THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,234) Shirley Ellis — “Don’t Let Go”
How am I featuring this song as obscure when it was a #2 R&B hit and reached #13 on the pop charts? Well, that was Roy Hamilton’s original in ‘58. I am championing Shirley Ellis’ irresistibly clap your hands, slap your thighs ‘65 version, which is utterly marvelous and should have been a #1 hit but had to settle for album cut status. Hoodoo You Love proclaimed that:
First heard this incredible Shirley Ellis (and best) version of this timeless song on Tom Petty Radio on the XM radio during Benmont Tench’s show. Thank you Benmont Tench for introducing me to this stellar version of the classic “Don’t Let Go”! I don’t understand how this song wasn’t a bigger hit . . . . The beat is so infectious and her singing style along with the great background singers just transform this song into something even more grand than it had ever been . . . !
Hoodoo I love? Shirley Ellis! Aw shucks, I wouldn’t stop listening to her take for a million bucks!
As to Ellis, Malcolm Baumgart and Mick Patrick write:
[S]he was funky yet classy, sophisticated but sassy. Unjustly pigeonholed as a novelty act by many rock historians, Shirley was a unique talent who could rock the joint with the best of ’em, then spin on a dime and hold a packed house of hip nightclubbers in the palm of her hand, spellbound by her cool mastery of a jazzy ballad. A clever songsmith of Caribbean ancestry . . . . the Bronx-based teen won Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater in Harlem while also performing as a member of the Metronomes and getting spliced to group leader Alphonso Elliston. Hubby managed the Heartbreakers whose 45 “One, Two, I Love You” was a[n] example of Shirley’s creative prowess. It was through a songwriting cousin of Alphonso’s that Shirley forged a partnership with Lincoln Chase. Spectacularly unsuccessful as a record star, Chase was one of the biggest writers of the 1950s, supplying stars like Chuck Willis, Big Maybelle and Ruth Brown with top of the range songs and scoring hits for the Drifters and LaVern Baker with “Such A Night” and “Jim Dandy”, respectively. In 1959, Chase became not only Shirley’s songwriting partner but also her manager and, later, her producer. The symbiosis was immediate; he saw in her the raw stuff that stars are made of, while she sensed his innate ability to mould her into one. The pair worked ceaselessly together over the following years on perfecting every aspect of her talent. A tentative release for the small Shell logo in 1961 marked the recording bow of Shirley Elliston – nobody cared. False start. It was not until the fall of 1963 that the years of preparation paid off with the diminutive thrush’s Congress label debut, the incredibly exciting “The Nitty Gritty”. . . . Chase fashioned the hippest slice of au-go-go, street-smart madness of 1963 or any year since. . . . Shirley Ellis, after years of grooming, became an overnight Top 10 hitmaking sensation. . . . [A] soundalike follow-up stalled in the lower reaches of the chart and, after the no-show of the vastly superior “Takin’ Care Of Business” and a “Nitty Gritty”-style revival of Chase’s “Such A Night”, it seemed that the Ellis bandwagon had ground to a halt. . . . Shirley bounced back onto the charts with . . . . [t]he convoluted craziness of “The Name Game” . . . [which] would become the singer’s biggest hit. . . . [H]er wildly percussive follow-up began an equally impressive chart run while breaking Shirley Ellis internationally. Her third Top 10 smash finally brought the star recognition in Britain and many other territories but “The Clapping Song” would prove impossible to top. . . . Shirley was then signed by Columbia. She registered her chart swan song with the memorable “Soul Time” . . . . A June 1967 Columbia album, her third in all, was the last we heard from Shirley.
As to Roy Hamilton, Ron Wynn writes:
An extremely influential vocalist despite having a rather short career, Roy Hamilton had both classical training and gospel experience. Hamilton studied commercial art in high school and was a heavyweight Golden Gloves boxer before starting his music career as a member of the Searchlight Singers. During the mid- and late ’50s, Hamilton’s dramatic, searing voice and treatments of such songs as “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” “If I Loved You,” “Ebb Tide,” and “Unchained Melody” were enormously popular. “You’ll Never Walk Alone” topped the R&B charts for two months in 1954, while “Unchained Melody” topped the R&B charts for three weeks, and was his only Top Ten pop hit. Jackie Wilson and Roy Brown were among the singers whose sound was affected by Hamilton, while the Righteous Brothers did their own versions of “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” “Ebb Tide,” and “Unchained Melody” . . . . Hamilton had to retire from 1956 to 1958 due to exhaustion. He suffered a stroke in 1969 and died at age 40.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/roy-hamilton-mn0000290040#biography
Here is Roy Hamilton:
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