
Arlene Smith, the lead vocalist of the all-female doo-wop group the Chantels, died on July 29 at age 84. Smith’s death in a hospital in the Bronx, where she was born, was caused by a heart attack, her manager and friend, Paul Errante, confirmed. The original five-member lineup of the Chantels formed in the early 1950s, with Smith and four of her Bronx schoolmates. Their second single, 1957’s “Maybe,” is the group’s most well-known song and a doo-wop staple that influenced countless artists across genres. “It was heartfelt and pure girl power,” the Ronettes’ Ronnie Spector told the Wall Street Journal in 2016. While not the first all-Black female group, the Chantels were trailblazers in the industry, despite the inherent marketing difficulties in pre-civil rights era America. Their label, End Records, changed the original cover of their debut album from the five members to two white teenagers beside a jukebox for the Southern markets, member Lois Harris Powell told the New York Times in 1995. On tour, the group faced death threats in the South. Smith, who went solo in 1959, later studied music at Juilliard, earned a master’s degree in education, and became a schoolteacher in her hometown. She performed with various iterations of the Chantels from 1971 to 2012.















