Credit: Far Out / Public Domain
Sun 4 October 2026 1:00, UK
Before they were The Shirelles, they were four teenage girls from New Jersey.
Shirley Owens, Doris Coley, Addie ‘Micki’ Harris and Beverly Lee were all from the city of Passaic, attending Passaic High School and, at the encouragement of their teacher, decided to form a group to enter their school’s talent show in 1957. For the occasion, they sang what would become their first hit, ‘I Met Him on a Sunday’, a song that they composed themselves and performed a cappella.
One of their classmates in the audience, Mary Jane Greenberg, convinced the group, then still known as The Poquellos, to meet with her mother, Florence Greenberg, the then-owner of Tiara Records. The young women were extremely reluctant, to the point of avoiding Mary Jane and noting that they were not interested in becoming professional singers; this went on for several months, until they finally took their classmate up on her offer.
By the end of 1957, The Poquellos became The Shirelles, and they were booked to Tiara to record an official version of ‘I Met Him on a Sunday’, released to local success. The song was licensed to Decca Records, the label that would eventually buy Tiara and The Shirelles’ contract, for just $4,000 in 1959.
Greenberg continued to manage the group, booking them for performances as they continued to release singles to a lacklustre response. Eventually, Decca lost faith in The Shirelles, choosing to relinquish the group back to Greenberg, who then signed the band to her new label, Scepter, which she began in the wake of Tiara.
Despite the shuffling around of their catalogue, the girls found a faithful home with Scepter but it would take time: they re-released a single, ‘Dedicated to the One I Love’, which peaked at number 89. Greenberg, thankfully, never lost hope on The Shirelles and, setting out to find them a solution, decided to enlist the songwriter Luther Dixon.
Dixon had begun his career earlier in the 1950s, writing for numerous artists, from The Four Buddies (led by Larry Harrison, a frequent collaborator), Perry Como, Bobby Darin, Elvis Presley and more. When Greenberg went to Dixon in 1960, he accepted her offer, one that would prove a career-changing move for both himself and The Shirelles, in time.
Further reading: From The Vault
After meeting them, Dixon and Shirley Owens co-wrote what would become their next single, ‘Tonight’s the Night’, a song about a woman anticipating her first sexual experience. She considers the thought of “a great romance” with “Upset in my soul”, as the chorus admits, “Well, I don’t know / Said, I don’t know right now / I might love you so…”
Intriguingly, ‘Tonight’s The Night’ was released in April 1960 as a B-side, joined by ‘The Dance Is Over’. The A-side, however, would not chart on the Billboard Hot 100, but by September, ‘Tonight’s The Night’ did, and in time would ascend to number 39. By the next year, their song reached gold status, despite its boundary-pushing story. Though a minor hit, the song saw the reemergence of The Shirelles, garnering the attention that they so deserved.
‘Tonight’s The Night’ would become the namesake of the group’s debut album in December 1960, which also featured their biggest hit, ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow’, marking the beginning of The Shirelles’ making history.
