Music Player
“Sally Go Round The Roses”-1963

This song, arranged by Artie Butler, has a haunting, hypnotic quality for some listeners, due in part to studio production techniques utilizing reverb coupled with a layering of numerous female vocals. Reportedly, this song was also a performance favorite of Grace Slick prior to her Jefferson Airplane days and is also said to have been an influence on singer Laura Nyro.

Martha and the Vandellas on a 1964 record sleeve cover. Click on photo to visit their story at this website.

Music Player
“Heat Wave”-1963

Martha and her ladies scored three big hits in 1963 – “Come and Get These Memories,” a No. 29 hit in the spring; “Heat Wave,” a No. 3 hit in August; and “Quicksand,” a No. 8 hit in December.  Martha & The Vandellas would turn out nine more Top 40 hits over the next three years – among them: “Dancing in the Street,” a No 2 hit in 1964; “Nowhere To Run,” a No. 8 hit in 1965; and “Jimmy Mack,” No. 10 in 1967.  See “Motown’s Heat Wave” at this website for a separate story covering Martha and the Vandellas and their music. Also at Motown was female soloist, Mary Wells, regarded as one of Motown’s early 1960s superstars, who had several hits composed by Smokey Robinson, inlcuding: “You Beat Me to the Punch” (No. 9) and “Two Lovers” ( No. 7) in 1962, and her famous No. 1 hit of 1964, “My Guy.”

“Girl Group Woes” Rights, Royalties & Recognition       As buoyant and uplifting as girl group music may have been for millions of listeners, behind the scenes, in the production and management of that sound, there was a somewhat less happy scene unfolding.  The girls themselves were often treated as pawns in the process.  Though, to be sure, the top girl groups experienced elevated stardom and celebrity, traveled the world in some cases, and were certainly not deprived.  Still, a number of the girl groups – especially those younger ladies in their teens and early twenties –“…I was fifteen years old. What do I know about conflict of interest and making a recording deal?”         – Nona Hendryx / She’s A Rebel became dependent on the producers and the songwriters for their recordings and their careers.  And because they were young, they lacked the experience and social skills to advance their concerns. According to a conversation with Nona Hendryx of The Bluebells, as relayed in Gillian Gaar’s book, She’s A Rebel: “We would record songs, and listed on the [recording] as the writer would be his [the owner/producer’s] eight-month-old grandchild!  It was just ridiculous.  He owned the recording studio, he owned our contracts, we had his lawyers…  I mean, talk about conflict of interest!  But I didn’t know anything about conflict of interest.  I was fifteen years old. What do I know about conflict of interest, and making a recording contract deal?”  Hendryx also explained.  “We got ripped off really badly over the years, especially from the Bluebells era…  We ended up with nothing but our name – I don’t know who had the brains enough to ask for that at the time, but somehow we ended up with the name so we could work without any limitations.  But we lost a lot of the money we were entitled to.” When the Shirelles discovered in 1964 that their trust fund had evaporated, they went on strike.      Typically, when it came to contracts, the girl groups fared poorly.  And because in many cases they were so flattered to be discovered and professionally recorded, and then became so involved in the music scene swirling around them, they didn’t always realize what was happening, or too often, simply trusted what they were told.  So when it came to copyrights, publishing recognition, and compensation, the girl groups were often last in line. In 1963, The Shirelles learned that a trust holding their royalties – money they were supposed to receive from their Scepter Record label on their 21st birthday – did not exist.  The money, they were told, had been spent on production, promotion and touring.  The Shirelles went on strike and would not record.  After a lawsuit and countersuit in the mid-1960s, an agreement was reached, but the damage had been done.  The Shirelles believed they were lied to and deceived.  In an interview some years later, Shirley Owens of the Shirelles would explain that their manager and record label owner, Florence Greenberg, had put on a “mother routine” which the girls had fallen for completely. Some of Motown’s Marvelettes in happier times.      In 1967, after Motown moved from Detroit to Los Angeles, the Marvelettes stopped receiving their royalties.  Some of the surviving members and families later sued Motown to get their royalties – which they then had to spilt with a New York company that helped them in the litigation. The Shangri-Las were another short-changed girl group.  As Gillian Garr reports in She’s A Rebel: “Despite their hits and frequent tours, the Shagri-Las saw little of the generated profits, which were eaten up in the black hole of management and studio costs.” The Shangri-Las of the mid-1960s reportedly saw little of the profits from their hits. Click for CD.      In the 1980s, the royalties and rights battle began heating up after a former music agent named Chuck Rubin created Artists Rights Enforcement Corporation to provide legal referrals and support for artists seeking back royalties.  Rubin, a researcher with skills in digging up old contracts and master tapes, had found that during the ’50s and ’60s many rock artists – male and female alike – were short changed.  According to Rubin, “it was the exception to the rule if they were paid.”  The Shirelles, Ronettes, and the Vandellas are among the girl groups who have worked with Rubin’s organization in seeking back royalties. Phil Spector, for one, would be sued by at least three of the girl groups he worked with.  The Crystals sued Spector for unpaid royalties, but lost their case, although they did salvage the rights to their group name, enabling them to continue working and use the name in performances.  In 1993, Darlene Love sued Spector for back royalties, and a New York Supreme Court jury ruled in her favor in 1997, but because of the statute of limitations in New York State, awarded her $263,500 for royalties going back only to 1987.  The Ronettes, who also sued Spector in later years, fared little better, and that case is covered in more detail in the “Be My Baby” story a this website. Rosalie “Rosie” Hamlin waged a long battle over decades for her royalties.      Girl group members who wrote their own songs sometimes had to fight for years to get their music publishing rights as song authors.  Rosalie “Rosie” Hamlin of Rosie and The Originals, who wrote the No. 5 hit “Angel Baby” in 1960 at age 15, was not listed as the song’s author on the record label at the time it was a hit.  Hamlin also found in her contract that she was ineligible to collect record royalties for the song because she was not listed as the songwriter.  And although Hamlin did manage to obtain the copyright to her music in 1961, there were decades of battles that followed over royalties. Beyond the royalty wars and legal disadvantages the girl groups faced, there were also other issues, ranging from lack of media notice (female acts were not promoted or covered by the media and music press then as much as male artists, who in the industry’s words were “easier to sell”), to racism and sexism that were then much more prevalent.  And due in part to the formula/production-line nature of song-making in those years, managers and producers did not always acknowledge the talents of their charges or treat them with professional respect in the recording process, sometime regarding them as interchangeable parts to be plugged into the pop music machine wherever they were needed. Still, despite the woes and difficulties girl groups faced in their careers, most were generally happy to have been a part of the process and to have had the professional help that made their careers possible – inadequate, short lived, and poorly compensated as some of those careers surely were.

