Pat
Bennett (1947), Judy Craig (1944),
Barbara
Lee (1947 - 1992), Sylvia Peterson (1946)
Three of the Chiffons (Judy, Pat, Barbara)
were all in high school in the Bronx when they
were discovered just singing for fun by Ronnie
Mack, a young songwriter in their
neighborhood.
He
persuaded them to cut a demo of a song he’d
written - “He’s So Fine.” He added his
friend Sylvia to make it a quartet.
Ronnie shopped the demo around and finally
placed it with Bright Tunes, a company owned
by the singing group The Tokens (you would
know them best from their classic song “The
Lion Sleeps Tonight”).
Bright
Tunes, in turn, placed the song with Laurie
Records, which released it in the winter of
’63:
It was instant fireworks, with the song
shooting to #1 on the Billboard Top 100 Chart
and staying there for 4 weeks.
Ronnie Mack, however, didn’t live to see the
success. He succumbed to Hodgkin’s
disease at 23, leaving the girls to the
management of The Tokens’ Bright Music.
Bright
Music did find “One Fine Day” (written by
Carole King and her husband Gerry Goffin) as a
follow-up, and it got as high as #5:
One
Fine Day
(By
the way, the killer piano in the recording
is
being played by Carole King herself.)
The
next song also had “Fine” in the title -- “A
Love So Fine” -- but nothing else about it
was either fine or Chiffons-y. It
barely got to #40 before sinking without
looking back.
A
Love So Fine
Relations
between The Chiffons and Bright Music
deteriorated badly, with disputes over
choice of material -- The Chiffons were
enamored of jazz singers like Nancy Wilson;
not contemporary girl groups -- and,
inevitably, over royalties.
The Chiffons sued to get out of their
contract with Bright Music, and the court
saw things the girls’ way and dissolved the
contract.
They
spent a year in the wilderness looking for a
management/production company with zero
success. (The Chiffons believed they
were being blackballed. No company
wanted to take on clients who were inclined
to sue.) Finally, Laurie Records signed them
directly.
Even without creative angels looking out for
them, The Chiffons scored it big with their
1966 single:
Sweet
Talking Guy
But
from there, it was a death spiral.
Musical tastes had changed dramatically, and
Laurie Records didn’t have the chops to pick
material that would keep The Chiffons
afloat.
A few more singles were released, but
nothing clicked.
But when you have a massive hit like “He’s
So Fine,” you can always find places to
perform. And the nostalgia boom of the
70’s (which still exists today, 50 years
later) was a true annuity for the “girl
groups” of the 60’s.
Before
they landed on the nostalgia carousel,
however, there was one more brush with
international fame:
George Harrison (of The Beatles) released a
song in 1970 called “My Sweet Lord.”
It was a massive hit, matching “He’s So
Fine's" run of 4 weeks at #1.
The
next year, the estate of Jimmy Mack and
Bright Tunes sued Harrison for
plagiarism. They maintained that “My
Sweet Lord” was substantially the same song
musically as “He’s So Fine.”
The suit dragged on for 5 years, and the
judge ruled that Harrison was guilty of
subconcious plagiarism.
Before damages could be assessed and
imposed, Harrison’s manager bought Bright
Tunes for $587,000. He turned around
and sold it to Harrison for the same
amount. Most of that $587,000 went to
Mack’s heirs.
Here are “My Sweet Lord” and “He’s So Fine”
played back-to-back. You decide if it
was plagiarism (subconscious or otherwise):
My
Sweet Lord/He's So Fine
After
the settlement, The Chiffons had a little
musical laugh. They recorded their
own version of “My Sweet Lord”:
My
Sweet Lord
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