Tag: The Shirelles

Shirelles – Will You Love Me Tomorrow

Great song that was highly influential at the time and now. I always thought this song was a pop masterpiece. Not a teen pop opera but more like a pop novella. I put it in the same class as Be My Baby…without the Brian Wilson worship temple.

Gerry Goffin and Carole King wrote this song. Some radio stations didn’t play it because of the suggestive lyrics. Tony Orlando, who was then a teenager, wanted to record this song. Don Kirshner told him that it would not sound right coming from a guy. As much as I never really cared for Kirshner…he was right in this case. Orlando did record an answer song called “Not Just Tomorrow But Always” using the name Bertell Dache.

Goffin and King worked for Don Kirshner’s Aldon Music. He assigned them to work on a Shirelles song. He liked it so much that he thought he would try to get into Columbia by offering it to the label head but was rejected. Kirshner said afterward it was “The best thing he ever did for me.”

Shirelles lead singer Shirley Alston initially didn’t like the song. She thought it was “too Country and Western” for the New Jersey group to sing.  Their producer Luther Dixon convinced her they could do it in their style, and asked King and Goffin if they could add strings and turn it into an uptempo song, which they did.

The Shirelles had been charting songs since 1958 but this was their first huge hit. Will You Love Me Tomorrow peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada, #3 in New Zealand, and #4 in the UK in 1960. The Shirelles were the first black female group to have a #1.

Will You Love Me Tomorrow

Tonight you’re mine, completely
You give your love so sweetly
Tonight the light of love is in your eyes
But will you love me tomorrow

Is this a lasting treasure
Or just a moment’s pleasure
Can I believe the magic in your sighs
Will you still love me tomorrow

Tonight with words unspoken
You say that I’m the only one
But will my heart be broken
When the night meets the morning sun

I’d like to know that your love
Is a love I can be sure of
So tell me now and I won’t ask again
Will you still love me tomorrow

So tell me now and I won’t ask again
Will you still love me tomorrow
Will you still love me tomorrow
Will you still love me tomorrow

Max Picks …songs from 1960

1960

Here we are in a new decade that will make a huge dent in 20th-century culture. This decade will change the world from the black and white 1950s into technicolor with tragedy, freedom, generation gaps, and thoughts of change that are still felt…both good and bad. Music is filled with safe artists…not many edgy artists like Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard. Even Elvis was safe now and he became Cliff Richard a movie star. Rock and Roll had temporarily lost its bite. There was still some great music as we see below.

Let’s start off with those sweet harmonies by the Everly Brothers. Cathy’s Clown which was huge this year. It was written by Don Everly.

Ok, let’s get a driving voice in this look at 1960. Here is the one and only Wanda Jackson with Let’s Have A Party. It was written by Jessie Mae Robinson.

Instrumentals were huge through the 1950s and 60s. They gradually wound down through the decades. I’ve always liked instrumentals because it’s not as easy as writing songs with lyrics. It’s almost like a silent movie…you try to get the point across without words… just painting with music. Here is one of the best-known instrumental bands ever…The Ventures with Walk Don’t Run. They also released a version four years later but we will go with the 1960 version. It was written by Johnny Smith. He was a jazz guitarist who wrote this back in 1954. This guitar sound lent itself to beach music that was just around the corner in becoming popular.

Roy Orbison and Joe Melson wrote Only the Lonely, which they tried to sell to Elvis Presley and the Everly Brothers. Both of them turned him down so Orbison did the song himself thank goodness. His voice was truly unique and one of a kind. Here is Roy singing Only The Lonely.

The Shirelles released this song in November of 1960. The song is beautiful and it was written by the husband and wife duo of Gerry Goffin and Carole King.

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