Shirelles Back in Medford for Oldies Night

May 8 Concert to Benefit Medford Voke-Tech

Medford resident Joe Viglione wrote the following article about the Shirelles in 2004 when they performed at the Chevalier Theatre. Shirley Allston Reeves and the Shirelles will be back in Medford on Saturday, May 8 along with Charlie Thomas and the Drifters, Jay Siegel and the Tokens, and the Toys with Barbara Harris for a benefit concert for the Medford Vocational Technical High School.

Original Shirelles lead singer comes to Medford’s Chevalier Theater

By Joe Viglione

The Chevalier Theater is spectacular concert hall which in the past has hosted a speech by John F. Kennedy as well as performances by name acts ranging from Lou Rawls to Frank Sinatra.

The impressive room contains 2,061 seats, with 711 of them located on the Grande Balcony, perfect sight lines from anywhere in the house and acoustics that are superb. Few in Medford – let alone Massachusetts – realize that this hall is the sixth largest theater in the Metropolitan Boston area. As our city is located about five miles north of Boston proper there is every reason why the Chevalier can and should be one of the premiere concert halls in New England. That won’t happen without the support of the community. The Medford Civic Auditorium & Convention Center Commission – known simply as “The Commission” – is working diligently to bring about renewed awareness of this venue to the people of Medford and recognition to those who live and work beyond the city limits. How many of the estimated 56,000 people that live in our community have ever been in the auditorium located on 30 Forest Street, right next to the Medford Post Office?

People have to appreciate the historical importance of this room; a victim of the 1965 Medford High School fire which has stood the test of time and defied the flames. You can read more about the history on the Chevalier’s web page, www.chevaliertheater.com, where some of this information was obtained. Booking agent Warren Scott, President of Boston Event Works, and the company’s V.P., Kevin Baker, praised the Commission when this writer again had the pleasure of being at the facility this October.

John Costas is a member of that commission and walked in on Friday, October 29 with a huge poster for the upcoming November 13  appearance of pioneering female vocalist Shirley Allston Reeves. These people definitely have a passion for the room and are working overtime to insure that the venue, placed on the National Register of Historical Places, generates interest and business to keep it vibrant for current and future generations of Medford residents.  The room needs the support of the community to survive.

Which brings us back to Shirley Alston Reeves, the woman whose name was combined with that of the group “The Chantels” to create a title for her visionary all-female band -“Shir” from Shirley and “els” from Chantels – expanded to create The Shirelles! This is the second chapter in the Chevalier’s “The Women Of Doo Wop” series which began with The Marvelettes performing in the room on October 15.

Artists I’ve spoken with ask if the room was named after Maurice Chevalier – in fact, they feel comfortable playing a room that boasts the name of that veteran of stage and screen. The truth is – according to theater’s website – that “the Theater was dedicated (upon its completion in 1940) to Godfrey de Courcelles Chevalier, a resident of Medford who had distinguished himself in World War I as a naval hero and aviation pioneer.” What better way to respect Godfrey de Courcelles Chevalier than to support the shows coming into the room – starting with some of the greatest hits of the early sixties by the woman who originally sang them!

Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “Baby It’s You” went Top 10 for Shirley in 1962 and is such a phenomenal tune that it was covered by “The Beatles” and landed back on the charts seven years later, Top 5, for Gayle McCormack’s group “Smith” in 1969. “Tomorrow” was a song by the great Carole King and her first husband, Gerry Goffin. Re-titled “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” it was Allston Reeves’ first #1 chart topper after success with “I Met Him On A Sunday” (written by all four members of the original Shirelles) and the great “Tonight’s The Night.” The hits came fast and furious – “Dedicated To The One I Love” went Top 3 in 1961 – a re-release by the group which actually went Top 100 in 1959 (and inspired The Mamas & The Papas), “Mama Said” went Top 5 also in 1961, while “Soldier Boy” brought the group back to #1 in 1962, an appropriate song forty-two years later with the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“Everybody Loves A Lover,” “Foolish Little Girl” and other songs – twelve going into the Top 40, about twenty titles hitting the R & B charts- make for a set that is going to be as much fun for this writer as it was when I first saw the singer in the 1970s at the Boston Garden and in the 1980s at Faces in Cambridge. Shirley has lots of familiar material, the Beatles insured that even Shirelles album tracks like “Boys” became well known tunes, and another mainstay of the British Invasion, Manfred Mann, picked up on their “Sha La La” and brought it some popularity.

Tickets are $29, $39, and $49 and are available on www.TicketMaster.com.