Arlene Smith, Lead Singer and Co-Founder of The Chantels, Dies at 84

Arlene Smith, an original member of The Chantels who wrote and sang the lead on the R&B girl group’s classic 1957 hit, “Maybe,” has died. She was 84.

Smith had been in and out of the hospital and died Wednesday of natural causes at a rehabilitation center in her hometown of New York City, her friend Matt Beckoff told The Hollywood Reporter.

Born on Oct. 5, 1941, Smith had received classical training and performed at age 12 at Carnegie Hall when she and Lois Harris, Sonia Goring, Jackie Landry and Renée Minus auditioned for record producer Richard Barrett, a member of the doo-wop group The Valentines.

The teenagers had been singing together for years in the choir of Saint Anthony of Padua on Prospect Avenue and 166th Street in the Bronx.

They were signed in summer 1957 by End Records, and their first single, “He’s Gone” — written by Smith about a boyfriend while she was practicing piano — peaked at No. 71 on the Billboard Hot 100 that August.