The Crystals - WikiHQ

The Crystals are an American vocal group that originated in New York City. Considered one of the defining acts of the girl group era in the first half of the 1960s, their 1961–1964 chart hits – including "There's No Other (Like My Baby)", "Uptown", "He's Sure the Boy I Love", "He's a Rebel", "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Then He Kissed Me"– featured three different female lead singers and were all produced by Phil Spector. The latter three songs were originally ranked number 263, number 114, and number 493, respectively, on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. However, two songs were omitted from the magazine's 2010 update, leaving only "He's a Rebel" at number 267. In the 2021 update, "Da Doo Ron Ron" was added back to the list at number 366.

History

Formation and signing to Philles

In 1961, Barbara Alston (December 29, 1943, Baltimore, Maryland – February 16, 2018, Charlotte, North Carolina),

Their first hit, the gospel-influenced "There's No Other (Like My Baby)", debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1961. Originally the B-side to "Oh Yeah, Maybe Baby" (featuring Wright on lead), the stirring pop ballad was co-written by Spector and Leroy Bates and featured Barbara Alston on vocals. The recording was made late on the evening of the high school prom at the William H. Maxwell Career and Technical High School, the school attended by Alston, Thomas, and Giraud; they were still wearing their prom dresses, as they had come to the studio straight from the event. The single reached number 20 in January 1962, marking an auspicious debut for Spector's Philles label.

"Replacement" Crystals

Soon after "He Hit Me" flopped, Phil Spector began recording singer Darlene Love and her group the Blossoms. The Crystals were not able to travel from New York to Los Angeles fast enough to suit the LA-based Spector, who wanted to quickly record writer Gene Pitney's "He's a Rebel" before Vikki Carr could release her version on Liberty Records. As Love and the Blossoms were also based in Los Angeles, Spector recorded and released their version under the Crystals' banner. It was not the first time Spector promised the Blossoms a single and release it under the Crystals name.

The song had originally been offered to the Shirelles, who turned it down because of the anti-establishment lyrics. It marked a shift in girl group thematic material, where the singer loves a "bad boy", a theme that would be amplified by later groups (especially the Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack").

The ghost release of this single came as a total surprise to the Crystals who were an experienced and much traveled girl harmony group in their own right, but they were nevertheless required to perform and promote the new single on television and on tour as if it were their own. The single reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1962. Pitney never reached the Hot 100's summit. The Crystals follow-up single, "He's Sure the Boy I Love", was also recorded by Love and the Blossoms. It reached number 11 on the Billboard chart and featured a spoken intro by Love.

"Real" Crystals return

Though it is unclear as to the level of their participation in "(Let's Dance) The Screw", the 'real' Crystals definitely began recording again under their own name in 1963. However, Thomas had departed to get married, only to join another mildly successful group, the Butterflys, along with another original Crystal, Myrna Giraud. This reduced the group to a quartet. Alston, known for her shyness and stage fright, was never comfortable with being out front, stepped down from the lead spot giving it to Dolores "LaLa" Brooks. According to Brooks, she had been doing Alston's leads in their live shows for a while.

After "(Let's Dance) The Screw", the group's next release was "Da Doo Ron Ron". The song was a top 10 hit in both the US and the UK, as was the follow-up single "Then He Kissed Me", with lead vocals also sung by Brooks. Both these songs were actually recorded by Brooks, the Blossoms and other session singers (including a young Cher). Brooks also flew out to Los Angeles to record tracks for the seasonal album, A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records. Covers of "The Twist", "The Wah-Watusi" (lead vocals by Nedra Talley), "Mashed Potato Time", and "Hot Pastrami" were credited to the Crystals on their 1963 Philles LP The Crystals Sing Their Greatest Hits, Volume 1 but were actually recorded by The Ronettes.

At the start of 1964, the Crystals flew to the UK for their first European live shows. "Then He Kissed Me" soared to number 2 in the UK,

Contemporary usage

"Then He Kissed Me" was the opening song to which Elisabeth Shue danced around her bedroom in Adventures in Babysitting (1987); it was the song in which Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco enter the Copacabana on their first real date in the movie Goodfellas (1990); it was featured during the episode 'Homer and Marge Turn a Couple Play' on The Simpsons (2006); it was also featured in the episode 'Stand By Meg' on Family Guy (2018). It was also covered by Asobi Seksu and used on their live album Live at the Echo 10/6/06. "Da Doo Ron Ron" was played during a scene in a dance club in the 1979 film Quadrophenia, and by Russell Ziskey (Harold Ramis) to train ESL students in the 1981 comedy Stripes. "He Hit Me (and It Felt like a Kiss)" was used in the episode 'Mystery Date' on Mad Men (2012). It was also used in the TV miniseries 11.22.63 in episode 4 in 2016.

Crystal was the name of one of the girl group-inspired street urchin characters in the musical Little Shop of Horrors, along with Chiffon and Ronnette. Amy Winehouse cited "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)" as an influence when writing her album Back to Black. The American singer Lana Del Rey used the same phrase in the song "Ultraviolence" in the album of the same name.

