The Orlons

The Orlons are an American R&B group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that formed in 1960. The group won gold discs for three of their singles which sold over a million copies. In 2010, The Orlons became one of first US Top 100-charting groups to have a career spanning 50 years.

Career

The quartet consisted of lead singer Rosetta Hightower (June 23, 1944 – August 2, 2014), Shirley Brickley (December 9, 1944 – October 13, 1977), Marlena Davis (October 4, 1944 – February 27, 1993) and Stephen Caldwell (born November 22, 1942).

Before they became The Orlons, they were an all-girl quintet called Audrey and the Teenettes. They formed in the late 1950s in junior high school and consisted of Hightower, Davis, and three Brickley sisters: Shirley, Jean, and Audrey. However, after the Brickleys' mother did not permit 13-year-old Audrey to sing in certain clubs with the group, she and Jean quit, making the group a trio.

In high school, the group's three remaining members discovered fellow student Stephen Caldwell, who was lead singer of a local group called the Romeos. Impressed, they invited him to join the group in 1960 and named themselves The Orlons as a tongue-in-cheek nod to the friendly rivalry they had with a popular group at their high school, the Cashmeres. (Orlon was a brand name for the widely used synthetic fibre acrylic.)