The Shirelles were a music sensation right from the start. Their first performance was in a high school talent show where they performed their first song, ‘I met him on a Sunday’. This song captured the hearts of their teachers and friends alike and one of their friends, Mary Greenberg, offered to introduce them to her mother who owned her own record studio. Their relationship with Florence Greenberg sparked a decade of hit after hit from the highly talented quartet.
This single pushed The Shirelles into the spotlight within three months. By April of the same year, the song had risen on the Billboard charts to number 49 and was a commonly played song on radio stations until July. It also caused The Shirelles to become popular enough to get booked to play at the Apollo Theatre as well as Dick Clark’s ABC TV Saturday show.
This rise in popularity was also enough for the girls start performing on the Chitlin Circuit as teenagers. Their mothers were apprehensive of this and insisted that they be chaperoned. Two of the tour’s older performers acted as den mothers for the girls.
With a number of failed singles, The Shirelles needed another song to propel them back into the spotlight. Scepter Records also wanted to ride on the girls’ fame and they decided to bring in Luther Dixon, a former singer and prolific songwriter. This single was the work of Dixon and Shirley Owens. It was released in April 1960 and charted in September. It reached #14 in the R&B charts.
This song was brought to Dixon by Carole King and Gerry Goffin and was initially named Tomorrow. However, the girls did not want to record it because they felt that it was too ‘white’ for them. Dixon had to pressure them to do it and it took several edits for them to finally accept it. The song was released in the fall of 1960 as Will You Love Me Tomorrow. The instrumentals were cited as ‘ahead of their time’ by a number of critics.
In November 21st of the same year, the song reached number one on the charts. This was the first record by a black female group to ever reach the top spot. It also helped propel the fame of Tonight’s the Night and Dedicated to the One I Love, which were certified gold in 1961.
In November 21st of the same year, the song reached number one on the charts.
This single was released before Tonight’s the Night and Will You Love Me Tomorrow. It was a remake of the 1957 single by The ‘5’ Royales. The song featured Doris singing lead vocals. Upon release, the single reached number 83 spot in the charts. A number of tours to promote it did not achieve any further success. However, following the success of Will You Love Me Tomorrow and its certified gold status in 1961, Scepter records decided to reissue Dedicated to the One I Love. What followed was a phenomenal success. The reissued single immediately got onto the Hot 100 list and made it to the top 10 in a single year.
This song was released in 1961 and charted in the spring. It reached number two on the R&B charts and number four on the pop charts. The song was released to capitalize on the fame of The Shirelles, which was at its peak in the early 1960s.
This single was written by both Dixon and Florence Greenberg in 1962. They fused country music with pop to create an amazing song that was propelled to success by the strength of the girls’ vocals. Upon release, the song went on to hit the number one position in the charts. This became the group’s second number one record.
Check out the group’s bio here.