Photo: The late, great Ronnie Spector | By Denise Oliver Velez for Community Contributors Team, Daily Kos Community | Early R&B and rock and roll history and hall of famedom for singing groups has tended to focus on guys who sang street corner harmonies, crooning shoobie doobie wop wa naaas, wearing slick suits with conked hairstyles or pompadours.
When I noticed that Jan. 30 was the anniversary of The Shirelles becoming the first Black “girl group” to reach No. 1 on the #Billboard Hot 100 charts with their hit tune “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” and realized I hadn’t featured those groups of young women here on #Black Music Sunday (though I did 11 years ago for Black Kos), I decided to go back in time and pull out the music of my pre-teen and teenage years.
The world of music has changed since the ‘50s and ‘60s. We now have music videos on YouTube, internet radio and streaming services, major hype for the GRAMMY Awards (rescheduled to April 3) and musicians with social media followings numbering in the multiple millions.
Many of you readers were not alive in the days of 45 rpm records, which you had to save up your allowance to buy. You may not know the names of revered Black radio disc jockeys who played the records we wanted to hear. So join me today on a trip back in time, when plaintive laments from girl groups struck chords in the hearts of many young girls and boys.
Before The Shirelles soared to the top of the Billboard charts, The Chantels wowed music lovers with “Maybe.” They were a group of Catholic schoolgirls.
From their History of Rock and Roll biography:
Arlene Smith (lead), Lois Harris (first tenor), Sonia Goring (second tenor), Jackie Landry (second alto), and Rene Minus began their musical journey in their preteens while attending choir practice at St. Anthony of Padua school in the Bronx. By 1957, they had been singing together for more than seven years. A staple of their diet was Gregorian chants taught to such perfection that changing notes and parts were second nature.
Unlike their male counterparts, girls weren’t able to “hangout” on street corners at all hours practicing. So in 1957 much of their practice took place in the girl’s locker room at St. Anthony’s. Arlene Smith was a member of the girl’s basketball team and, win or lose, the group would sing after every game. Smith who had been trained as a classical singer had performed solo at Carnegie Hall when she was twelve. All the girls had sung in the choir where classical music was interspersed with Latin hymns. Their ages ranged between thirteen and sixteen.
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Read more about The Chantels, Paris Sisters, Teen Queens, Poni-Tails, The Bobbettes, The Shirelles, En Vogue, Jade, SWV, The Angels, The Shangri-Las, The Exciters, The Ronettes, The Supremes, The Blossoms, Martha & The Vandellas, The Dixie Cups,The Marvelettes, Dee Dee Sharp, Little Eva, and more.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5095456/
Read – and watch – the whole article here, complete with photos & videos:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/1/30/2076491/-Let-s-hear-it-for-the-doo-wop-girl-groups-Their-songs-of-love-and-heartbreak-shaped-a-generation?detail=emaildkre2
Photo: Ronnie Spector
Let’s Hear It For the Doo-Wop Girl Groups: Their Songs of Love and Heartbreak Shaped a Generation
