The Shirelles' 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow' was the first girl group record to reach number one

Hear the first classic girl group record: the Chantels’ ‘Maybe’

While there were all-female vocal groups before the Chantels, most critics consider the group’s 1957 single “Maybe” to be the first record of the classic girl group sound because it established the model’s foundational elements: a mid-tempo backbeat, soaring harmonies, and yearning lyrics.

Billboard's first No. 1 single was Tommy Dorsey Orchestra's 'I'll Never Smile Again'

The song was No. 1 on Billboard’s Best Selling Retail Records chart, the predecessor to the Hot 100. The chart only measured record copies sold, excluding other indicators of popularity, like sheet music sales or jukebox plays, that were used on other charts.

Carole King regrets writing a song excusing domestic violence

While working at the Brill Building, Carole King became one of the architects of the classic girl group sound, penning hits like the Shirelles’ “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” and the Chiffons’ “One Fine Day.” One song she regrets writing, though, is the Crystals’ “He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss),” a song she now believes normalizes domestic violence.

'Where Did Our Love Go?' was the first of 12 number-one singles for the Supremes

Motown brought more soul and R&B into the girl group formula with acts like the Marvelettes and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. Its biggest success, though, was the Supremes, who scored their first hit in 1964 with “Where Did Our Love Go?” They would go on to be the most successful American group of all time.

'I Will Always Love You' is a widely covered standard

The song has had multiple lives: There’s Dolly Parton’s original recording, which reached the top of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart in 1974 and then again in 1982, thanks to the soundtrack for Parton’s film, “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.” Then it reached the top of the pop charts thanks to Whitney Houston’s 1992 cover on “The Bodyguard” soundtrack. Popular versions have also been released by LeAnn Rimes, Linda Ronstadt, and Kristin Chenoweth.

Before becoming a country superstar, Dolly Parton recorded girl-group-style singles

Parton signed with Monument Records in the mid-1960s and released a few singles that were distinctly not country music. Instead, they sounded like Phil Spector productions, in the vein of records by the Ronettes and the Crystals. Although they weren't hits in the United States, songs like "Don't Drop Out" took off in England's Northern Soul scene, which celebrated American records that had slipped through the cracks.

The Brill Building was a breeding ground for girl group classics

The Brill Building was a building in New York City that housed the working offices for over 160 music industry professionals, including some of the country’s finest songwriters, such as Neil Diamond, Burt Bacharach, and George Clinton. Below is a 1959 picture of three more Brill Building pros: Carole King, Paul Simon, and Gerry Goffin.

Chubby Checker’s ‘The Twist’ reached number one in two separate years

The song topped the Hot 100 in 1960 thanks to a performance on the popular TV show “American Bandstand,” which led to a “Twist” dance craze. Checker recorded twist-themed follow-up singles, helping to propel “The Twist” back up the chart in 1962.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles

Although the quartet was already a sensation in Great Britain, Capitol Records turned down the opportunity to release "Please Please Me" and "From Me to You," licensing them instead to a smaller independent label in Chicago.

Phil Spector’s ‘Wall of Sound’ revolutionized girl groups—and pop music

The method captured a room of live musicians and transmitted the sound into a basement outfitted with more speakers and microphones. That sound was then sent into the central control room, producing a massive recording that sounded unlike anything else in pop music.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

Brian Wilson wrote the Beach Boys' 'Don't Worry Baby' for the Ronettes, but the legendary girl group rejected it.

As a girl, Billie Holiday fell in love with music while scrubbing the floors of a brothel

Record players were rarities in the 1920s, but Holiday had access to one at Alice Dean's, the brothel in Baltimore where she scrubbed floors. It was there that she listened to her heroes, Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith.

Brian Wilson said ‘Be My Baby’ is ‘the greatest record ever produced’

The legendary Beach Boy was shocked the first time he heard the Ronettes’ song. “I was driving and I had to pull over to the side of the road — it blew my mind.” He claims he spent his career trying in vain to do something as good. “It’s the greatest record ever produced. No one will ever top that one.”

