Songfacts®:

• This was written by Roy Alfred and Wally Gold. Gold also co-wrote the hit "It's My Party" recorded by Lesley Gore.
• The song tells the tale of a young woman out on a date who pulls everything except the kitchen sink out of her purse while searching frantically for her keys, which, of course, she can't find. Some of objects she extracts from her purse include an autograph of Fabian (a singer and teen idol), tangerines, Presley records, hair spray and jelly beans, potato chips and portable batteries, frozen custard, piano bench, pretzels and a monkey wrench, tennis racket, army cots, pumpkin seeds and coffee pots, watermelons, goal post, fire hydrant, TV set, etc., etc.
• Paul Petersen appeared at age 8 as a Mouseketeer on Disney's TV show, The Mickey Mouse Club. But he gained greater fame as a teenage heartthrob appearing as son "Jeff" on The Donna Reed Show, an ABC family sitcom airing between 1958 and 1966. The show featured Donna Reed as his mom ("Donna Stone"), Carl Betz as his make-believe-doctor dad ("Dr. Alex Stone"), and Shelley Fabares who played his sister ("Mary Stone").
  
  When the show's producer, Tony Owen, (Donna Reed's real husband), said to Petersen, "You're going to be singing on TV," Petersen said, "Great! I hope I can be as successful as Ricky Nelson. "Rick was singing on his show and getting all the girls. I wanted to have my share," Petersen added.
• Shelley Fabares also recorded songs while on The Donna Reed Show. When she was first asked to do so by Owens, she reportedly panicked because she felt she couldn't sing. Apparently, her fears were unjustified because her very first record, "Johnny Angel," (written by Lee Pockriss and Lynn Duddy) went straight to #1 in the US.
• This was Petersen's first release. It was not a favorite of his mainly because of its novelty flavor, which caused him to be often confused with Brian Hyland who recorded "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini." Petersen scored his biggest hit (#6 USA) with "My Dad," a song about Dr. Alex Stone, his father on The Donna Reed Show.
• Petersen first performed "She Can't Find Her Keys" on The Donna Reed Show in January 1962 as part of a dream sequence with "Jeff" envisioning himself as a teenage recording sensation out on a date waiting for his goodnight kiss.