New Competition

Sheet music cover for The Toys’ 1965 hit song, “A Lovers Concerto,” Stateside Records. Click for CD.

From Los Angeles, Carol and Terry Fischer and Sally Gordon, 15 and 17 year-olds who comprised The Murmaids, had a No. 3 hit song with “Popsicles and Icicles” in January 1964.  The Dixie Cups, three girls from New Orleans – sisters Barbara Ann and Rosa Lee Hawkins and their cousin, Joan Marie Johnson – recorded “Chapel of Love” for Red Bird Records in 1963.  By early June 1964, the Greenwich/Barry/ Spector song had soared to No. 1, remaining there for three weeks and selling more than a million copies.  The Dixie Cups would have three more Top-40 hits in 1964 and 1965.

The Toys, a girl group from Queens, NY, had a major No. 2 hit in October 1965 with “A Lover’s Concerto,” which was based on the melody of Johann Sebastian Bach’s classical piece, “Minuet in G major.”  The Toys’ song – whose early lyrics include: “How gentle is the rain / That falls softly on the meadow / Birds high up in the trees / Serenade the flowers with their melodies” – was a million seller in 1965.

Cover of 1995 CD from RPM Records, U.K., “The Shangri-Las: Myrmidons of Melodrama,” which includes 33 of their tracks with annotation. Click for CD.

The Ronettes had started a change in look with their hairdos, tight skirts and Cleopatra style make-up.  But in 1964, a Queens, New York group named The Shangri-Las took the look and sound in something of a new direction.

