In 1962 in New York City, Lestine Johnson and sisters Ernestine Pearce, Shirley Pearce and Betty Pearce from South Carolina formed The Gypsies. In 1964 they signed to Old Town Records, where they released their debut single "Hey There, Hey There". The song achieved airplay only on local radio stations, but their next single — the J.J. Jackson-written "Jerk It" — was more successful, reaching #111 (pop) and #33 (R&B) in the spring of 1965. Despite the relative success of "Jerk It", Lestine Johnson left the group, replaced by Viola Billups. The Gypsies released only two singles on Old Town Records in 1966, giving them a total of four.
That year, now on Josie Records, the four women renamed themselves The Flirtations and released the well-regarded northern soul dancer "Change My Darkness Into Light". It was ignored by DJs and sales suffered. The quartet then moved to the Jamie-Guyden distributed label Festival Records, where they released "Stronger Than Her Love" and "Settle Down" as a single, which failed to spark much interest.
Betty Pearce left the group, reducing the Flirtations to a trio. After winning a small local talent contest in 1968 to see who could sound the most like the Supremes, they packed their bags and headed for England, where they signed to the Parrot label and in the fall of 1968 supported the label's star act Tom Jones on his European tour. The Flirtations' sole Parrot release was "Someone Out There", backed with "How Can You Tell Me?" "Someone Out There" rose to second place on the "Bubbling Under" list in September 1968, and the track did afford the Flirtations a chart hit in the Netherlands with a No. 25 peak.
In late 1968 the trio signed with Deram Records and released what would become their signature recording, "Nothing But A Heartache" — a dense, dynamic, earth-shattering melodrama produced by Englishman Wayne Bickerton and written by Bickerton with Tony Waddington. The B-side was a Christmas song, "Christmastime Is Here Again". "Nothing But a Heartache" rose to first place on the "Bubbling Under" list in December 1968 and gave the Flirtations a second Top 40 hit in the Netherlands, reaching No. 36 in early 1969. On the success of those singles in March 1979 they embarked on an 18 date tour of the UK with Stevie Wonder and The Foundations.
Following an unsuccessful December 1968 US release, "Nothing But a Heartache" was re-issued in the US in early 1969, with "How Can You Tell Me?" now replacing the original seasonal B-side. "Nothing But a Heartache" debuted at No. 93 on the Billboard Hot 100 on 8 March 1969. The single reached the Top 20 in several US markets – its chart peak in Boston was No. 3 – but the staggered regional success indicated by its 14-week Hot 100 run dictated that its national peak – achieved on the 24 May 1969 Hot 100 – would be No. 34. (The Cash Box singles chart peak for "Nothing But a Heartache" was No. 31.) Somewhat reminiscent of mid-1960s Supremes – particularly "Stop! In the Name of Love" – the single is now generally regarded as a pop and Northern soul classic.[2]
The follow-up was less of a dance tune than the previous single. "South Carolina" was a ballad that reached only No. 111 pop in July 1969. In 1970, "Keep On Searching" was released and did nothing. However, this may have been due to confusion over whether the newest single was "Searching" or "What's Good About Goodbye My Love". The latter peaked at No. 17 R&B in early 1970, but failed to make a dent in the pop charts. In July 1970 the trio scored another hit with another Bickerton and Waddington song, "Can't Stop Loving You". The song made No. 96 in Cash Box. The same year, Tom Jones also released a version of the song that reached US AC No. 3 and CAN AC No. 5.
1971 saw their sixth and last Deram single, "Give Me Love" (not the George Harrison song). Not originally in their 1970 LP Sounds Like the Flirtations, but subsequently added to their 2008 CD version, it did not do well in the charts. The rest of their singles were not released in the U.S. Misty Browning, from Texas, replaced Viola Billups in 1972. Viola Billups embarked on a solo career as Vie and as Pearly Gates. Browning was followed by Loretta Noble. During 1972, the group were the resident vocal band on the long running BBC TV series It's Cliff Richard, backing Cliff Richard on various numbers, performing their own songs and supporting other guests on the show.
The Flirtations recorded Hi-NRG tracks such as "Earthquake" (1983), "Read All About It" (1986) and "Back On My Feet Again" (1989), the latter reuniting Viola with the Pearce sisters. The track became a major hit in South Africa in 1984 reaching No. 6.
With Ian Levine forming his label Centre City Records, 2007, the ladies recorded regularly for the label compilations. In 2009, they released their first single in 20 years, "Roulette",[5] produced by Soren Jensen for Night Dance Records, including mixes and a music video. The track peaked at No. 10 in Music Week's Commercial Pop Club Chart by December 2009.
