poetry.  A subsequent song about a children's parade in Milwaukee, however, completely shatters my admiration with the rhyme of "walkie-talkie" for the aforementioned city.

Bear in mind that the title track is by far the most entertaining and hummable ditty, so, enjoy it!