The Shangi-Las were a white group, formed in 1963 by two sets of sisters – Mary Weiss (lead singer) and Elizabeth “Betty” Weiss, and identical twins Marge and Mary Ann Ganser. The girls were still 15-to-17 years of age when their parents signed their contract with George “Shadow” Morton of the Red Bird record label in April 1964.  They produced a series of songs that were mini-melodramas covering topics such as lost love, forbidden love (“Leader of the Pack”), teenage angst, and related themes that became quite popular in the U.S. and U.K..

1965: The Shangri-Las, in boots & leather, at radio station WHK, Geauga Lake Park, Cleveland, Ohio. Photo, George Shuba.

Music Player
“Remember…Walking in The Sand”-1964

Next, with the help of Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich at the Brill Building, Morton produced the Shangri-Las’ follow-up record, “Leader of the Pack,” which hit No.1 in the U.S. on November 28, 1964.  It also hit No. 1 in Australia and No.11 in England.  Although the group toured with other major rock acts and appeared on several TV shows, by 1966 their releases began to falter in the U.S., although they remained popular in England and Japan.  They also influenced some 1970s punk rock-era acts such as the New York Dolls and Blondie, and later, the Go-Go’s. “Leader of the Pack” later recharted in the U.K in 1972 at No.3 and again in 1976 at No. 7, giving the Shangri-Las the distinction of being the only American vocal group to ever hit the upper reaches of the British Charts three times.

The Supremes in 1965: from left, Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard. Click for 'Definitive Collection' CD.

One girl group that emerged out of Detroit’s Motown music scene in the mid-1960s just as the Beatles and British invasion were coming on — and would go toe-to-toe with those groups on the music charts — was The Supremes.

In the late 1950s, the teenage threesome of Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard had formed their singing group while living in Detroit’s Brewster housing project.  Initially they used another name during their high school years, but by January 1961, after signing with Berry Gordy’s Motown they changed their name at Gordy’s suggestion.  They became “The Supremes,” a name credited to Florence Ballard.  However, their first recordings at Motown – in fact, more than nine in a row – fell flat and went nowhere.

The Supremes’ first No. 1 hit, “Where Did Our Love Go,” sold more than 2 million copies. Click for CD.

Music Player
“Baby Love”-1964

More top hits kept coming for the Supremes in 1965, 1966 and 1967.  In fact between 1964 and 1967, the Supremes compiled one of the best all-time female recording track records in popular music history: releasing fifteen singles, all of which, except for one, made the Top Ten.  In addition, ten of these songs were No. 1 hits.  The Supremes’ success brought television exposure beyond what the other girl groups had received, as they appeared not only on teen shows such a Shindig and Hullabaloo, but also The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show.  “Unlike other so-called girl groups,” observed The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll in 2001, “the Supremes had a mature, glamorous demeanor that appealed equally to teens and adults.  Beautiful, musically versatile, and unique, the original Supremes were America’s sweethearts, setting standards and records that no group has yet equaled.”  They also became important symbols of black success, and as The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia noted, “they were often seen at Democratic political fundraisers, for President Lyndon Johnson, among others…”

Album featuring Supremes singing hit songs composed by Motown’s Holland-Dozier-Holland team. Click for CD.

Music Player
“Come See About Me”-1964

H-D-H produced ten of The Supremes’ No. 1 singles, including: “Baby Love”, “Stop! In the Name of Love”, “You Keep Me Hangin’ On,”  and the 1964 hit sampled above, “Come See About Me.”

The Supremes were nurtured by Gordy’s Motown organization, and like other groups there, they were put through the “Motown finishing school” receiving professional guidance in dance, etiquette, and fashion.  However, some of the other Motown groups charged that the Supremes were given special attention by Berry Gordy, given the best songs, and helped along with more spending.  And as was later learned, Gordy and Diana Ross had become involved in the mid-1960s.

The Supremes performing "My World Is Empty Without You" on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1966: Diana Ross (right), Mary Wilson (center), Florence Ballard (left). Click for 'Anthology' CD.

