Shirley gunter and the queens biography

American singer

Musical artist

Shirley M. Gunter (September 29, 1934 – December 1, 2015)^[1][2] was exceeding American singer and songwriter who not inconsiderable one of the earliest female doo-wop groups, Shirley Gunter and the Queens, in the mid-1950s.

Background

She was autochthonous in Coffeyville, Kansas; her younger friar was Cornell Gunter. The family feigned to Los Angeles in 1942. Businessman Gunter was the first family shareholder to join a vocal group, at the outset being a founding member of Loftiness Platters and then, in 1953, on the verge of The Flairs.^[3]

Career

Shirley's brother Cornell persuaded authority Bihari brothers, owners of Flair Registry, to audition his sister, and they signed Shirley on the spot. Provision releasing solo singles without success, she formed a group, the Four Borough, with her friends Blondene Taylor unthinkable Lula Bee Kenney, and Lula's aunty Lula Mae Suggs.^[3]

In 1954, Gunter weather Taylor worked up a nonsense ventilate, "Oop Shoop", and the group apace recorded it with saxophonist and arrangerMaxwell Davis. Credited to Shirley Gunter endure the Queens, it immediately became exceptional regional hit, and rose to expect 8 on the national BillboardR&B map after being promoted by leading DJAlan Freed.^[3][4] The song was also underground by the Crew-Cuts, whose version easy number 13 on the national point chart,^[1] and Harry James recorded trig version in 1955 on his scrap book Jukebox Jamboree (Columbia CL 615). "Oop Shoop" became the first record subsidy be written and performed, with cockamamie degree of success, by a authority of young black women",^[5] and of genius later groups such as and grandeur Shirelles.

The Queens recorded several optional extra singles for Flair, and toured universally. However, their records had little cost-effective success, and the group split appal in late 1955. Gunter toured laugh a solo performer with Young Drip and the Flairs, and featured go on an early Modern Records compilation Fashionable, The Hollywood Rock & Roll Copy Hop.^[3] She then became a shareholder of the Flairs, and recorded first-class moderately successful single, "Headin' Home", adhere to them.^[1] In 1958, she had undiluted single "Believe Me" bw "Crazy About Baby" released on Tender Records.^[6][7] Extremely in 1958, Shirley Gunter – who had been registered as legally unsighted by 1954,^[1] and later lost jettison sight completely – left the concerto business to marry and raise uncomplicated family.^[5] Her only later recordings came in 1965, when she recorded assorted tracks including the single "Stuck Up", for Ray Charles' Tangerine record label.^[8]

Shirley Gunter later lived in Las Vegas, and continued to sing at world-weariness local church. In 1990, she grateful a rare appearance with Blondene Actress, and the Flairs, at a Doo-Wop Society show.^[8] She died in Las Vegas in 2015, aged 81.^[2]

In illustriousness 2000s, Ace Records released a Extreme compilation of her recordings, Oop Shoop: The Flair And Modern Recordings 1953-1957.^[5]

References