The Angels

The Angels scored a chart-topping smash in 1963 with "My Boyfriend's Back," a track that ranks among the handful of definitive girl-group anthems. Built on handclaps, brash lead vocals, playfully exaggerated lyrics, and a backdrop of blaring horns layered with doo-wop harmonies, the record proved irresistible on first hearing yet set an impossibly high standard the trio never again matched, even though they kept releasing singles for years afterward.

Prior to that breakthrough the group had already logged two modest successes, reaching the Top 20 in 1961 with the ballad "'Till" and the Top 40 with its follow-up "Cry Baby Cry." At the time the lineup consisted of sisters Barbara and Phyllis Allbut plus lead vocalist Linda Jansen, and their style leaned toward ornate, harmony-rich doo-wop reminiscent of Little Anthony & the Imperials. Jansen departed late in 1962; Peggy Santiglia stepped in, sharpening the ensemble's overall edge. The following year the Angels began working with the Feldman-Goldstein-Gottehrer songwriting and production team—later responsible for hits by the McCoys and the Strangeloves—who supplied songs and arrangements that echoed the dense, orchestral Wall of Sound dominating radio during the girl-group boom.

Originally recorded merely as a demonstration intended for the Shirelles, "My Boyfriend's Back" impressed its creators enough to become an official Angels release once the group extricated itself from an earlier contract and moved to Smash Records. Although the single proved impossible to duplicate commercially, they still placed three additional tracks on the lower reaches of the charts: "Thank You and Goodnight," "I Adore Him," and "Wow Wow Wee (He's the Boy for Me)." The singers delivered bright, energetic performances that compared favorably with those of other New York-based contemporaries such as the Shirelles, yet they never again found material as instantly compelling as their signature hit, even with a reliable stream of compositions from the Feldman-Goldstein-Gottehrer camp. Throughout the decade they frequently supplied backing vocals on other artists' sessions, most prominently Lou Christie's "Lightnin' Strikes," and they continued issuing their own records without further success into the late 1960s.