The Supremes — and Diana Ross later on her own — went on to separate careers, continuing to record and release songs beyond the 1970s, with reunion tours and some personnel changes in later years.  Yet in terms of the classic 1960s’ girl group sound, The Supremes are often put in their own separate category, considered not typical of the teenage girl groups of that era, but rather, representing a somewhat more sophisticated and polished sound, with songs covering somewhat more adult themes.  Still, the market reach of The Supremes for both teen and adult listeners was huge and stretched over several decades.

Other Girl Groups.  Among groups and solo female artists not mentioned in this article that are sometimes included in girl group listings are: The Ad Libs, The Caravelles, Claudine Clark, Dee Dee Sharp, The Jelly Beans, The Pixies Three, Reparata and the Delrons, The Starlets, Mary Wells, and The Velvelettes.  And beyond these, of course, there were hundreds of other girl groups that recorded during the 1960s, but for whatever reasons, did not achieve major notice.

The Crystals of the early 1960s shown on a London Records recording. Click for 'Very Best of' CD.

The girl groups of the 1960s occupy something of unique niche in the history of rock `n roll music.  They were singing groups that typically did not write their own songs nor play the musical instruments that powered those songs.  Nor was the girl group sound a long-lasting genre.  In fact, with the exception of The Supremes, it was a pretty compressed period; one that some historians mark as coming between Elvis Presley’s induction into the U.S. Army in 1958 and the Beatles’ rise in early 1964.

But that demarcation may be too simplistic, as “girl group music” of one form or another, as shown above, persisted well through the 1960s.  And although the rise of the Beatles and the British invasion were factors,  there was also something else: the way popular music began to be produced around that time.  Groups such as the Beatles – but also extending to folk, surf, and solo female artists who began their rise in the mid-and late 1960s – were artists who wrote and performed their own songs.  That was an important change in the means of production, as it fundamentally altered and outdated the Brill Building and Motown methodologies – the “assemblers” who had previously brought all the moving parts of pop song-making together.  Girl group music also leaned on a formula of similar and repeating types of sound, song titles, and lyrics which could only be sustained for a few years before listeners yearned for something new.  Still, the girl group sound made its mark and had its impacts.  In some ways the era marked a unique coming together of voices, producers and writers – a once-in-a-great-while crossing of paths and talents that briefly produced some beautiful and lasting music.

The Dixie Cups’ “Chapel of Love” was a No. 1 hit for 4 weeks, June 1965. Click for CD.

Greil Marcus, writing in 1992 for The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll, then enthusing over some memorable moments from the girl group oeuvre, mentioned, among others: “…the piano on ‘One Fine Day’…the unbelievably sexual syncopation of the Shirelles’ ‘Tonight’s The Night’; the pile-driving force of ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’; the good smile of the Crystals’ ‘He’s Sure The Boy I Love’ – a smile that stretched all across America in 1963.”  Marcus also added in his commentary:

…It was utopian stuff – a utopia of love between a boy and a girl, a utopia of feeling, of sentiment, of desire most of all.  That the crassest conditions the recording industry has been able to contrive led to emotionally rich music is a good chapter in a thesis on Art and Capitalism, but it happened.  That utopian spirit has stayed with those who partook of it – the formal style of girl-group rock has passed, but the aesthetic is there to hear in Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, Book of Love, Bette Miller….

     And later, as historians dissecting the girl group era would acknowledge, there was something there worth saving.  In the Library of Congress cultural preservation program, girl group songs are among those listed on the National Recording Registry, including, so far, The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” and Martha & the Vandellas’ “Dancing in the Street.”  There will, no doubt, be others to come.  More common kudos for girl group music comes in other forms, too – the use of their songs by other artists being a prominent one.  A number of girl groups songs have been covered by other artists, some of which have become hits themselves, but usually in most cases, bringing the music to new listeners.

Cover photo of the Beatles on their March 1995 EP that included The Shirelles’ song, “Baby It’s You.” Click for CD.

Music Player
Mamas & Papas-“Dedicated To…”

Another Shirelles song, “Dedicated To The One I Love,” was given a boost by a 1967 cover version by The Mamas & The Papas with Michelle Phillips on lead. This version (above) went to No. 2 in both the US and UK.

