Street Renaming for the Chantels- Pioneering Bronx Music Group

It is with the greatest pleasure that I offer the enthusiastic support of the scholars and community partners of the Bronx African American History Project for a street sign on 166 Street and Prospect Avenue honoring the pioneering Bronx music group, the Chantels. When the Chantels recorded "Maybe" in 1957, they changed the course of music history. Prior to that time, all of the urban harmonic groups who sold a million records were male. "Maybe" broke the mold. Sung by five 8th graders at St Anthony of Padua Elementary School, the song not only sold a million records, it set in motion the phenomenon of the "Girl Groups," which swept through popular music in the late Fifties and Early Sixties. The Shirelles, the Crystals, the Chiffons, even the Supremes, all followed in a path that the Chantels walked first, Honoring the Chantels with a street sign not only gives this remarkable group the respect they deserve, it will inspire future generations of young people in the Bronx to learn how young people from their community transformed popular music in the US and around the world. Community Board 3 and the City Council have the opportunity to do something extremely important for the Bronx and its people. Naming a street sign after the Chantels will not only honor an important group, it will help secure Morrisania's reputation as a community which produced as many varieties of popular music as any place in the world in the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's

Dr Mark Naison
Founder and Director, Bronx African American History Project