About The Song
The Shirelles were an African-American girl group who formed while they attended high school in Passaic, New Jersey. For a school talent show they performed a doo-wop song they had written, I Met Him on a Sunday. One of their classmates, Mary Jane Greenberg, subsequently introduced the girls to her mother Florence Greenberg, who was the owner of Tiara Records.
Florence signed on as the girls’ manager, and after a short time the Shirelles (an amalgam of Shirley Owens’ first name and the name of another girl group, the Chantels) had I Met Him on a Sunday licensed to Decca Records, where it reached #50 on the Billboard charts. However, Decca dropped them after their next release fared poorly, and Florence Greenberg signed them to her label Scepter Records.
The Shirelles really took off after Greenberg hired songwriter Luther Dixon to work with the group. Their song Tonight’s the Night just barely cracked the Billboard Top 40, but their next release Will You Love Me Tomorrow became the first girl-group song to hit #1. After that the Shirelles became a pop music powerhouse. They re-released a cover of the song Dedicated to the One I Love; in its initial release, with Doris Coley singing lead, it had barely cracked the Top 100, but the re-release peaked at #3 on the charts.
This was rapidly followed by a string of other Shirelles hits. The girls became headliners in rock concerts, and it initially looked like they might continue on top indefinitely; however, the group was in for a string of disappointments. Since the girls were still teenagers, Florence Greenberg assured them that Scepter Records was holding their royalties in trusts that they would receive once they reached 21. After their twenty-first birthday, the Shirelles asked for their royalties, and – April Fool! – the trust did not exist.
The Shirelles were not the first musical group to fall for the “your royalties are being held in a trust” scam, and they would not be the last. They severed their ties with Scepter while suits and counter-suits were filed over the royalties that were owed them. The suit was eventually settled out of court, but The Shirelles were unable to sign with another label during the period of litigation, and they were not able to overcome the combined challenges of the many other girl groups on the scene at that time, compounded by the British Invasion.
Will You Love Me Tomorrow is a remarkably serious and frank song for the pop era circa 1960. A young woman contemplates making love to her boyfriend, but is plagued by concerns that he may discard her if she agrees to have se.x with him.
Video
Lyric
Let’s sing along with the lyrics!
Tonight you’re mine completely
You give your love so sweetly
Tonight the light of love is in your eyes
But will you love me tomorrow?Is this a lasting treasure
Or just a moment’s pleasure?
Can I believe the magic of your sighs?
Will you still love me tomorrow?Tonight with words unspoken
You say that I’m the only one
But will my heart be broken
When the night meets the morning sun?I’d like to know that your love
Is love I can be sure of
So tell me now, and I won’t ask again
Will you still love me tomorrow?So tell me now, and I won’t ask again
Will you still love me tomorrow?
Will you still love me tomorrow?
Will you still love me…