The group Smith in 1969 and The Carpenters in 1970-71 also released versions of The Shirelles’ song “Baby It’s You.”  More than 20 other artists have also recorded the song.  Similarly, The Shirelles’ “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” has been recorded by a long list of artists – from The Chiffons in 1963 and song co-author Carole King on her 1971 Tapestry album, to Amy Winehouse who recorded a slowed-down, jazzy version for the 2004 film Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.

Record jacket for April 1967 Beach Boys single, “Then I Kissed Her” cover of Crystals song. Click for digital.

Two years later, in April 1967, the Beach Boys released the song as a single in the UK where it charted at No. 4.

Singing duo Sonny & Cher also covered “And Then He Kissed Me,” issued on a French four-song EP in 1965.

And Bruce Springsteen covered the song in some of his live performances in 1975 under the title, “Then She Kissed Me.”  He also used the same song in more recent years, opening a concert with it in August 2008 in St. Louis, and performing it by request in Sunrise, Florida during a September 2009 encore performance.

Linda Ronstadt’s “Heat Wave,” 1975.

“(Love is Like a) Heat Wave,” the 1963 hit song by Motown’s Martha and the Vandellas, has some interesting cover history as well.  Linda Ronstadt had a No. 5 hit with the song in November 1975, and Phil Collins released a single version of “Heat Wave” in September 2010.

The Lovin’ Spoonful’s John Sebastian revealed in 2007 how he sped up the three-chord intro from “(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave” to come up with the intro for the Spoonful’s 1965 hit, “Do You Believe in Magic.”

And in recent years, the song has been used by at least five contestants on the American Idol TV show.

Many other 1960s’ girl group songs have similar histories of cover-version recordings; only a sampling has been offered here.

 
Film & TV Music

The 1996 film, “One Fine Day,” used The Chiffons’s popular 1963 song of that name in the film score. Click for film DVD.

Martha & the Vandellas’ song “Heat Wave” was sung by Whoopi Goldberg in the 1992 film Sister Act, and also featured in Backdraft of 1991 and More American Graffiti of 1979.  “A Lover’s Concerto” by The Toys was used in the 1995 film Mr. Holland’s Opus, and “One Fine Day” by the Chiffons was used in the 1996 film by that name starring Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney.  The Ronettes’ “Baby I Love You” is part of the soundtrack for the 1995 Hugh Grant-Julianne Moore film Nine Months, and the soundtrack for the 1999 film A Walk on the Moon featured a remake of the Jaynetts song, “Sally Go ‘Round the Roses.”  And this is only a partial list.

Gillian Gaar’s “She’s A Rebel,” 1992.

     Among books that cover or include 1960s’ girl groups as a subject are, for example: Alan Betrock’s 1982 book, Girl Groups: The Story of a Sound; Gillian Gaar’s 1992 book, She’s a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock & Roll; John Clemente’s 2000 book, Girl Groups: Fabulous Females That Rocked the World; and Jacqueline Warwick’s 2007 book, Girl Groups, Girl Culture.  Laurie Stras, a senior lecturer in music at the University of Southampton in the U.K. has edited a 2011 anthology that explores 1960s girl singers and girl groups in the U.S. and the U.K. – She’s So Fine: Reflections on Whiteness, Femininity, Adolescence and Class in 1960s Music. Academic and trade journal articles have also delved into various aspects of the 1960s girl-group era, a few of which are listed below in “Sources.”

Girl group members themselves have taken up the pen to tell their own stories of their years in the music business, some of them turbulent tales.  Among these books have been, for example: Mary Wilson’s 1986 book, Dreamgirl: My Life As a Supreme, written with Patricia Romanowski and Ahrgus Juilliard; Ronnie Spector’s 1990 book, Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness, or My Life As a Fabulous Ronette; Martha Reeves 1994 autobiography with Mark Bego, Dancing in the Street: Confessions of a Pop Diva; and Darlene Love’s 1998 autobiography, My Name Is Love.

Peter Benjaminson’s “The Lost Supreme,” about Florence Ballard. Click for copy.

In 2005, Ken Emerson wrote a book about the Brill Building scene – Always Magic in the Air: The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era. Former Brill Building songwriter and singer Carole King has written a 2012 memoir titled, A Natural Woman.

