Shirley Ellis: The Complete Congress Recordings (2001) ... plus

Shirley Marie Elliston was born in the Bronx section of New York City in 1941, of West Indian ancestry. There were opportunities for ambitious young people in the music business in New York City in the '50s, and Shirley began writing songs. She had success early with a song she wrote titled 'One, Two, I Love You', which was recorded by the Heartbeats in 1957. She also performed as a singer with a group called the Metronomes in the '50s, once winning an award at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. In 1959 Shirley became acquainted with talented 33-year-old songwriter/producer Lincoln Chase, who became her manager and songwriting partner. He wrote a song for Shirley titled 'The Nitty Gritty', and arranged for her to record on the Congress label, which was a subsidiary of Kapp. The record label changed her name to Shirley Ellis. 'The Nitty Gritty' was released in late 1963 and a short time later went top ten. Many sources say that Shirley married Lincoln Chase, although others report her husband's name as Alphonso Elliston. After years of working as a songwriter and performer, Shirley Ellis became well known to a national audience through her success with 'The Nitty Gritty'. She followed with a sequel that became a minor hit, '(That's) What The Nitty Gritty Is' and another titled simply 'Puzzle Song'. Many of Shirley's records featured a driving sax, and lots of percussion. Shirley recalled some words from a childhood game she had played and discussed them with Lincoln Chase, who rearranged them into a song; 'The Name Game' came out in early 1965 and was quite popular, rising to number three. It was followed a few months later by another song with nursery-rhyme style lyrics that went top ten for Shirley Ellis, 'The Clapping Song (Clap Pat Clap Slap)'. She continued to work with Lincoln Chase and had a few minor hits before retiring from show business in the late 60's. The Complete Congress Recordings offers quite a bit to fans of '60s pop-soul. Her string of hits are all featured, along with other great Chase's compositions, like 'Get Out' and 'Takin' Care of Business', plus her surprisingly strong versions of R&B standards like 'Kansas City,' 'C.C. Rider,' and even 'Stagger Lee.' I included three bonus tracks: her charming 1961 solo debut on Shell as Shirley Elliston, 'Love Can Make You Know', and two of her most famous songs for Columbia, 'Soul Time' and 'Sugar Let’s Shing-A-Ling', from 1967. http://www.tsimon.com/

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Shirley on a TV appearance performing one of her biggest hits,'The Name Game':

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'The Clapping Song' was recorded by Shirley Ellis in 1965, shortly after she hit it big with 'The Name Game'. The song made it to the top ten on the charts:

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