The Clickettes, The Chantels, and The Shirelles

As we look at the groups of the 50's and 60's that were part of the Doo-wop generation, we have to look at some of the girl groups that set the stage for the likes of The Supremes, and The Marvelettes.
Today we'll talk about three of those girl groups that paved the way. The groups are The Clickettes, The Chantels and The Shirelles.

THE CLICKETTES
The Clicketts started out on the Dice Label in 1958, guided by hit duo Johnnie and Joe, who owned the label. According to biographer John Clemente, the original line-up was lead singer, Barbara English, alto, Sylvia Hammond, and two sopranos, Trudy and Charlotte McCartney. According to the group Charlotte sang baritone.
A year after their releases with Dice, the group changed. The McCartney sisters left the group to stay in school, and were replaced by Jean Bolden and Barbara Saunders. The group released five singles for Dice, notably the double-sided hit, "Because Of My Best Friend"/"To Be A Part Of You", which made the top spot in Pittsburgh and Philly in 1959. The group left Dice in 1960 and moved to Guyden records.
The Clickettes were later taken over by Richard Barrett, lead singer of The Valentines and manager of the legendary Chantels. Barrett wrote and produced the song "Where is He", on Guyden.
There were a number of Clickettes recordings released in the late 50's and early
60's, not all of them actually featured the girls. "Tonight And Forever" for instance was probably recorded by a group called The Teen Clefs. This type of thing happned all the time.
Barbara English and a number of ex-Clickettes continued to record into the early
60's for labels like Roulette, Warwick, and Elmor. Helen Powell of The Impacts, replaced Sylvia Hammond in 1961. The group recorded two singles for Roulette including a New York favorite, "We Need Them", billed as Barbara English and The Fashions. This group disbanded when Barbara left for a solo career in 1963 and Helen went to the Chantels.
The Clickettes made their first United Group Harmony appearance in March 2000, the crowd gave them a great welcome. This group included Barbara English, Trudy McCartney-Cunningham, and Sylvia Hammond-Akridge, all originals. The other original Charlotte could not join the group at the time so Lorraine Joyner of The Veneers was brought in to round out the group.
The Clickettes only reunited in 1999, but sounded like they had been singing together for the past thirty years. The comments form the concert were that the ladies were remarkable.
The group lost one of it's original members when Charlotte McCartney-Ford passed. In 2006 the group replaced Lorraine with the McCartney's youngest sister Carlene Sabb. She was an easy fit, she grew up listening to to the group rehearse, she also rehearsed with The Teen Clefs from time to time.

I have been informed that the Clickettes will soon be doing their thing in the Washington, D.C. area. They will be in concert at The Knights Of Columbus. 3611 Stewart Road, Forestville, MD. For more information call 301-839-2233. Also on the show The Marques, and Special Guest William DeVaughn. The Date is February 21, 2010 at 6:30 P.M. Doors open at 5:00.



THE CHANTELS
The Chantels were established in the early 50's at St. Anthony of Padua school in the Bronx. The group included lead, Arlene Smith, Sonia Goring, Rene Minus, Jackie Landry Jackson, and Lois Harris. they got their name from their rival school St.Frances de Chantal.
The group was discovered by Richard Barrett, lead singer of The Valentines and signed to End Records. Their first single was "He's Gone" which went to #71, in August of 1957. In January 1958 they released "Maybe" which went to #15 on billboard's hot 100. The group released afew more singles, but none had the success of "Maybe".
The group was dropped by End in 1959 and Arlene Smith decided to go solo. Lois Harris left to go college. Annette Smith (no relation to Arlene) joined the group in 1960. The group moved to Carlton Records where they had their second major hit, "Look In My Eyes" which went to #6 on the R&B charts. The group recorded several more singles and changed labels afew more times. Personnel changed throughout the 60's and they recorded their last single in 1970.
Arlene fronted a new group in the 70's that included Carol Douglas, who would later become a disco queen. The other original Chantels reformed and hired Noemi (Ami)Ortiz as their lead. Arlene Smith reunited with the group for a PBS Doo-Wop special and dedicated "Maybe" to Jackie Landry who passed in 1997.
The Chantels were inducted into The Vocal Group Hall Of Fame in 2002. In 2001 they made the final cut for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but did not get enough votes to be inducted. In September 2009 is was revealed they were one twelve nominees to be inducted in 2010.