Albums discography
1969 Nothing But A Heartache
1970 Sounds Like The Flirtations
1976 Love Makes the World Go Around
2015 Girls
2024 Still Sounds Like The Flirtations
Singles discography
The Gypsies
1964 "Hey There" / "Blue Bird"
1965 "Jerk It" / "Diamonds, Rubies, Gold And Fame"
1965 "It's A Woman's World (You Better Believe It)" / "They're Having A Party"
1966 "Oh I Wonder Why" / "Diamonds, Rubies, Gold And Fame"
The Flirtations
1966 "Change My Darkness Into Light" / "Natural Born Lover"
2013 "You Pulled A Fast One" / "My Way Or The Highway"
2015 "Nowhere To Run"
Related Research Articles
Honeybus were a 1960s pop group formed in April 1967, in London. They are best known for their 1968 UK top 10 hit single, "I Can't Let Maggie Go", written by group member Pete Dello who also composed their previous single "(Do I Figure) In Your Life", later recorded by Dave Berry, Ian Matthews, Joe Cocker, Dave Stewart, Paul Carrack, Samantha Jones, Dana, Pierce Turner, and Euros Childs.
"I Hear a Symphony" is a 1965 song recorded by the Supremes for the Motown label.
The Andantes were an American female session group for the Motown record label during the 1960s. Composed of Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps, the group sang background vocals on numerous Motown recordings, including songs by Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, the Four Tops, Jimmy Ruffin, Edwin Starr, the Supremes, the Marvelettes, Marvin Gaye and the Isley Brothers, among others. It is estimated they appeared on 20,000 recordings.
The Foundations were a British soul band who were primarily active between 1967 and 1970. The group's background was: West Indian, White British and Sri Lankan. Their 1967 debut single "Baby Now That I've Found You" reached number one in the UK and Canada, and number eleven in the US. Their 1968 single "Build Me Up Buttercup" reached number two in the UK and number three on the US Billboard Hot 100. The group was the first multi-racial group to have a number one hit in the UK in the 1960s.
"I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" is a soul song most popularly released as a joint single performed by Diana Ross & the Supremes and the Temptations for the Motown label. This version peaked for two weeks at No. 2 on the Hot 100 in the United States, selling 900,000 copies in its first two weeks, and at No. 3 on the UK Singles Chart in January 1969.
William Larry Stewart II was an American R&B singer and pianist popular during the 1960s.
"Heartaches by the Number" is a popular country song written by Harlan Howard, and published in 1959. The sheet music was a best seller in both the US and Britain in January 1960.
Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon were an American vocal soul group, prominent in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were fronted by singer Johnny Johnson. They are probably remembered most for the catchy hit, "(Blame It) On the Pony Express".
White Plains were a British pop music group that existed from 1969 to 1976. They had an ever-changing line-up of musicians and five UK hit singles, all on the Deram Records label, in the early 1970s.
"Sugar Baby Love", recorded in autumn 1973 and released in January 1974, is a bubblegum pop song, and the debut single of the Rubettes. Written by Wayne Bickerton and Tony Waddington and produced by Bickerton, engineered by John Mackswith at Lansdowne Recording Studios, and with lead vocals by Paul Da Vinci, "Sugar Baby Love" was the band's only number one single on the UK Singles Chart, spending four weeks at the top of the chart in May 1974.
"This Guy's in Love with You" is a hit song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and released by Herb Alpert in May, 1968. Although known primarily for his trumpet playing as the leader of the Tijuana Brass, Alpert sang lead vocals on this solo recording, which was arranged by Bacharach. An earlier recording of the song by British singer Danny Williams with different lyrics titled "That Guy's in Love" appeared on Williams' 1968 self-titled album.
Timebox was an English 1960s psychedelic pop band. They formed in October 1965, in Southport, Lancashire.
"Nothing but a Heartache" is a Northern soul hit originally released on the Deram Records label in November 1968 by South Carolina trio The Flirtations. The song was produced by Wayne Bickerton and co-written by Bickerton and Tony Waddington, who were later responsible for the 1970s successes of The Rubettes.
Viola Billups, known by her stage name Pearly Gates, is an American disco and soul singer and member of girl group The Flirtations.
United We Stand is the debut album by The Brotherhood of Man. It was released in 1970 on Deram.
"Elusive Butterfly" is a popular song written by Bob Lind, released as a single in December 1965, which reached number 5 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the adult contemporary chart in the spring of 1966. In Australia, Lind's "Elusive Butterfly" entered the charts on April 10, 1966, and spent three weeks at number 2 during July of that year.
"My Baby Loves Lovin'" was first released by the British pop group White Plains. The song was written and produced by Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, recorded on 26 October 1969, and released on 2 January 1970 on the Decca Records imprint, Deram Records. It is a world-wide chart success and the top selling single for White Plains.
Wayne Bickerton was a British record producer, songwriter and music business executive. He became well known, with Tony Waddington, as writer and producer of a series of UK chart hits in the 1970s for The Rubettes, and as a leading figure in SESAC – one of the three major American performing rights organisations.
The Alan Bown Set, later known as The Alan Bown! or just Alan Bown, were a British band of the 1960s and 1970s whose music evolved from jazz and blues through soul and rhythm and blues and ended up as psychedelia and progressive rock. The band achieved limited chart success and is best known for the role it played in developing the careers of numerous musicians including Mel Collins, John Helliwell, Robert Palmer, Jess Roden and Dougie Thomson.
Anthony Brandon Joseph Waddington is an English singer-songwriter, record producer, film producer, screenplay writer, and creative media executive. He became well known with Wayne Bickerton, as writer and producer of a series of UK chart hits in the 1970s for The Rubettes. He also received an Ivor Novello Award as "Songwriter of the Year".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
