Best of

The Chantels | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 10, 1990)
• Original Release Date: May 29, 1990
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Rhino
• ASIN: B0000032SE
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #91,546 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. He's Gone

2. The Plea

3. Maybe

4. I've Lied

5. So Real

6. Every Night (I Pray)

7. Whoever You Are

8. I Love You So

9. How Could You Call It Off?

10. Prayee

11. Sure of Love

12. Memories

13. If You Try

14. I Can't Take It (There's Our Song Again)

15. Goodbye to Love

16. Summer's Love

17. Look in My Eyes

18. Well, I Told You

Editorial Reviews

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: CHANTELS
Title: BEST OF CHANTELS
Street Release Date: 05/29/1990
Domestic
Genre: OLDIES

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great forgotten girl group., July 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Best of (Audio CD)

The Chantels were one of the first commercially successful girl groups, creators of one of the classics of the genre "Maybe." Most of these songs sound similar, but what a sound it is! Arlene Smith had a gospel influenced voice that was more powerful than most, if not all, of the girl group lead singers. And she was very young to boot! The songs have a very dense sound that is quite unique to this day. I believe she left the group and then the Chantels had a different lead singer for another hit called "Look Into Your Eyes." It is good, but more poppy than the group led by Smith. This is a great record for those interested in one of the great groups of the late 50's and early 60's.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Model For All Girl Groups That Followed, August 6, 2007

By 

AvidOldiesCollector (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best of (Audio CD)

The Chantels were, quite simply, the premier girl group of their era. Led by Arlene Smith (born 1941), they included Rene Minus (1943), Lois Harris (1940), Sonia Goring (1940) and Jackie Landry (1940) - barely teenagers all when their first big hit on George Goldner's End label, Maybe, launched them into national prominence.

Going to # 2 R&B and # 15 Billboard Top 100 in March 1958, b/w Come My Little Baby, it spent a combined 25 weeks on those charts. Their next release that year, Ev'ry Night (I Pray) b/w Whoever You Are didn't fare nearly as well, topping out at # 16 R&B and # 39 Top 100 in late April, but that was still quite respectable considering the hefty competition from the likes of Elvis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Pat Boone, Gene Vincent, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly & The Crickets, Connie Francis, Brena Lee, et el.

Their third hit in 1958, I Love You So (b/w How Could You Call It Off) did marginally better on the R&B charts, going to # 14, but just failed to make the Top 100 Top 40 at # 42. In 1959 the man who produced all their hits to date, Richard Barrett, joined them in the billing (Richard Barrett With The Chantels) for Summer's Love, a # 29 R&B charter that September, but only able to make # 93 Hot 100.

Further chart success on End eluded them but in the fall of 1961, after signing with Carlton, they were back with Look In My Eyes (b/w the appropos Glad To Be Back), a # 6 R&B smash and a decent # 14 Hot 100 showing. Their next hit, borrowing from a Country specialty, was an "answer" to the Ray Charles' huge hit, Hit The Road Jack. Called, Well, I Told You, it made # 29 Hot 100 but for some strange reason failed to dent the R&B Top 100. Go figure.

Again there was a two-year hiatus from the charts before they had a minor - their final - hit with Eternally on the Ludix label. Not the same song as either the Sarah Vaughan (1960) OR the Thomas Wayne (1959) hit of the same name, it only managed to reach # 77 Hot 100 in 1963.

With Barrett now concentrating on a new female group, The Three Degrees, The Chantels drifted from Ludix to Verve, and finally to RCA without luck. Arlene then took her powerful voice to Spectorious and Big Top, but again met with no chart success as a single artist. Sadly, any reunion performances will have to be without Jackie Landry, who succumbed to cancer two days before Christmas in 1997.

A very important group who paved the way for The Shirelles, Marvelettes, Cookies, Ronettes and, yes, The Supremes - among others - this CD should be given a prominent place in your collection.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best of the Chantels, July 19, 2005

By 

A. Gilberg - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Best of (Audio CD)

Maybe still brings chills to my spine 48 years after I first heard it on the radio. Many other excellent songs...the Chantels were the first and best of the girl groups.