The Shirelles: The Definitive Collection (1996)

The Shirelles were the first major female vocal group of the rock era, defining the so-called “girl group sound” with their soft, sweet harmonies and yearning innocence. Their music was a blend of pop/rock and R&B -especially doo-wop and smooth uptown soul-, that appealed to listeners across the board before Motown ever became a crossover phenomenon with white audiences. Even if they were not technically the first of their kind, their success was unprecedented, paving the way for legions of imitators. The Shirelles’ spawning ground was also their ticket to fame: specifically, Passaic High School in Passaic, NJ, where four teenage girls (Shirley Owens, Beverly Lee, Doris Kenner and Addie "Micki" Harris) met and formed a vocal group. Originally known as the Poquellos, they auditioned for a schooltalent show with a song they'd written called ‘I Met Him on a Sunday.’ They not only won, they also won the ear of friend Mary Jane Greenberg, whose mother, Florence, owned Tiara records. Re-named the Honeytones and then the Shirelles the group recorded ‘Sunday’ for Tiara. Just missing the Top 40, the record was picked up by Decca, but the group was dropped after several flop followups. By that time, Greenberg had started Scepter Records, and after several more attempts, the group hit big with Carole King's ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow.’ Several hits followed (including ‘Dedicated to the One I Love’, ‘Tonight's the Night’, ‘Mama Said’, ’Soldier Boy’, ‘Baby It's You’ and ’Foolish Little Girl’, among others); but, despite the admiration of British Invasion groups like the Beatles and Manfred Mann, the foreign fad had claimed the Shirelles' thunder by the mid-‘60s. This 65-song anthology is clearly the best existing collection for die-hard Shirelles fans, though it is sadly out-of-print now. The box set contains every Shirelles’ hit to crack the US Billboard charts -except ‘I Met Him on a Sunday’, apparently unavailable due to licensing problems-, along with long sought after songs such as ‘Blue Holiday’, plus some late-'60s Northern Soul-flavored cuts like 'Last Minute Miracle', 'Too Much of a Good Thing', 'Hippie Walk, Pt.1' and 'Wait Till I Give the Signal'. Unlike other collections of the Shirelles' works, all tunes are presented here in remastered stereo sound. http://oldies.about.com/, http://www.allmusic.com/, http://www.amazon.com/.

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The Shirelles, featuring Shirley Alston Reeves, Addie "Micki" Harris, and Beverley Lee, performing their biggest hit 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow':

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