Shirley Gunter
Shirley M. Gunter (September 29, 1934 – December 1, 2015) was an American singer and songwriter who led one of the earliest female doo-wop groups, Shirley Gunter and the Queens, in the mid-1950s.
She was born in Coffeyville, Kansas; her younger brother was Cornell Gunter. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1942. Cornell Gunter was the first family member to join a vocal group, firstly being a founding member of The Platters and then, in 1953, joining The Flairs. He persuaded the Bihari brothers, owners of Flair Records, to audition his sister Shirley, and they signed her on the spot. After releasing solo singles without success, she formed a group, the Four Queens, with her friends Blondene Taylor and Lula Bee Kenney, and Lula's aunt Lula Mae Suggs.
In 1954, Gunter and Taylor worked up a nonsense song, "Oop Shoop", and the group quickly recorded it with saxophonist and arranger Maxwell Davis. Credited to Shirley Gunter and the Queens, it immediately became a regional hit, and rose to number 8 on the national Billboard R&B chart after being promoted by leading DJ Alan Freed. The song was also covered by the Crew-Cuts, whose version made number 13 on the national pop chart. "Oop Shoop" became "the first [record] to be written and performed, with any degree of success, by a group of young black women", and inspired later groups such as the Cookies and the Shirelles.
Shirley
Shirley may refer to:
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Shirley (film)
Shirley is a 1922 British silent drama film directed by A.V. Bramble and starring Carlotta Breese, Clive Brook, Elizabeth Irving and Mabel Terry-Lewis. It is based on the 1849 novel Shirley by Charlotte Brontë.
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Ultraelectromagneticpop!
Ultraelectromagneticpop! (officially written as ultraelectromagneticpop!) is the debut studio album of the Filipino alternative rock band Eraserheads, released by Sony BMG Music Philippines Inc. (Formerly BMG Records Pilipinas, Inc.) in 1993. Ultraelectromagneticpop! spawned hit songs such as "Ligaya," "Toyang," and "Pare Ko." The album brought the underground Philippine college rock scene into public awareness and the emergence of "Eraserheadsmania" because of successive hit singles and sold-out concerts. The CD version of the album comes with lyrics but the cassette tape version does not.
Background
Though Ultraelectromagneticpop! was their debut album, most of the songs were recycled from original compositions that were written since their college days in 1989. Hoping to have their songs published, the band recorded a demo tape in 1991 and shopped around record labels and radio stations, only to be rejected at every turn. A friend-professor from their school, UP Diliman, helped them record an improved version of the demo tape which was named Pop U!, a play on the invective "fuck you," in response to the people who turned them down. After a year of being passed around the underground music scene, the demo tape made its way to the hands of BMG Records (Philippines), who signed a three-year contract with the band.
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