Dixie Cups: Chapel of Love

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

In today's Arena section of the Wall Street Journal, you'll find my "Anatomy of a Song" column on the Dixie Cups' Chapel of Love (go here). The single was released in April 1964 and went to #1 on Billboard's pop chart in June, knocking the Beatles' Love Me Do out of first place. [Photo above The Dixie Cups circa 1964 in New York. From left, Rosa Hawkins, Barbara Hawkins and Joan Johnson. Photo by James Kriegsmann/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images]

The song was one of the last of the "I love marriage" hits. After Chapel of Love, the tip of the baby-boomer demographic went off to college and social mores shifted. With the rise of the sexual revolution, free love, the women's movement and social acceptance of divorce, marriage was no longer essential for cohabitation—or at least not worth crowing about on the radio.

Instead, while love, dating, breaking up and shacking up continued to be ever-popular themes, the ring thing lost its white-picket veneer. Once boomers discovered that sex was possible without wedlock, marriage became a downer in pop hits. Think Wedding Bell Blues and One Less Bell to Answer. 

The story behind Chapel of Love is a fascinating one and includes quite a cast. I spoke with songwriter Jeff Barry (who wrote the song with Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector), producer Mike Stoller, two of the the original Dixie Cups—sisters Barbara and Rosa Hawkins—and Artie Butler, the songwriter who walked in on the recording session and was asked by Mike to play the wedding chimes. [Photo above, from left, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller]

At one point during my interview with Barbara and Rosa, who were on the road touring, they sang Chapel of Love for me over the phone. They never sounded sweeter! Interestingly, Phil Spector first had Darlene Love record the song, followed by the Ronettes. Both early versions were off as a result of poor arrangements (one had a strip beat while the other had every instrument but the kitchen sink on the session). At least Spector had the good taste to shelve them. [Photo above of Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry with the Dixie Cups, from center, counterclockwise: Barbara Hawkins, Rosa Hawkins and Joan Johnson]

Here are all three versions of Chapel of Love in chronological order:

Here's Darlene Love...

Here are the Ronettes...

And here are the Dixie Cups...

Also in the WSJ this week, my "House Call" interview in the Mansion section with cartoonist Jules Feiffer, who talks about growing up in the Bronx and why he was so eager to leave (go here). [Photo of Jules Feiffer in his home office in East Hampton, N.Y. Photo: Dorothy Hong for The Wall Street Journal]

As for my "Playlist" column in the Review section, I interview Ronda Rousey, the UFC’s mixed martial arts bantamweight champion and author (with her sister, Maria Burns Ortiz) of My Fight/Your Fight, a memoir (go here). During our conversation, I asked Ronda a question that's always been on my mind: what motivates women to fight professionally? There wasn't room to include her answer in the column but I saved it for you:

"It comes from a primal place. Unlike guys, women don't fight because they've had too many drinks. They fight because their life is in danger or their child’s life is in danger, and they throw down. For me, I was always told I was destined for greatness, that I was meant to change the world. Fighting is the only place where everything makes sense to me. Fighting is almost calming. I look across and see the other girl in the ring and everything makes sense. I don’t have any emotions or opinions going on. It's not rage, just a lack of emotion. Like doing math."

Used with permission by Marc Myers