They All Had Their Own Story

 The 50sThe  60s The  70sArticlesConcept Refinement    Home  

It should’ve happened… multiple hits, a massive career, world recognition and all the rest.

 

Storey Sisters

YOU MISSED IT

“He was a bad motherfucker…” screamed the

STOREY SISTERS with trembling and anticipation.

They were Ann and Lillian Storey, two twenty-

something wanna-bees and shoulda-beens. The

band, Baltimore’s Al Browne–later the “creator” of

the Madison dance and hit and the tunes co-author–

was hot.   For all time the tune can be witnessed in the Hairspray flicks. It was a black rocker for the tiny

Peak label. It was cute and tight; suggestive and rock’n roll. Oh, and they weren’t allowed to say that street

term, so the euphemism used was “BAD MOTORCYCLE,” and the label read: by The Twinkles. Finding the

disk was difficult and airplay was shunned by those knowledgeable to what was implied in the song. Sales

were moving on the East Coast, especially when the newly created Cameo/Parkway (soon to be known for

all those dance records by Chubby Checker, Dee Dee Sharpe, and the Dovells) acquired the tune—though

changing the credits on the label to the Storey Sisters–for more of a nationwide distribution. For a moment

the disk was top 40 in Chicago.

“I was on my way to school/When a fellow I did meet/He took me by the hand/And he told me I was

sweet/And I knew by the way he spoke/He was a bad motorcycle, voon, voon, voon”

Cameo records failed for whatever reasons to issue a follow-up record by the excitables. The locally

significant Baton label in New York City let the young ladies record one single, “ Cha Cha Boom” and the

play game was over.

Reportedly, Lillian story is now 90 years of age.