The Shirelles
The Shirelles were a girl group from the 60's and the first girl group to have a #1 single on the Billboard hot 100. The members of the group included, lead Shirley Owens (later Shirley Alston, then Shirley Alston Reeves), Doris Coley, Beverly Lee, and Addie 'Micki' Harris. The group formed in New Jersey in 1958 and had a string of hits over the years, including "Dedicated To The One I Love", "Blue Holiday", "Foolish Little Girl", and "Baby It's You".
The group was first called The Poquellos' and wrote a song called "I Met Him On Sunday" and sang it a cappella in the school talent show. A school friend had them audition her mother, Florence Greenberg. Greenberg ran a small record label, and was so impressed with the group that she became the groups manager, and changed their name to The Shirelles and had them record the song. Two more single followed "I Met Him On A Sunday" , but flopped. Greenberg had licensed the groups songs to Decca Records, but after the two flops Decca refused the released any more records by the group. Greenberg then signed them to her new lable, Scepter Records, and brought in Luther Dixon whose imaginative arrangements would help shape the group's sound.
"Tonight's The Night" went to #20 on the R&B chart in 1960, but they had a huge hit with the Goffin/King song "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" released late in 1960. The song went to #1 on the pop charts, making them the first all-female group of the rock era to do that. The song also went to #2 on the R&B charts, and #2 in the UK in 1961. The success of this song made it possible for some of their older songs to be re-released and become hits. "Big John went to #2 that same year. In 1962 the group had another hit with "Soldier Boy" a Luther Dixon/Florence Greenberg song, that became their second #1 hit. In 1963 they scored with "Foolish Little Girl" which went to #9 on the R&B charts but the group found it difficult to maintain their previous level of success.
In the next year The Shirelles, recorded songs for the movie, "It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World", headlined the first intergrated concert in Alabama, and helped a young Dionne Warwick get some exposure by having her sub for Reeves and Jackson when each took time off to get married.
A money dispute caused some problems in 1964, which kept the group from recording for awhile. The dispute was settled, but the group was stuck at a lable where their success had run out. Some say that the British invasion was part of the problem because it took attention away from American groups. There is some truth to that because a lot of groups that were just holding on, just dropped off the charts once the invasion started. Some of the groups songs were covered by some other groups, including The Beatles, Manfred Mann, The Temprees, The Mama and the Papas, The Masqueraders, and Roberta Flack. In 1967 They recorded "Last Minute Miracle", it didn't chart. Jackson soon left the group to remarry and raise a family. The group continued as a trio, recording for Bell Records, United Artist, and RCA, as Shirley and The Shirelles through 1971. The group toured the Oldies circuit and appeared in the 1973 documentary "Let The Good Times Roll". Shirley Alston left the group to start a solo career in 1975, and was replaced by Doris Jackson. Shirley Alston recorded as "Lady Rose" on the Scepter Strawberry subsidiary, and as Shirley Alston for a moonlighting Motown executive Barney Ales' Prodigal label until the label was purchase by Motown. That year she recorded an album called "With A Little Help From My Friends", with artist like Shep and The Limelites, The Five Satins, Danny and The Juniors, The Flamingos, and The Drifters singing on the album.
Doris Jackson took a leave of absence from 1979 to 1982 and was replaced by Louise Bethune. Doris Jackson returned to the group only to have Micki Harris die from a heart attack, during a performance in Atlanta on June 10,1982. Louise Bethune came back to the group to fill Harris' spot. The group split in 1986, but as with most of the groups of this era, multiple groups of Shirelles appeared on the scene. It got so bad that two of the best groups divided the country in half, and one group worked only on the west coast and the other worked the east coast. The hard part was finding an original Shirelle to be apart of these groups.
The group reunited brieffly for a program honoring them at their high school in New Jersey, and sang background for Dionne Warwick when she covered their song " Will You Love Me Tomorrow?". The Shirells sang with Bo Diddley one of his albums in 1996.
Beverly Lee secured the official trademark for the group's name. The group has been working hard for years for royalty reform, medical coverage and fair treatment of pioneer artist. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked The Shirelles at #76 on their all time Greatest Artist List. Passaic New Jersey honored the group by renaming part of Paulson Avenue for the group in 2008.



In the next blog we'll talk about what is DOO-WOP, and where did it come from. Please leave comments and suggestions for groups you would like to hear about.
Thank you again Dr. Nick for your help and Victoria for your comments.

Re-visit The Paragons

As often happened in the doo-wop era, there were many groups with the same name. While doing my research for The Paragons I found what I thought was a reliable source of information. I checked two other sources and they pointed me in the same direction. However after posting the blog I got a call from Dr. Nick, a friend and doo-wop lover. Nick informed me that I had the wrong group of Paragons. The doo-wop group were not Jamaicans, but were from Bedford-Stuyvesant, NY.
So Victoria let me apologize for the mis-information, but thanks to DR. Nick I looked in a different place on found the New York PARAGONS. So Victoria here are The Paragons.

The Paragons were formed by three friends in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of New York city in 1955. The friends were Al Brown, Ricky Jackson, and Donald Travis. They found two more members, Gable "Ben" Frazier and Julius "Mack" McMichael, who became the lead.
Brown suggested the name Paragons because of all the Paragon oil trucks that moved through New York. The group used The Drifters and The Flamingos as inspiration. The group would practice near the Ralph Avenue subway station, because of the echos. In 1956 Hiram Johnson heard them and started working with them. The problem was that Johnson was working with another group called The Marvels who had a release on ABC-Paramount in November 1956. The record didn't chart, but Johnson believed they could make it so he put most of his time in on The Marvels. He even started Johnson Records to promote them. At this time they changed their name to The Dubs.
The Paragons heard about Paul Winley, whose Winley Records was right down the street from Johnson's office. The group jumped at the chance to work with Winley. Winley's brother was the bass singer for The Clovers.
The Paragon's first release was "Florence"/"Hey Little School Girl". Both songs were lead by McMichael. The keyboard work was done by Dave "Baby" Cortez (real name Davey Clowney). The group released two more songs "Two Are Better Than One" and "Twilight". In 1959 The group released an album called "The Paragons Meet The Jesters". This was the first rock and roll compilation album, and the best selling. At this time McMichael left the group to join The Olympics and was replaced by Bill Witt. Al Brown also left and was replaced by David Outlaw. Witt didn't stay long and was gone by the time the group released their last record for Winley. The song was "So You Will Know". From this point on there were too many changes to keep track of. The group disbanded in 1967. Some time later Bill Witt revived the group and they toured for afew years.


Later this week I'll be talking about some of the girl groups that came out of this period. I'll be talking about The Chantels, The Shirells, and The Clickettes.

Please leave your comments and request, I will address all request.
Thank you again Victoria for your request and thanks again Dr. Nick for your help!!