05/03/2026
Rusty told me this story, I loved it. How about you?
"My favorite group to work with was the Shirelles. One singer had left but the three remaining were original and they were great. Most of these groups had charts of their songs they brought with them and they were usually pretty generic. I usually did chord charts ahead of time just to be ready and most of the guys couldn’t read music anyway. We were fooling around at rehearsal and we ran down one of my charts and one of the girls said that’s the original key and we wound up using my charts. We were playing a fair way in the mountains of eastern Ky. And Joey Dee and the Star-lighters were supposed to appear but canceled and the Shireles got the call at the last minute. I was a little concerned about how that would work, mountain folk can get pretty upset if they don’t get what they are expecting. No problem, Doris, Mickey, and Beverly Lee won them over right from the get go. The show was in a big circus tent and it had been raining for two days. Sand had been dumped on the ground but it was soaked, the Shirelles wore really fancy hi-heels and long dresses and there was a young boy in the crowd in a wheelchair. The Shirelles trudged down off the stage and went up to that kid and sang to him, and the crowd went wild. They could have ended the show right there and the crowd would have been delirious. But they went on and finished out the show and it was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. I want to add that the Shirelles were the first successful girl group in rock’n’roll, but they had a lot of soul. Every night when I’d hit the opening
chord and the singer would go “This Is Dedicated To The One I Love” it was so soulful I had to remember to play the next chord."
-Rusty Ends, Rusty Ends & HillBilly HooDoo
