The Jelly Beans

The Jelly Beans (Jersey City, NJ)

Personnel :

Charles Thomas

Alma Brewer

Diane Taylor

Elyse Herbert

Maxine Herbert

Discography :

Singles :

1964 - I Wanna Love Him so bad / So Long (Red Bird 10 003)

1964 - The Kind Of Boy You Can't Forget / Baby Be Mine (Red Bird 10 011)
1965 - I'm Hip To You / You Don't Mean No Good To Me (Eskee 001)

Unreleased :

1964 - Chapel Of Love (Red Bird)
1964 - Here She Comes (Red Bird)

1964 - Ain't Love A Funny Thing  (Red Bird) 

1964 - Whisper Sweet Things (Red Bird) 

1964 - Goodnight Baby (Red Bird)
1964 - Do Wah Diddy (Red Bird)

Biography :

The Jelly Beans were a mixed voice quintet (later a quartet) comprised of one man (Charles Thomas) and four women (Alma Brewer, Diane Taylor, Elyse Herbert, Maxine Herbert) who got together while attending high school in Jersey City, NJ. That was where their manager discovered them in 1963, and he brought them to the attention of songwriters Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, who were starting up a record label, Red Bird, in association with End/Gone Records founder George Goldner.

  The group was put into the hands of songwriters Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, then near the peak of their output together, who gave them "I Wanna Love Him So Bad." The third single issued by Red Bird, it reached number ten on the Billboard charts. The Jelly Beans' second single, "Baby Be Mine," didn't reach the Top 50, however, and although The Jelly Beans left behind enough songs for an album.

Despite the hit songs, Red Bird dropped the group in early 1965 and no Jelly Beans album was ever released until the1990s. By 1964, Red Bird had bigger acts to worry about, including The Shangri-Las and The Dixie Cups, and the group was gone from the label by the end of that year.  

The group, now pared down to a trio consisting of Elyse, Maxine, and Alma, released one more single for Eskee, the brooding "You Don’t Mean Me No Good" but it didn't garner much play despite it’s harder hitting sound. The Jelly Beans had broken up by 1965.


Songs :

   
The Kind Of Boy You Can't Forget         I Wanna Love Him so bad         You Don't Mean Me No Good

    
So Long                                           Baby Be Mine                                  I'm Hip To You

   
Do Wah Diddy                                     Ain't Love A Funny Thing                     Chapel Of Love

     
Goodnight Baby                          Here She Comes                       Whisper Sweet Things