Shirley M. Gunter (September 29, 1934 – December 1, 2015) frequently misspelled "Gunther"was an American singer and songwriter who led one of the earliest female doo-wop groups, Shirley Gunter and the Queens, in the mid-1950s.
She was born in Coffeyville, Kansas; her younger brother was Cornell Gunter. Her mother Reba was a school teacher, who, according to Shirley, also sang on the radio a couple of times a week. This was the start of the musical family, which would come to include at least Shirley, Cornell, Gloria, and Patty. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1943. Cornell Gunter was the first family member to join a vocal group, firstly being a founding member of The Platters and then, in 1953, joining The Flairs.
Shirley's brother Cornell persuaded the Bihari brothers, owners of Flair Records, to audition his sister, and they signed Shirley on the spot. After releasing solo singles without success, she formed a group, the Four Queens, with her friends Blondene Taylor and Lula Bee Kenney, and Lula's aunt Lula Mae Suggs.
In 1954, Gunter and Taylor worked up a nonsense song, "Oop Shoop", and the group quickly recorded it with saxophonist and arranger Maxwell Davis. Credited to Shirley Gunter and the Queens, it immediately became a regional hit, and rose to number 8 on the national Billboard R&B chart after being promoted by leading DJ Alan Freed.
The song was also covered by the Crew-Cuts, whose version made number 13 on the national pop chart, and Harry James recorded a version in 1955 on his album Jukebox Jamboree. "Oop Shoop" became the first record to be written and performed, with any degree of success, by a group of young black women", and inspired later groups such as the Cookies and the Shirelles.
The Queens recorded several more singles for Flair, and toured widely. However, their records had little commercial success, and the group split up in late 1955. Then, on August 5, 1956, Shirley married Albert Perrin from Chicago, she toured as a solo performer with Young Jessie and the Flairs, and featured on an early Modern Records compilation LP, The Hollywood Rock & Roll Record Hop. She then became a member of the Flairs, and recorded a moderately successful single, "Headin' Home", with them. In 1958, she had a single "Believe Me" bw "Crazy Little Baby" released on Tender Records.
We don't hear of Shirley Gunter again until January 1965, when she released a couple of sides on Ray Charles' Tangerine Records: "Stuck Up", backed with "You Let My Love Grow Cold". There's a girl group on "Stuck Up", resulting in a Supremes-type sound. Shirley's second husband was Antoine Mathieu (1933-1974); they had a child, Cornell, in February 1967. Shirley later lived in Las Vegas, and continued to sing at her local church. The September 21, 1968 Billboard reported on a new record production company called O'Rett, owned by Maria Tynes. "On the O'Rett artist roster is Shirley Gunter, a top 40 R&B singer." If she actually recorded anything for them, nothing was ever released.
On July 2, 1972, there was a huge show called "The History Of Rock And Roll, Volume 2" at the Oakland Coliseum. It starred Bill Haley, Cornell Gunter's Coasters, the Shirelles, Chubby Checker, the Olympics, Freddie Cannon, Joe Turner, Bobby Day, Jessie Hll, Jennelle Hawkins, Del Shannon, and Shirley Gunter. For many years legally blind, sometime in the 1970s, Shirley went completely blind.
On June, 22, 1990, the Doo-Wop Society put Shirley and Lula (Piper) together again with another vocalist to form a new Shirley Gunter & The Queens for DWS Show #6; also on the bill was her old group, The Flairs, including ex-members Richard Berry, Pete Fox and Young Jessie.
These remarkable women showed that they still had the stuff, and Shirley displayed that distinctive, rich voice that had survived forty years of professional singing. They worked out a hand-in-hand entrance in which it wasn't obvious that Shirley was blind and being led onto the stage by Patty and Piper. There was a return visit in August 2002.
Shirly Gunter died in Las Vegas in 2015, aged 81.
(Edited from Wikipedia, Discogs & Marv Goldberg)