Shirley Gunter and The Queens - Oop Shoop - 1954

[priamhecuba]

This is really great stuff! Pitch perfect and a good groove.

[southie231]

Love this song...and Shirley & The Queens! On the Crew Cuts: Arguably the worst of ALL the copycat white groups!! Can you imagine they recorded and butchered "Earth Angel"!!

[ben33603]

@southie231 How right you are. I always liked the originals.

[jerseyguy242]

Mr ValenciaLou. You are sure right about the Crew Cuts pathetic cover of Oop Shoop. Their cover of e Chords' Sh Boom was even worse.

[MrValenciaLou]

Shirley Gunter was also blind, but she had a voice equal to the best!! First heard this song way back in 1954 when my aunts used to play it at Grandma's house. I was 8 years old. Heard the Crewcuts version and it's pathetic!!

[shmuli9]

@MrValenciaLou I think she's blind NOW, but then she wasn't.

[harptone55]

rockin!!

[catlarry]

@harptone55 Yes, unfortunately the Crew-cuts covered this song and that was the only version we heard in my neck of the woods.

[JDC160]

@catlarry well i think they coverd it because of the white community, cause they were like oh no black people couldnt have made a good song so i think thats why they coverd so many songs

[louisethehearts]

first  afro american girl group

[someoneme9]

Sweet piece of Doo WOP history. Very nice. I l I love the early 50s stuff.

[LindaDooWop]

I really love this! I was thrilled when I discovered it a couple of years ago.

[dandy166]

Man, I thought that girl looked like Zola Taylor of The Platters and sure enough, I looked it up and Zola did sing with The Queens. She was fine.

[57Will]

They were the very first black female group to hit Billboard's charts (they hit the R&B charts in the summer of 1954), but they've been unfairly forgotten by time. Gunter was the sister of Cornell Gunter.

[luiscolo2]

yes I remember this group. I really like their "your Mine" much better.

[jj85585]

I posted the song, It's one of the video responses

[poliverio]

Thank you catlarry for introducing the youtube world to SHIRLEY GUNTER.

If there was no Shirley Gunter, there might never have been the Shirelles, who were the first group to have two of their songs covered by the Beatles: Boys & Baby, It's You.

BUT in 1954--long before the Shirelles' hit, Shirley Gunter composed and recorded "It's You." The hook of her tune is "Baby, It's You."

[57Will]

You're absolutely correct, for if there had been no Shirley Gunter & the Queens, might not have been a Chantels (whose success made it easier for the Shirelles).

[57Will]

Amen!