100 Greatest Songs of the 60’s #27 The Shirelles – Will You Love Me Tomorrow

Released: 1960

Women having trust issues with men and vice versa goes as far back as the Garden of Eden or something, but for those who don’t dream up stuff in the sky somewhere, right back down on earth it’s been a little old problem too.

The Shirelles – originally called the Poquelles – formed at High School in Passaic, New Jersey and debuted as talent show contestants with a song they’d written specially for the occasion, I Met Him On A Sunday. After their tiny first label Tiara was bought out by Decca in 1959 the quartet were eventually offered a song written by husand and wife team Gerry Goffin and Carole King that pondered an age old question for those who thought twice about living in the moment.

Will You Love Me Tomorrow’s themes were hardly provocative, and lead singer Shirley Owens asked the question with an air of troubled innocence. This didn’t stop it being banned by some outlets for being too suggestive, not that sex, hinted at or not, didn’t sell; it became accordingly the first number one single by an African-American group, and girl group, in Billboard history. Trust should always be earned, but you’ve always got to keep your eye out for snakes, of the literal and metaphorical kind.