Shirley Alston Reeves from Sitter to Stardom
Shirley Alston Reeves
“You know how they always ask you, ‘What do you want to be?’ I never once said that I wanted to be a singer because I never thought about it.”
“The first time we heard ‘I Met Him On A Sunday’ on the radio, I said, ‘Well, who knows? Maybe we can do another record and have another hit. And maybe not. But in the meanwhile we’ll just live for the day.”
So says Shirley Alston Reeves, who in 1958 was 16-year-old Shirley Owens and who - with three Passaic High School classmates - had just placed a single on the national Top 30 (#24 and #26 in Cash Box and Music Vendor respectively; #49 in Billboard).
Shirley and her friend Beverly Lee had been “babysitting and decided that we wanted to make a singing group. We knew that just the two of us didn’t have the harmony that we wanted so we asked Doris (Coley) to join our group.
“Doris was our powerhouse singer,” says Shirley. “That’s her voice you hear on ‘Dedicated To The One I Love.’
“And then we got Addie ‘Micki’ Harris. We were all school mates so it was easy for us to get together.”
One such get-together inadvertently put them on the path to stardom: they got caught in the gym when they weren't supposed to be there and were given a choice: sing in the upcoming talent show or stay after school. The girls chose to sing.
Rather than just perform hits of the day, they decided to write one of their own. One after another, the girls ad-libbed lines based on the days of the week. When - as “The Pequellos” - the girls performed “I Met Him On A Sunday” a cappella at the show, it brought down the house.
One witness to their standout public coming-out was fellow high schooler Mary Jane Greenberg, whose mom owned a record label. After a living room performance for Mary Jane’s mom, Florence Greenberg they were on the road to their first hit.. The foursome recorded “I Met Him On A Sunday (Ronde-Ronde)” on February 7, 1958 which, after a brief appearance on Florence's small Tiara label, was picked up by Decca. Both discs sported a new group name: The Shirelles.
After two follow-up Decca singles flopped, The Shirelles were dropped. “No big deal, no biggie,” says Shirley. “The fact that we weren’t recording or having a big booming career, did not knock us down in any way. We were still able to work.”
Florence still believed in her young charges and put them on her newly-formed Scepter label. In mid-summer 1959, The Shirelles cover of The “5” Royales’ “Dedicated To The One I Love” peaked at #67 in Cash Box and #83 on Billboard’s Hot 100.
The next two Scepter singles sank without a trace. On deck was “The Dance Was Over,” a beautiful ballad penned by Luther Dixon. Dixon had a firm grounding in R&B plus - most importantly for The Shirelles - he also had a great pop sensibility, having co-written the Top 10 smashes “Why Baby Why” for Pat Boone and “Just Born (To Be Your Baby)” for Perry Como, plus The Crests’ “16 Candles.”
Shirley recalls that, “Florence sat us down and told all of us that we needed a B-side,” and ‘If you want to make some money, why don’t you write a song for us?’ So I went home and wrote ‘Tonights The Night.’ Luther had credibility already so Florence told me that I’d have a better chance of success with the song by putting him down as a co-writer.”
And “Tonights The Night” was a success. Deejays immediately spied the hit potential of the B-side and - despite early competition from a similar-sounding cover by “The Chiffons” (not the later New York group) - it reached #20 in Cash Box.
If “Tonights The Night” opened the door to success for The Shirelles, their next single broke it down. Although Carole King and Gerry Goffin had written “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” specifically for the girls, Shirley had reservations about it.
“Carole King has a little twang to her voice,” recalls Shirley, “and when she sang it [for us] she did it slower on the piano. I thought it was [too] country. “[But] when I heard the strings and everything, I fell in love with the song.” So did the rest of the world. On January 30, 1961, “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” took over the #1 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100: a first time event for an African-American female group.
Scepter next re-released “Dedicated To The One I Love” and then “Mama Said:” they both reached the Top 5. The Shirelles were on their way to being the #1 female group of the pre-Beatles rock ’n’ roll era.
Shirley has “wonderful memories of singing in the booth. “I liked to see the expression on Luther’s face when I sang something and he’d say, ‘Wow! That’s good. Leave that in.’”
And Luther found a lot to like in Shirley’s vocals. “Actually, Luther Dixon told me that I didn’t have a great voice. He said, ‘You’re not powerful, but what you do have is a sellable sound.’ I know there’s a sincerity in my singing because I try to live the lyrics.”
That sincerity touched many hearts with The Shirelles second #1 record. “I’ve heard beautiful stories about ‘Soldier Boy,’” says Shirley. “Soldiers and their wives and girlfriends who were at home [have told me] it’s what kept them going.” Banged out quickly by Florence and Luther, and tagged onto the end of a session, it became their biggest hit.
The Top 40 hits continued through the rest of 1962 and into 1963, yet a change behind the scenes would soon send The Shirelles chart career into a nosedive.
“I remember the day that Luther called us in the office,” says Shirley. “He looked at us and he said, ‘I have nothing left to give you. I’m sorry.’ I started to cry because I felt, ‘What are we going to do?’” After Luther moved on, the group managed just one more Top 10 single with “Foolish Little Girl.”
Starting in 1964, things got “tough” for many existing Top 40 artists, due to a wave of young British rock ’n’ roll acts. Still, The Shirelles got an unexpected boost when The Beatles covered “Boys” (the B-side of “Tomorrow”) and “Baby It’s You.” “They said that they were their favorite female vocal group and guess what?” Shirley laughs. “We never met them!”
The Shirelles were partnered with various producers to no avail. A move to Blue Rock, then Bell (as Shirley & The Shirelles, minus Doris), United Artists, and finally RCA didn’t improve their fortunes. Shirley left in 1975 to have a daughter, returning to a solo career and later as the leader of her own Shirelles group.
In 1996 The Shirelles groundbreaking and influential career was recognized when they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Looking back, Shirley says she’s “just amazed that my life in the music business went as nice as possible, thanks to the people who love this music. How many people can say that they can still do what they love for, what, 58 years?”
On tap for the upcoming Malt Shop Memories cruise is Girls Night Out presented by Night Owl Entertainment, featuring Shirely Alston Reeves, The Crystals, and The Chiffons. “We all are going to go out there and give them our best. I come alive when I hit that stage, and The Crystals and The Chiffons are the same way. This is going to be something very special.”
- Ed Osborne © 2016