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Florence Greenberg Scepter Records owner Florence Greenberg helped set many precedents; she was the first woman to own a major label and her label's first signees, the Shirelles, were the first girl group to have a number one pop song with the million-selling "Soldier Boy." The label's lineup also included Dionne Warwick, Chuck Jackson, the Isley Brothers ("Twist and Shout"), Tommy Hunt ("Hu- man"), Maxine Brown ("Oh No Not My Baby"), B.J. Thomas ("Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head"), and the Kingsmen ("Louie Louie"), among others. Born September 16, 1913, Greenberg was a suburban New Jersey housewife. Her daughter, Mary Jane Greenberg, introduced her to four teen-aged schoolmates - Doris Coley, Beverley Lee, Shirley Owens, and Addie Harris, who had a singing group called the Poquellos. The elder Greenberg was starting a label called Tiara Records. Impressed with the girls' talents, she signed them to a recording and management contract after getting their parents' permission. Renamed the Shirelles, their first single was a recording of one of their original songs, "I Met Him on a Sunday." Greenberg felt that a bigger label would do a better job of promoting and selling the record. After the single was leased to Decca Records, it broke the pop Top 50. The concurrent singles didn't make the charts, so Greenberg began releasing the group's singles on her new label, Scepter Records, in spring 1959. She recruited talented songwriter/producer Luther Dixon (the Platters, the Crests' "Sixteen Candles") to work with the group. The Shirelles brought Greenberg a song, "Dedicated to the One I Love," that they'd heard the "5" Royales perform at Washington, D.C.'s Howard Theater. It was written by group member Lowman Pauling and Ralph Bass. When the Shirelles' version was released in 1959, it peaked in the lower rungs of the pop charts. But their fortunes turned around when their single "Tonight's the Night," written by Shirley Owens and Dixon, was a Top 20 R&B/Top 40 pop hit, even winning a cover battle (when two artists have competing versions of the same song) with the Chiffons. Other hits followed with songwriters Gerry Goffin and Carole King's number one R&B/number one pop hit, "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow." Greenberg saw this success as a chance to reissue "Dedicated to the One I Love." Her hunch proved right with it going to number three pop and number two R&B in 1961. More Shirelles hits followed, with "Mama Said," "Big John," Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "Baby It's You," the gold single "Soldier Boy," (written by Dixon and Greenberg), "Welcome Home Baby," "Everybody Loves a Lover," and "Foolish Little Girl." In 1963, Greenberg started the Wand label which was for her deep R&B-oriented releases. The roster included singer Chuck Jackson who had hits with "I Don't Want to Cry" and "Any Day Now." Soon after, Luther Dixon, who had become Scepter's A&R director, was lured away by Capitol Records with a deal that included his own label. Greenberg replaced him with singer/ songwriter and producer Ed Townsend ("For Your Love"). The British Invasion (which included the Beatles who covered the Shirelles hits "Baby It's You" and "Boys") spelled the end of '50s vocal groups. In 1976, Florence Greenberg sold Scepter Records to Springfield International. At the age of 82, she died of complications from stroke on November 2, 1995. |