Although payola was made illegal in 1960, it likely continued on the Billboard charts through the '70s

In his book “Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves,” music journalist Chris Dalla Riva argues that payola, the music industry term for undisclosed paid publicity, likely continued into the 1970s with the Billboard chart. Dalla Riva cites chart irregularities and reports about Bill Wardlow, Billboard’s then director of sales, who was a known booster for disco label Casablanca Records.

‘Torch songs’ are passionate expressions of unrequited love

The term comes from an idiom about dedicated romantics carrying torches for their love interests. The style was especially popular for female vocalists before the rise of rock ‘n’ roll and significantly influenced early girl group records.

A year before Elvis appeared on 'Ed Sullivan,' Bill Haley brought rock 'n' roll to the program

Although Elvis Presley's 1956 appearance on the popular TV show is viewed as a key moment in the rise of rock 'n' roll, the music appeared on the program a year earlier, on August 5, 1955, when Bill Haley and His Comets performed their hit "Rock Around the Clock."

'The Girl from Ipanema' is one of jazz's most popular songs

The song, written by Antônio Carlos Jobim, had already been recorded in Portuguese in 1962, but the version on "Getz/Gilberto" was sung in English by Astrud Gilberto, then an amateur who'd been chosen because she sang in the language better than her husband, João. The song helped propel the album's sales and is now considered a jazz standard.

Mort Sahl released the first stand-up album

There were comedy records that came before “The Future Lies Ahead,” but Sahl’s 1958 album, released by jazz imprint Verve, was the first official recording that captured a complete stand-up set.

Lisa Loeb was the first unsigned artist to top the Billboard chart

The singer-songwriter's single "Stay (I Missed You)" was included in the film "Reality Bites" and included on its soundtrack. Due in part to the success of the film, the song quickly raced up the Billboard Hot 100.

The band 'The Bangles' was initially named 'The Bangs'

Legal troubles forced the band to change their name. See a slew of other music facts, like how Taylor Swift's "All Too Well (Taylor's Version) is the longest song to reach number one on the US singles chart. The song is over 10 minutes long, and surpassed Don McLean's "American Pie."

'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' was inspired by a billboard

If you’ve ever been to a baseball game, you’ve likely sung "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." The song was written in 1908 by Jack Norworth, a Tin Pan Alley musician inspired by a billboard advertising a game at the Polo Grounds in New York.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

Sylvester's 'You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)' is a definitive LGBTQ+ anthem

The 1978 dance hit was all about self-acceptance, inspired by the artist's difficult experience growing up gay in a Pentecostal church. The song has influenced numerous contemporary artists and inspired an off-Broadway musical.

A history of the radio jingle

As the radio became a fixture in American households, advertisers recognized the airwaves' commercial potential. Inspired by 19th-century commercially minded poems, the radio jingle was born in 1926 with the ditty "Have You Tried Wheaties?" This guide from the University of Maryland walks you through the evolution of the form, with recordings of its earliest earworms.

'The good ole days weren't always good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems.'

- Billy Joel (1949-present)

The history of the iconic Barbie doll

The 1959 debut of the Barbie doll changed the culture of toys permanently, and its many iterations have come to reflect, in a certain way, the aspirations of women around the world. But Barbie's unrealistic looks and plastic substance have prompted...

Watch ABBA perform on Eurovision in 1974

The pop group won the 1974 competition, representing Sweden with the song "Waterloo." It was the first time the country took home the Eurovision title and the start of a long, successful career for ABBA, who'd eventually become one of the world's bestselling musical groups.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

Watch a 1934 short film starring jazz legend Cab Calloway, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

Quincy Jones' 'Big Band Bossa Nova' helped introduce bossa nova—a jazz-influenced Brazilian genre—to the US

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

In its famous catalog, Sears sold $600 DIY house kits from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in an estimated 100,000 'Sears and Roebuck homes.'

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

Stars appear to twinkle because turbulence in the motion of molecules in Earth's atmosphere causes light to bend and wiggle rapidly on its way to the surface—a phenomenon called scintillation.