A number of books have also covered Motown’s history, including Berry Gordy’s 1994 autobiography, To Be Loved: The Music, the Magic, the Memories of Motown, and Peter Benjaminson’s 2012 book, Mary Wells: The Tumultuous Life of Motown’s First Superstar.

Broadhurst Theatre playbill for 2011 play, “Baby It’s You.” Click for playbill.

     On Broadway and in Hollywood, girl group stories have been told, and more are in development.  Perhaps the most famous of the stage productions so far has been Dreamgirls, a 1981 Broadway musical based in part on the rise of performers such as The Supremes, The Shirelles, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, and others.  In the play, a young female singing trio from Chicago named “The Dreams” become music superstars.  The musical was nominated for thirteen Tony Awards and won six.  Dreamgirls was also made into a successful Hollywood film in 2006, starring Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé Knowles, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson, Danny Glover, and others.  The film won three Golden Globes and two Oscars.

In April 2011, Baby It’s You!, another musical with girl group roots, debuted on Broadway.  This production featured the music of The Shirelles and offered the story of their manager, Florence Greenberg and her Scepter Records, the recording label Greenberg started when she signed The Shirelles.  This production ran for 148 performances, opening at the Broadhurst Theater in April 2011 and closing that year in September.

Years earlier, in 1985, a Broadway show titled Leader of the Pack, dedicated to songs co-written by Brill Building songwriter Ellie Greenwich and based on her life, also ran on Broadway where it was nominated for a Best Musical Tony.

2013 playbill from the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre for the Broadway show, “Motown The Musical.” Click for song originals.

 
For The Ages

So, the upbeat and joyful music of the 1960s’ girl-groups lives on – in various forms and venues – staying alive for the future. But for some who lived through that time and actually experienced the music making in those years, there’s no substitute for the real thing. LaLa Brooks who sang lead on several of The Crystals big hits in the 1960s, gave an October 2011 interview with Mindy Peterman of the Morton Report during which she reminisced about working in the studio with Phil Spector and the parade of live musicians and singers who came together back then to produce the songs. Similar scenes were common at Motown and the Brill Building. That era is gone now, and those recording sessions can never be repeated, but Brooks is sure that the sound they made back then was special and unique, and she was glad to have been a part of it:

“…I remember there were so many people in the studio.  That was fascinating.  Just to sit outside the studio in the seating area before I put on the vocals and seeing all the musicians just playing live, which they don’t do today.  I think that was an experience.  So many of the young artists now, they’re using all kinds of computers and some kind of technology.  They lose that gift that I had in the studio with Phil [Spector] with all the musicians at one time playing.”

Three CD collection from The Marvelettes (2009), showing from top left: Gladys Horton, Katherine Anderson, Georgeanna Tillman, and Wanda Young. Click for CD.

Music Player
The Marvelettes-“Forever”
(Wanda Young, lead)

And as more distance is put between that time and those songs, it does appear that the era, and the music made then, will stand out in a good way. And however accidental, serendipitous, and/or opportunistic that music-making may have been in its day, the “girl group sound” remains a gift for the ages.

For other stories at this website on the history of popular music please visit the Annals of Music category page or go to the Home Page for additional story choices.  See also, “Noteworthy Ladies,” a topics page with 40 more story choices about famous women. Thanks for visiting — and if you like what you find here, please make a donation to help support this website.  Thank you. — Jack Doyle

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Date Posted: 25 June 2013
Last Update: 16 July 2023
Comments to: jackdoyle47@gmail.com

Article Citation:
Jack Doyle, “1960s Girl Groups:1958-1966,”
PopHistoryDig.com, June 25, 2013.

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Books at Amazon.com…

Sept 2023 book on 1960s girl groups, Hachette, 448 pp. Click for copy.

“Detroit 67: The Year That Changed Soul.” Click for copy.

“...The 50 Fiercest Female Rockers.” Click for copy.

Sources, Links & Additional Information

The cover of Mary Wilson's 1986 book, "Dreamgirl: My Life as A Supreme." Click for book.

CD cover, "The Best of the Crystals," 1992. Click for CD.

