98.5 ONE FM Podcasts

Whatever Happened To? - The The Shirelles

One FM presenter Josh Revens and Steve Dowers present 'Whatever Happened To?'

This week's topic is the group The Shirelles.

This program originally aired on Monday the 15th of July, 2024.

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Duration:: 11m
Broadcast on:: 21 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

You're listening to a one FM podcast. I'm going back on the line. It's a big hello to Steve. How are you Steve? Well, you're just not bad. I guess what just as you rang me just, the sun has come out here. For a little bit about quarter past three. So we've got about an hour and a half and so on. And it'll be the end of the day again. So that'll be really good. Yeah, it's quite noisy. I know you'd be having very cold weather in Melbourne, colder than we have, which is a bit. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, yeah. We're OK, we've had the sun out all day today, so we're all right. Yeah, that one an hour better. Thanks, thank you. I think I might like tomorrow, though, thank you. Yeah, we had plenty of rain overnight. So we're not complaining. It's winter, so there we go. Yeah, but anyway, who are we talking about musically today? Well, we're going back in the annals of time here, I must say. I won't go too much further back to miss, I wouldn't have thought. We're going back to the late '50s, early '60s, for an old girl group who, an Afro-American group, who probably taped the way for many others later on. And that's the chorrels. Ah, yeah, I've heard of the chorrels, yeah. There's all those girl groups, you know, forget which ones their songs were. They sort of, they all blended to each other, unfortunately. Yeah, and you're quite right. Yeah. I mean, I do sort of separate a few songs, some particular groups of work out, which one was we? Will you love me tomorrow? Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a great song, yeah. Yeah, well, let's see, chorrels. There's a bit more of a story to them than that. So, I'm going to roll it to your okay. Yeah, let's go. All right, well, I was formed in 1957, and now, by the 14 age girls from the place called Pasei, which is P-A-W-S-A-I-C. I don't know if it would answer it correctly or not, in New Jersey. A lot of people come from New Jersey, it's amazing, actually. I suppose, I know. Yeah, under their original name, they call themselves the Quelos, or Perquelos, P-E-Q-U-E-W-L-O-S. Now, there was four founding members. I'll give you their birth dates, but they're all born in 1941, so I want to repeat that. The lead thing that was surely orange, he was born on the 10th of June in Henderson, North Carolina. Doris Colli, born on the 2nd of August in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and Addie, and nicknamed Mickey Harris, 22nd of January in High Point, North Carolina. And Beverly Lee, who was the only local, was born on the 3rd of August in Cossaic, New Jersey. The group came about after Mary Jane Greenberg, who was a classmate, listened to them sing a song called "I Met Him on a Sunday," which the girls had actually written themselves. And they'd seen in the tell-and-quest, and she persuaded the girls who were fairly reluctant to do this, but they met with her mother, who quarantined to actually earn a record company called Tiara. Now, originally they were very adverse to singing professionally, but after several months, they had signed with that company. Now, they briefly used the name Honey Tunes, and then they changed their name to Chirrell, which was a combination of the first syllable of Alan's first name, and how the E.L. Arthur, a current popular group called the Chantell. They were very quick to skip moving years, they released their first song called "I Met Him on a Sunday," but after some local success, it was licensed to deck their records nationally, and that's each other than number 49 in the US and 17 in Canada, which that's a pretty good start when you consider that that stage. There probably weren't that many female groups around. Now, Tiara, along with the Chirrell's contract, was sold to deck the records in 1959 for $4,000, which I suppose is a reasonable amount back then, with Greenberg staying on as its manager, securing performances for the group, including one in Washington, D.C. Their index two singles, they're very poorly. Decker actually gave up on them, considering number one in wonder, and they gave them back to Greenberg, who then owned a new record company called Septup, S-C-E-P-T-E-R. Now, they re-released, dedicated to the one I love, which was a cover of a group called the Five Royale Song. It picked at number 89, which was a fairly lowly chart position, and that was attributed to poor distribution techniques applied by the manager and the rest of the company. Now, to better promote the group, a songwriter won a man of Luther Dickson, B-I-X-L-N, who had worked with Pericomo, Nacking, Colin, Pat Boone. He was hired. I'll do my discography from here, because he was responsible for quite a few of these songs. Not all of them well known, but not to give them some plenty of meaning. In 1960, tonight's the night. Nothing to do with what's fewer than my dad. And that was really picked at 39 in the US. Well, you love me tomorrow, which was one in the US, two in Canada, four in the UK. 1961, which dedicated to the one I love, which was re-released back in '61. And that went to number three in the US and 13 in Canada. Mumma said, four in the US, 13 in Canada. Big John, ain't you going to marry me? It was 21 in the US, baby. It's you, ain't in the US and 18 in Canada. In 1962, the second number one, it was Soldier Boy, which was one in the US, 22 in the UK. Welcome home, baby, 22 in the US. Everybody loves a lot of nots in the US, 26 in Canada. And 1963, a foolish little girl, four in the US, 38 UK. Now, success of the first song that I mentioned was tonight, so no, it's got them bookies with several major artists, including Little Richard, and allow it, except for the opportunity to move to larger offices. Well, you love me tomorrow, of course, which most people would know. It was a Gop and King composition. And that became the first Billboard number one by Afro-American girl group. So that was fairly significant. Now, baby YouTube was written by Bert Bakkerach, Dixon, and Mac David. And I might mention the first time I heard that, because I'm baby accused of the Beatles. Please, please, now, I thought it was a pretty good song. Yeah, yeah, I know that version, yeah. Yeah, it turned out to be a very good cover of the girls' particular song. Now, with Dixon, that's where Lechseptor in 1963, and that meant a tiling off of their singles to chart. And plus, they're very