The Dixie Cups

The Dixie Cups are an American all-girl R&B pop vocal outfit from New Orleans, LA. The original band members were Barbara Ann Hawkins, her sister Rosa Lee Hawkins and their cousin, Joan Marie Johnson. The trio started out singing together in grade school. They initially planned on calling themselves "Little Miss and the Muffets" and began performing locally as The Meltones in 1963. The threesome was discovered at a talent show by singer/producer Joe Jones, who became their manager and introduced them to the legendary producer/songwriter team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller at New York City's Brill Building. Jones got the group a contract with Leiber and Stoller's Red Bird Records. They were renamed The Dixie Cups just prior to recording their first single, "Chapel of Love", which proved to be a huge smash in 1964; the extremely catchy and charming tune was a #1 hit for three weeks in a row on the Billboard radio pop charts and went on to sell a million copies.

The group had follow-up hits in the mid-'60s with "People Say" (#12), "You Should Have Seen the Way He Looked At Me" (#39), a delightfully sprightly rendition of the classic New Orleans R&B standard "Iko Iko" (#20) and "Little Bell" (#51). The group switched to the ABC-Paramount label in 1966 and took a temporary hiatus from the music industry that same year. They got back together a few years later with the Hawkins sisters and Dale McMickle replacing Joan Marie Johnson. Mickle eventually left and was replaced by Althelgra Neville. The group won the Pioneer Award from the Rhythm & Blues Foundation in 2003 and was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2007. The Dixie Cups still continue to tour and perform in concert on a regular basis.