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BOBBETTES
MR. LEE
(Heather Dixon, Helen Gathers, Emma Ruth
Pought, Jannie Pought, Laura Webb)
Atlantic 1144
No. 6 September 23, 1957
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These eight youngsters were attending P.S. 109 at the corner of 99th Street and Second Avenue in
Manhattan in 1955. They met in the glee club, became after-school playmates, and started singing
together as the Harlem Queens. Two years later, they were discovered by James A. Dailey when he
spotted them on Herb Sheldon’s local TV show. Dailey liked their sound, but not that god-awful
name: “Sounded like some female motorcycle gang,” he said. A sister of one of the girls had just
named her baby Chantel Bobbette. Since there was already a “Chantels,” girl group, the girls
decided that they were going to be “The Bobbettes.”
. .
By the time Dailey took control of the group, there were five Bobbettes: baritone Heather Dixon
(b. 1945}, alto Helen Gathers (b. 1944), tenor Laura Webb (b.1943), and the Pought sisters, alto
Emma (b. 1944) and soprano Jannie (b. 1945). One of the tunes they had been toying with was
this ditty about a fifth-grade teacher that they did not exactly dig. Dailey brought the girls and
their “Mr. Lee” song to Atlantic Records. The response was a positive one, but the company
insisted that some of the negative comments about this Mr. Lee fellow would have to be deleted.
.
To the surprise of all, “Mr. Lee” sold 2,000,000 copies. “We didn’t consider ourselves famous
or even talented,” Heather Dixon told Goldmine‘s Jeff Tamarkin. “We were just singing. I think
the record must have been out about six months before we said, ‘Gee,we’re on the radio and in the
jukeboxes!’ ” For the next two years, Atlantic kept issuing new platters by the girls, but nothing
clicked. When not busy touring or attending New York’s Professional School for Children, they
sang back-up for the Five Keys, IVORY JOE HUNTER, Clyde McPlatter, and JOHNNY THUNDER.
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A few singles for Triple-X in 1960 almost restored the Bobbettes’ momentum. In rapid succession,
they hit the Pop charts: “I Shot Mr. Lee” (#52), “Have Mercy Baby (#66) b/w “Dance With Me
George”(#95), and “I Don’t Like It Like That” (#72), their “answer” to CHRIS KENNER’s “I Like It
Like That.”
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Helen Gathers left the group in 1961, and the girls continued on as a quartet. The Bobbettes have
yet to retire. “We have been singing together with the same four girls for 20 years,” Dixon wrote
years back in Yesterday’s Memories.” And we will remain together for another 20, until we are
old and gray, with one thing in our minds: that is to get one more gold record on the top.
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