interesting there, and they're actually involved in that too, mainly with the British invasion. Now, interestingly enough, a person that we all know by the name of Deanya Warwick actually replaced Owens and Colley, who took balloons to get married. And she replaced them in concerts, and the group continued to record. A son called Foolish Little Girl, which actually reached number three in the US. They recorded, as I said, that was their last really big song, which which is called in the US. They also performed this two songs called 31 Flavors, and you satisfy my soul. The soundtrack of the film is the mad, mad, mad, mad world. Those songs only charted in the late '90s, so they weren't overly successful. And here's the familiar story that most of the listeners who have heard the million times before. Now, late in 1963, they learned that the trust hold in their oil things. Here we go. On their first birthday, it's guess what, Josh? They were getting ripped off. Yeah, it didn't, those royalties didn't exist. Yeah. It was a surprise. They then let the label. They sued the label. They would count a suit. And eventually, an agreement was which, well, no 3,000 what the agreement was, just written there how many times we heard that story. So many times, but with British invasion and the heavy competition for other girl groups, such as the ship on, supporting Ronets, Martin, the bandellas, and the crystals, the Chirrells, along with many other groups, declined in popularity. During this particular time, the only one who actually replaced Cole, they often on stage due to the letter's family commitments. They weren't allowed to record for any other label, as they were about to sit there until 1966. Now, after continuing your value of their latest releases, Cole had left the group in 1968 to concentrate on the family. The remaining three recorded several songs for different labels, including Bell, C.A. Bicta and United artists until 1971. They then did what a lot of these groups do. They toured singing their old songs and participated in Undine 1973. Doc had left a good time's old and they recorded two songs for that. And Cole returned in 1975, replacing Allen's who had left to pursue a solo career. She too had under the name of Shirley Alston Reeves and the Chirrells. And actually, the time it was, you believe, in 2020. 'Cause he was moving on towards a bit eight years old at that stage. Now, Lee, the girl from New Jersey, she actually acquired the Chirrells trademark. And she took to mind on school tours with new members and just got called from simply the Chirrells. One of the ladies, Eddie Harris, she passed her by heart attack on June the 10th, 1982. And Doris Colley passed from breast cancer on the February the 4th, 2000. Now, I want to put down here the back, but the Boos, Chirrells were basically the originators and launched the girl group genre. And that's formed a whole lot of imitators that had laid a blueprint for future venues. - Oh, that's so good. - And the Beatles were great admirers of them, but at the Beatles said that they developed their harmonies in trying to come up with an English male version of them. That's a pretty big rap from the Beatles, I must say. And so it's an influence that they did actually have. Now, in 1994, they were honoured by the rest of the Blue Foundation with the Pioneer Award for contributions to music. In 1996, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2002, they were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. Well, our Rolling Stone magazine ranking, I've mentioned here in 2004, I ranked them 76 in the 100 greatest artists of all time. These things are subjective. I think there's been a later one than that after that. And in 2010, we used, love me tomorrow, was ranked 126 and tonight's the ninth, 400 and nine in the top 500 of all time. Of course, these have become more recent and more recent, and three other months stripped down the charts a bit. So interesting to see the next one they do when it's where these songs are. In their hometown, per se, there is a Chirrell's pool of art. Getting a street or road named after is not a bad owner. Now, a musical review called "Baby It's Huge" based on Greenberg and Septus Records played on Broadway for 148 performers in back in 2011. So that's basically the story of Chirrell's. They were the origin audience of the African-American lady groups. And I think we'll go with their best-known song to start off. With your thank you, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" And "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" Here it is. And Chirrell's, "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" And it's a good question. Well, I think it's pretty good. And two other songs here, Josh, which I think certainly are high up there. So your boy's a very, very good song. And "Baby It's Huge" was excellent, also. Yes. It's another song called "Tonight's The Night," which I'm not overly familiar with. And I hope you can find it to play. You think you can have it on your playlist? Well, that's not surprising. Was God Stuart, did he cover it? Or was that a completely different song? I haven't actually been able to find the song, Josh. OK. But we missed there, maybe. But no, I couldn't find it. Well, we'll see if I can find it. But thank you for the challenge. Yeah, well, it's good. I tend to think it's not when giving the songs back then was a bit less suggestive, let my eyes say. But you never know, do you? No. I think the Chirrells deserved their follow-on-air show, because they were originators. And as you mentioned to me, I've heard earlier, all these billboards tend to drift into each other, to be able to remember who's saying what after a while. Yeah. But they certainly were the start of that genre. And that's true. That would be a very successful one. Yes. Thank you, Steve, and another great one. Yeah, well, Chirrells certainly delivered their place. And I'm not sure who I'm doing next week's show. So I haven't come up with one call next week. But sure it'll be someone. Pidard, the man's guy from Gene Pitney, and then the Chirrell. So I'll have to try and keep up the standard as best I can. Yes, I did. Definitely in Gene Pitney last week. I think he messaged you about it. Yeah, I got-- I got the message, and he was quite pleased that I'd actually done Gene Pitney. And that played me two songs that we mentioned last week. He was very impressed with that. Yes. But thanks, Steve, and take care. And we'll have a talk next week, and another great artist, I'm sure. Yeah, look forward to it, Josh, and say healthy, everybody. And we'll catch you sometime next week, Josh. Have a good one. All of us, take care. Hey, man. Thanks. You've been listening to a 1FM podcast.