Published Thursday, December 26, 2002
to a good show
Herald Staff Writer
She knew she wanted to sing at 4, found her vocal style at 8, and had her first hit, a song that she had written, at 15.
But Arlene Smith never thought she'd be singing songs she wrote as a teenager now that she's 62.
"You can only say there's something about the music that stays, that has staying power," she said.
The lead singer of the Chantels, which was possibly the greatest all-female doo wop group, said she has to find ways to get emotionally involved with those songs from years ago.
"As the lead singer, the lyrics mean something each time," the Rochelle, N.Y,, native said. "What meant something special when I was 14 doesn't mean the same thing now. So, I find new things. There's always a new scenario to apply the songs to give you inspiration. Sometimes, it's nothing more than going into a light hypnotic thing and moving backwards in times."
The audience at a concert plays a big role in getting her emotionally prepared to sing, she said.
"The audience gives that energy up and really are with you," Ms. Smith said. "If you're working for an audience that really isn't too clear on who you are and what your songs are about, then you feel that. But when the audience is right with you and they're living and remembering along with you, ah, it's nice. It's nice."
Ms. Smith should find a very receptive audience when she sings Sunday at the Pittsburgh Doo Wop Holiday Reunion Show at Mellon Arena, Pittsburgh.
Other groups on the bill are Johnny Maestro and the Brooklyn Bridge, Charlie Thomas' Drifters, Cleveland Still and the Dubs, the Penguins, Earl Lewis and the Channels, Johnny and Joe, Eddie Holman, Frankie Ford and Lou Christie.
Pittsburgh television station WQED has led a resurgence in doo wop with its series of concert specials featuring the remaining members of the great groups.
Ms. Smith said the series has boosted her career.
"That concept, I don't mean to get into a black-white thing, but that was predominantly a black group thing," she said. "People haven't seen us as artists. Going back before my time, the artists have never reached that big an audience. You've heard the music, but you never saw our faces to place with it."
In watching the WQED shows, "I was fascinated and I was part of the genre," she said.
Ms. Smith, who teaches high school in the Bronx, grew up listening to singers such as Little Jimmy Scott, Dinah Washington, Patti Page and Jo Stafford. She got into group singing because that's what kids were doing.
"I never set out to become that type of music per se," she explained. "It's just that at the time that I was approaching adolescence, the group movement was in full force. I thought, 'If Frankie Lymon can do it, and he's only 13, so can I.' I wanted to sing and the group situation was the easiest way to get into it."
It also was primarily a male thing.
"I tried to be as much as one of the guys as I could, with that energy out there," she said. "Not only did they have the harmony, they had the testosterone. Female singers tended to be a little less intense -- at that time. Girls used to group up and watch the boys and cheer them on."
Ms. Smith formed the Chantels with Sonia Goring, Lois Harris, Jackie Landry and Renee Minus.
"I sang with my friends," she said. "We played basketball together, we were in the choir together, so that was natural enough, getting together and hanging out.
The group was assigned to End Records, and scored its first chart record, "He's Gone," in 1957.
The Chantels followed it with "The Plea," "Every Night," "I Love You So" and the all-time classic, "Maybe."
Ms. Smith wrote many of the group's songs, including "Maybe."
She left the group by 1961, when it recorded for Carlton, and still keeps a mostly separate performing schedule from the surviving members, Ms. Goring, Ms. Harris and Ms. Minus.
Ms. Smith, who generally limits herself to weekend shows, will sing Sunday without the other original members.
But the original members are on good terms and reunite for special occasions.
"I'll tell you why: The music itself is more important than any of the individual individuals. To help promote and keep the music in people's lives, I feel that we need to be together."
Sunday's concert begins at 5 p.m. Tickets: (330) 747-1212, Kaufmann's or Iggle Entertainment, both Hermitage, and www.ticketmaster.com Information: (412) 642-1800 and www.mellonarena.com
You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Joe Pinchot at
jpinchot@sharonherald.com