The Shirelles
The Shirelles were a black soul - singing band that was especially successful in the 1960s.
The band was formed in 1958 in Passaic (New Jersey), as the schoolgirl Doris Coley, Addie Harris, Shirley Owens and Beverly Lee as The Poquellos participated in a talent show their school with the song I Met Him on a Sunday, they had even written. A school friend heard the presentation and gave the four singers the opportunity to an audition with her mother, Florence Greenberg, who ran a small record label. Greenberg then decided to become manager of the band, and proposed a name change to " The Shirelles " before. The name is composed of Owens' name Shirley and the name of the doo-wop group The Chantels.
In the same year received the Shirelles a contract with Decca Records. I Met Him on a Sunday also came at least in the top 50 of the charts, but after the two subsequent singles flopped, Decca announced the band. Then Greenberg gave the band a contract with their own label and Scepter Records was Luther Dixon as producers win for the next shots. Dedicated for the One I Love flopped completely in 1959, Tonight's the Night came in 1960 at least in the top 20 of the R & B charts. But the breakthrough had the Shirelles until the end of the year with the Gerry Goffin / Carole King Will You Still Love Me Composition Tomorrow? .
The song came out on top of the pop charts and made a number 2 in the R & B charts. As a result, came Dedicated to the One I Love in 1961 but still in the top 5 of both the pop and R & B charts, Mama Said managed the same, and Big John was a number 2 in 1962 were the Shirelles continue its success: The Greenberg / Dixon song Soldier Boy was another Number 1 hit and Baby It's You, later covered by the Beatles, came in the top 10, but a little later Dixon left the label. The Shirelles succeeded in 1963 yet another top 10 hit with Foolish Little Girl, success ebbed first.
In the following years the band has recorded for the film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and helped Dionne Warwick in their first successes. Owens and Coley took a short break to get married. Meanwhile British bands began repeatedly chose to cover songs of the Shirelles: In addition to Baby It's You The Beatles 1963 published a version of the 1960 title Boys, and Manfred Mann Sha La La made it a hit. The Shirelles were even a few times in lower regions of the charts, the last time in 1967 with Last Minute Miracle.
Coley, which now Doris Kenner- Jackson said, left the band some time later, to devote himself to her family. The three remaining band members stayed together and made in the early 1970s continued to shoot without reap significant success. 1975 also returned Owens, whose name now Shirley Alston was the band 's back to start a solo career; it came Kenner- Jackson returned. After Harris died on June 10, 1982 during a concert in Atlanta of a heart attack, the band decided to separation. The last time that the three other former members played together was in 1983 on a Dionne Warwick recording. In 1996, the Shirelles were included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.