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Shirelles
The Philadelphia pop artists such as Fabian, Frankie Avalon, and Bobby Rydell did more than just render male vocal groups obsolete. They also proved that exposure and image were adequate to achieve more than a measure of success. Any song would do, so long as it had a teenage theme. The overwhelming popularity of these performers did not go unnoticed by music publishers. In New York, Don Kirshner and partner Al Nevens were hard at work building their publishing company, Aldon Music, around a bevy of struggling songwriters. The obvious intent was to have material available for the poster boys to sing, but Kirshner did not want just any song to be distributed through his company. He had (comparably) high standards and wanted his writers to be the industry leaders. He succeeded. Neil Sedaka and Howie Greenfield came first, followed shortly by Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, and eventually Neil Diamond. They all went on to achieve phenomenal success. Aldon Music’s first #1 hit was with a song that was given to Scepter Records called “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin.
The Shirelles grew up in Passaic, New Jersey. Inspired by other girl groups, such as the Chantels (“Maybe) and the Bobettes (“Mr. Lee”), they started to write songs and sing together while still in high school. A classmate heard them at a school talent show and offered to introduce them to her mother, Florence Greenburg, who ran a company known as Tiara Records. Greenburg was impressed and signed them to a recording contract. In 1958, the Shirelles recorded their ode to a week-long romance, called “I Met Him on a Sunday,” and made the pop charts at #49. Subsequent releases were disappointing, so Greenburg brought in producer Luther Dixon and started a new label called Scepter Records. The next release, written by lead singer Shirley Owens and called “Tonight’s the Night,” reached #39. “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” followed, and it rose straight to the top of the charts and remained at #1 for two weeks.
It is impossible to imagine a better anthem to kick off what became known as “the girl group” sound. The title poses a universal question endemic to all women, particularly to teenagers. The pre-coital time frame of the lyric is, to say the least, provocative. The song accurately portrays that maddeningly exciting, but frighteningly poignant moment. Meat Loaf later made a joke of it by portraying the male (chauvinist) perspective in “Paradise by the Dashboard Light,” which managed to be pandering, selfish, and sexually juvenile all at the same time. “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” avoids these shortcomings because of the inherently sincere lyrics and Shirley Owens’s vocals. As such, “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” was the salvo shot that signaled the arrival of a feminine perspective in rock-and-roll music.
 
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