I know you're probably saying, "wait, doesn't the title of this video read 'The Blue Belles'?" And it clearly does but despite what the title says and its record billing, it was not recorded by that group at all.

The actual group was the Starlets. They already had a hit called "Better Tell Him No" that was a hit for them in '61.

The story behind why this was credited to Patti's group was Harold Robinson, president of Bluebell Records and its Newtown subsidiary, had the group record the song in the garage of his car lot. Because the Starlets, who were based in Chicago, recorded for Pam Records, Harold decided to credit the song to a different group.

In walk the Ordettes (who had changed their name to the Blue Belles). Apparently, Harold decided against his better judgment to get these inexperienced group of youngsters to promote the recording and for some reason it worked: the song reached #15 on the Billboard Hot 100. And they appeared on TV lip-syncing to the song on "American Bandstand".

A mystery still ensues about who was on what but I think it could be argued that none of the Blue Belles were even on this record as the lead vocalist didn't quite have Patti's own unique vocal styling of that time period.

After it became a hit, the Starlets and their manager sued Harold Robinson for royalties and damages for releasing the song as a fraud. A judge who viewed the case agreed that this was a commitment of fraud and Harold settled it by giving each of the Starlets about $5,000. However, this wasn't enough to get the Starlets into performing more and recording, so they split up in 1963.

It can be said had it not been for the doo-wop version of this song and Harold Robinson's cunning ways, there probably wouldn't have been no Patti LaBelle. Also, she was still Patricia Holte up until after this song's success. She didn't become "Patti La Belle" until 1963 and this was due to Harold being forced to change his group's name so they just became "Patti La Belle and Her Blue Belles" because "it matched".

[Edited 7/29/12 16:09pm]