Peter Benjaminson’s 2012 book, "Mary Wells: The Tumultuous Life of Motown's First Superstar."

Mark Ribowsky’s 2007 book on Phil Spector. Click for book.

“Best of the Ronettes” CD issued on the ABKCO label, 1992. Click for CD.

Greil Marcus, “The Girl Groups,” in Anthony De Curtis and James Henke (eds), The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll, Random House, New York, 1992, pp. 189-190.

“Girl Groups: A Short History,” History of Rock.com.

Alan Betrock, Girl Groups: The Story of a Sound, Delilah Books / Putnam Publishing Group, 1982, 516 pp.

“100 Greatest Girl Group Songs,” DigitalDream Door.com.

“Girl Group,”Wikipedia.org.

Frank Hoffmann with Robert Birkline, “Girl Groups,” Survey of American Popular Music (website), Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas.

Bob Hyde and Walter DeVenne, “Maybe, The Chantels,” The Doo Wop Box, Booklet & Liner Notes (used in PBS promotions), Rhino Records, 1993, pp. 56-57.

Jacqueline Warwick, Girl Groups, Girl Culture, new edition, Routledge, 2007, paperback, 288 pp.

“The Shirelles,” in Holly George-Warren and Patricia Romanowski (eds), The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, Rolling Stone Press, New York, 3rd Edition, 2001, pp. 880-881.

“The Shirelles,” Wikipedia.org.

Bill Janovitz, Song Review, “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?,” AllMusic.com.

Joel Whitburn, The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, New York: Billboard Books, 8th Edition, 2004.

Ian Dove, “The Shirelles Sing ‘Soldier Boy’ In a Rock Revival at the Garden,” New York Times, December 31, 1972.

Amy Ellis Nutt, “Passaic Dedicates Street to the Ones it Loves: The Shirelles,”The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), September 22, 2008.

“The Marvelettes,” Wikipedia.org.

“The Marvelettes,” in Holly George-Warren and Patricia Romanowski (eds), The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, Rolling Stone Press, New York, 3rd Edition, 2001, pp. 614-615.

Joe McEwen and Jim Miller, “Motown,” in Anthony De Curtis and James Henke (eds), The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll, Random House, New York, 1992, pp. 277-292.

“Locking Up My Heart” (Marvelettes song), Wikipedia.org.

Marc Taylor, The Original Marvelettes: Motown’s Mystery Girl Group, Aloiv Publishing Co.,, 2004, 219 pp.

Andy Greene, “Gladys Horton of the Marvelettes Dies at 66; Horton Sang Lead on ‘Please Mr. Postman’ and ‘Too Many Fish in the Sea’,” RollingStone.com, January 27, 2011.

“The Paris Sisters,”Wikipedia.org.

“The Exciters,” Wikipedia,org.

“The Cookies,” Wikipedia.org.

Bruce Eder, “The Cookies, Biography,” AllMusic .com.

“The Orlons,” Wikipedia.org.

“The Crystals,” in Holly George-Warren and Patricia Romanowski (eds), The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, Rolling Stone Press, New York, 3rd Edition, 2001, p. 229.

“He’s A Rebel,” Wikipedia.org.

Nick Cohn, “Phil Spector,” in Anthony De Curtis and James Henke (eds), The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll, Random House, New York, 1992, pp.177-188.

“Phil Spector/The Teddy Bears,” in Holly George-Warren and Patricia Romanowski (eds), The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, Rolling Stone Press, New York, 3rd Edition, 2001, pp. 922-923.

Jack Doyle, “To Know, Know…Him, 1958-2010” (includes Teddy Bears & Phil Spector history), PopHistoryDig.com, December 19, 2010.

“Phil Spector, Biography,” RollingStone.com.

Mark Ribowsky, He’s a Rebel: Phil Spector, Rock and Roll’s Legendary Producer, New York: Perseus, 2007.

“Phil Spector,” Times Topics, The New York Times.

Dave Thompson, Phil Spector: Wall Of Pain, (updated paperback edition), Omnibus Press, March 1, 2010.

“The Crystals,” Wikipedia.org.

“Then He Kissed Me,” Wikipedia.org.

“Da Doo Ron Ron,” Wikipedia.org.

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