Almost before the five Bronx schoolgirls who called themselves the Chantels had finished their unaccompanied delivery of a song called The Plea in his office on Broadway one day in 1957, the record label owner George Goldner was fishing in his desk for a contract they could take home and show their parents. Within months the group were high in the charts with a ballad called Maybe, featuring the powerful lead voice of the 16-year-old Arlene Smith.
The Chantels set the pattern for the success of such “girl groups”, as they became known, as the Shirelles, the Crystals, the Chiffons, the Ronettes, and many more.