Band members

Timeline

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bar:DeeDee text:"Dolores Dee Dee Kenniebrew"

bar:Alston text:"Barbara Alston"

bar:Patsy text:"Myra Patricia Patsy Wright (Burch)"

bar:Thomas text:"Mary Thomas"

bar:Giraud text:"Myrna Giraud"

bar:LaLa text:"Dolores LaLa Brooks"

bar:Collins text:"Frances Collins"

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bar:DeeDee from:01/03/1967 till:01/05/1967 color:red

bar:Alston from:01/01/1960 till:01/08/1962 color:orange

bar:Alston from:01/03/1963 till:01/12/1964 color:orange

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bar:Patsy from:01/03/1963 till:01/07/1964 color:yellow

bar:Thomas from:01/01/1960 till:01/07/1962 color:green

bar:Thomas from:01/03/1967 till:01/05/1967 color:green

bar:Giraud from:01/01/1960 till:01/05/1962 color:blue

bar:LaLa from:01/05/1962 till:01/08/1962 color:purple

bar:LaLa from:01/03/1963 till:01/03/1966 color:purple

bar:Collins from:01/07/1964 till:01/03/1966 color:magenta

</timeline>

Discography

Albums

Studio albums

1962: Twist Uptown
1963: He's a Rebel (US number 131)

! style="width:35px;"| US R&B

| 1961

| "There's No Other (Like My Baby)" b/w "Oh Yeah, Maybe Baby"

| style="text-align:center;"| A-side: Barbara Alston B-side: Patsy Wright

| style="text-align:center;"| Philles 100

| style="text-align:center;"| 20

| style="text-align:center;"| 5

| style="text-align:center;"| —

| rowspan="2"| Twist Uptown

| rowspan="4"| 1962

| "Uptown" b/w "What a Nice Way to Turn Seventeen"

| style="text-align:center;" rowspan="2"| Barbara Alston

| style="text-align:center;"| Philles 102

| style="text-align:center;"| 13

| style="text-align:center;"| 18

| style="text-align:center;"| —

| "He Hit Me (and It Felt like a Kiss)" b/w "No One Ever Tells You" (from Twist Uptown)

| style="text-align:center;"| Philles 105

| style="text-align:center;"| —

| rowspan="3" | He's a Rebel

| "He's a Rebel" b/w "I Love You Eddie"

| style="text-align:center;"| A-side: Darlene Love B-side: Barbara Alston

| style="text-align:center;"| Philles 106

| style="text-align:center;"| 1

| style="text-align:center;"| 2

| style="text-align:center;"| 19

| "He's Sure the Boy I Love" b/w "Walkin' Along (La La La)" (Non-album instrumental)

| style="text-align:center;"| Darlene Love

| style="text-align:center;"| Philles 109

| style="text-align:center;"| 11

| style="text-align:center;"| 18

| style="text-align:center;"| —

| rowspan="3"| 1963

| "(Let's Dance) The Screw - Part 1" b/w "(Let's Dance) The Screw - Part 2"

| style="text-align:center;"| Group vocals

| style="text-align:center;"| Philles 111

| style="text-align:center;"| —

| Non-Album Tracks

| "Da Doo Ron Ron (When He Walked Me Home)" b/w "Git' It" (Non-album instrumental)

| style="text-align:center;" rowspan="7"| Dolores "LaLa" Brooks

| style="text-align:center;"| Philles 112

| style="text-align:center;"| 3

| style="text-align:center;"| 5

| The Crystals Sing the Greatest Hits, Volume 1

| "Then He Kissed Me" b/w "Brother Julius" (Non-album instrumental)

| style="text-align:center;"| Philles 115

| style="text-align:center;"| 6

| style="text-align:center;"| 8

| style="text-align:center;"| 2

|Today's Hits (Various Philles artists)

| rowspan="3"| 1964

| "I Wonder" b/w "Little Boy" (UK single)

| style="text-align:center;"| London 9852

| style="text-align:center;"| —

| style="text-align:center;"| 36

| rowspan="6"| Non-album tracks

| "Little Boy" b/w "Harry (From West Virginia) and Milt" (Instrumental)

| style="text-align:center;"| Philles 119

| style="text-align:center;"| 92

| style="text-align:center;"| —

| "All Grown Up" b/w "Irving (Jaggered Sixteenths)" (Instrumental)

| style="text-align:center;"| Philles 122

| style="text-align:center;"| 98

| style="text-align:center;"| —

| 1965

| "You Can't Tie a Good Girl Down" b/w "My Place"

| style="text-align:center;"| United Artists 927

| style="text-align:center;"| —

| 1966

| "Are You Trying to Get Rid of Me" b/w "I Got a Man"

| style="text-align:center;"| United Artists 994

| style="text-align:center;"| —

| 1967

| "Ring-A-Ting-A-Ling" b/w "Should I Keep on Waiting"

| style="text-align:center;"| A-side: Barbara Alston B-side: Dee Dee Kennibrew

| style="text-align:center;"| Michelle 4113

| style="text-align:center;"| —

| colspan="8" style="text-align:center; font-size:9pt;"| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory.

References

Bibliography

Clemente, John (2000). Girl Groups — Fabulous Females That Rocked The World. Iola, Wisc. Krause Publications. pp. 276.
Clemente, John (2013). Girl Groups — Fabulous Females Who Rocked The World. Bloomington, IN Authorhouse Publications. pp. 623. (sc); (e).

External links

of the latest incarnation of the Crystals
Crystals Biography I
Crystals Biography II
Crystals Discography I
Crystals Discography II