The early and mid 60's can be described as the golden age of female vocal groups. But for every name act like The Shirelles, The Ronettes, The Crystals, The Supremes, and The Chantels. there were many more like the Deltairs, The Hearts, The Quintones, the Clickettes, the Secrets, the Carousels, and the Cotillions that went nearly nowhere. One of the latter type germinated the seed for a true 60's success story.

A group called the Starlets from Orange, New Jersey, recorded the old standard "P.S. I Love You" in a pleasing enough version on the obscure Astro label; predictably the single went nowhere. Shortly thereafter, two of the members, Barbara and Phyllis "Jiggs" Allbut, joined Linda Jansen and went to New York to do vocal session work.

By the summer of 1961 the girls had raised enough money to record a demo of the song "Till", originally a top 30 hit for Roger Williams some five years earlier. They took the demo to Caprice Records and, just like in the movies, were signed up. To choose a name, they each placed a peice of paper in a hat and drew out the name Blue Angels, later eliminating the "Blue" portion. Barbara left Juilliard School of Music and Phyllis abandoned college. Soon their first release, "Till", enhanced with a scintillating string arrangement by Hutch Davie, took off like a rocket and hit the national charts in October 1961, peaking at number 14.

Their second release "Cry Baby Cry", also hit the charts, but only as high as number 38. Linda left the Angels and Peggy Santiglia replaced her as lead singer. Peggy was already a seasoned professional, having appeared in the Play Do Re Mi on Broadway, but even her expertise couldn't stop the group's slide; inferior material for the next three singles kept them off the charts for almost a year and left them in the spring of 1963 with no record label. Then two major events took place: they were signed to Mercury Records and almost simultaneously came up with a song written by Jerry Goldstein, Rich Gottehrer, and Bobby Feldman. The writers were aware of the group, since they had written the B Side of The Angels last Caprice single "I'd Be Good For You". They convinced Mercury to let them produce on a contagiously singable little ditty they'd written, and by late summer of 1963 "My Boyfriend's Back" was a number one record in America on Mercury's Smash label afiliate. It even went to number one on two R&B charts.

Their next single, "I Adore Him", went to number 25, and the B Side, "Thank You and Good Night", became the sign-off theme on Murray the K's WINS radio show for months thereafter.

The Angels success enabled them to tour the country and Europe through 1964, performing with acts like Gerry and The Pacemakers. More versatile than their hits led people to believe, the group did numerous recordings sessions backing up artists ranging from Jackie Wilson to Sal Mineo, and were the vocal group that helped Lou Christie make "Lightnin' Strikes" a number one record in early 1966. Their angelic harmonies were so high that on one recording ("A Moment Ago", the B Side of "Till") you could play the 45 and 33 rpm speed and swear you were hearing and R&B male group. Performing backup sessions and commercials kept them busy from the summer of 1964 (when their last smash failed to chart) until they signed with RCA in 1967. Six singles and two years later the group broke up, when RCA efforts (or lack of same) resulted in no further chart activity.

The early 70's nostalgia movement brought the Angels back together for rock and roll revival shows, and in 1974 they even cut another single, this time on Polydor, entitled "Papa's Side of The Bed". They are reportedly still doing occasional oldies shows on the East Coast.

1. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) (performer: "Standing Over You")
   
2. Scorpio Rising (1964) (performer: "My Boyfriend's Back"
   
   Filmography links and data courtesy of The Internet Movie Database.