October 13, 1977 – Orlons singer Shirley Brickley was shot to death by an intruder in her home in Philadelphia
OCTOBER 13, 1977 – Orlons singer SHIRLEY BRICKLEY (b. December 9, 1944 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was shot to death by an intruder in her home in Philadelphia. She was buried in Rolling Green Memorial Park and the crime remains unsolved to this day. The Orlons were an American R&B group from Philadelphia that formed in 1960. The group won gold discs for three of their singles which sold over a million copies.
The quartet originally consisted of lead singer Rosetta Hightower, Shirley Brickley, Marlena Davis and Stephen Caldwell.Before they became The Orlons, they were an all-girl quintet called Audrey and the Teenettes. They formed in the late 1950s in junior high school and consisted of Hightower, Davis, and three Brickley sisters: Shirley, Jean, and Audrey. However, after the Brickleys’ mother did not permit 13-year-old Audrey to sing in certain clubs with the group, she and Jean quit, making the group a trio.
In high school, the group’s three remaining members discovered fellow student Stephen Caldwell, who was lead singer of a local group called the Romeos. Impressed, they invited him to join the group in 1960 and named themselves The Orlons as a tongue-in-cheek nod to the friendly rivalry they had with a popular group at their high school, the Cashmeres. (Orlon was a brand name for the widely used synthetic fibre acrylic.)A high school friend, Dovells lead singer Len Barry, encouraged them to audition for Cameo-Parkway Records at the turn of the decade.
The group took his advice in the fall of 1961, but were rejected at first, although the record label signed the group after two more auditions. Cameo executive Dave Appell appointed Hightower as the lead singer, and began writing songs for them.Before rising to fame with their first national hit, “The Wah-Watusi,” which reached #2 on the US pop chart, the group provided back-up vocals for Dee Dee Sharp’s hits “Mashed Potato Time” and “Gravy (For My Mashed Potatoes).” They recorded their own versions of those songs for their debut album, The Wah-Watusi, which received a rating of 4.5 out of 5 from Allmusic in 2006. They had a second hit in the same year with “Don’t Hang Up,” a #4 hit on the pop chart. They had their third, and last, Top Ten hit in 1963, with the single “South Street,” which reached #3 in the pop chart.Davis left the group in August 1963 and Caldwell quit the group in 1964, Sandy Person replaced Davis. A short-lived stint by Yvonne Young was followed by original Teenette, Audrey Brickley, Shirley’s sister.
By then, the group’s popularity had waned in the United States due to misdirection of their record company, Cameo Records. They continued to perform into the late 1960s with success in the UK. They disbanded in 1968 after Hightower decided to stay in England after a tour, and had a successful career as a soloist and as an in-demand session singer, backing Joe Cocker, John Holt and other popular artists.In 1988, Caldwell and Davis re-formed the group with two new members and performed live on the oldies circuit until Davis’ death from lung cancer on February 27, 1993. Audrey Brickley died of acute respiratory distress syndrome on July 3, 2005 (aged 58).
In 2010, The Orlons became one of first US Top 100-charting groups to have a career spanning 50 years. In March 2012, Stephen Caldwell and Jean Brickley took part in the benefit single, “Mull of Kintyre”, featuring Charlie Gracie with Clutch Cargo.Rosetta Hightower Green died in Clapham, London, on August 2, 2014, at the age of 70. Stephen and Jean Brickley still perform as The Orlons with two of Stephen’s cousins, Albreta Crump and Madeline Morris.
SOURCES
http://www.classicbands.com/orlons.html
http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/Orlons.html
http://www.history-of-rock.com/orlons.htmhttp://www.theorlons.org/pb/wp_935d2caf/wp_935d2caf.html