The Paris Sisters are one of the most influential acts in music. The trio began as a close harmony group in the 1950s. In 1961, the trio decided to make a stylistic change and work in a more modern style. Priscilla sings lead while the other sisters contribute background sounds. The Paris Sisters were formed as a 1960s girl group after they copied the 1940s group, the Andrews Sisters. The Andrews Sisters were actually the ones who gave the Paris Sisters their first professional boost in show business. Their mother strategically placed their daughters in the audience for every matinee Andrews performance at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco in 1954. They wore the same clothes and followed their mother’s instructions, sitting there singing the Andrews songs. Priscilla recalled that their mother said to them, “At their closing matinee [the Andrews Sisters],” “Who are those girls always sitting on the front row?” Our mom, who was a great example of courage, took us backstage and met them. Albeth, Sherrell, and Priscilla were invited to perform on stage by the Andrews Sisters. The Paris Sisters were signed by an MCA agent who was in the audience. The sisters had been performing as non-professionals since the 1940s. For seven years, they were a professional dance troupe that combined comedy, dancing and other elements. They performed at fairs, USO tours and Vegas. Decca Records signed them a recording contract. The trio recorded nearly all of their singles with Decca Records in a style similar to that of the McGuire Sisters. Their stylistic change came in 1961, when their mother, an ex-opera singer and “a very assertive little lady,” Sherrell said in a later-day interview, put them in touch with Lester Sill, a record label owner. His protege was Phil Spector, and they were searching for unusual sounds or groups. Phil visited our house one day, interviewed us, and then had us each sing individually. That was it. We started recording with Phil. The group was completely restructured by Spector. Suddenly, instead blazing out a song, Priscilla began to whisper the lyrics, a style Walter Winchell described as the sexiest he had ever seen. Albeth, Sherrell, and other members of the group were relegated, somewhat reluctantly, to a supporting role. The 1990 magazine interview of the sisters was titled “They Had America’s Most Popular Single and the World’s Best Record Producer!” They Nearly Died from the Experience. Spector was the producer. The single was one of his earliest hits, I Love How You Love Me’. The recording was, in typical Spectorian fashion, so expensive that neither the Sisters nor the three other hits they made with Spector at Gregmark Records made any money. Spector was also working on a Paris Sisters album and was involved in a dispute with Sill about the increasing cost of the project. Sill claims that the next incident occurred when an assistant accidentally destroyed the master tapes. Other accounts, gathered over time by knowledgeable witnesses, suggest that the events were less accidental. Whatever the reason for the destruction of the tapes, Spector split with Sill, Gregmark and shortly thereafter, the Sisters were expelled from the label. The trio were able to get back on their feet with some luck. They performed and recorded three more albums. In 1967, they released ‘The Paris Sisters sing Every Under The Sun!’, which some consider the greatest Phil Spector LP. Jimmy Bowen was in charge of the Wall-Of-Soundalike recording, which Jack Nitzsche, a Spector veteran, arranged. However it was not a success. The Paris Sisters split shortly after “Sing Everything” due to tensions that resulted from 20 years of subordinating individual talents and personalities to the benefit of the group. Priscilla left the group and released three solo LPs: ‘Priscilla Loves Bill’ (1967), ‘Priscilla sings herself’ (1978) and Love Is …’ (1978). The first and last LPs were all her songs. Albeth and Sherrell performed, but they never again reached the same level of fame as the Paris Sisters. Priscilla Paris suffered facial paralysis in the late 1970s after an accident. After a time, she stopped singing and experienced severe depression. She “accidentally” (her words) found herself in Paris, France during that time. She fell in love, went to school there, and later started her own company, Telamerique. It was a training business that taught hotel workers in France how to communicate with English-speaking tourists. “I am at the right place at right time. All the things I did in my life that were disjointed have fallen into place. Plus. . It’s my favorite thing! In 1990, she spoke to an interviewer. In small Parisian clubs, she sang occasionally. Friday, March 5, was the day that Priscilla (the youngest of the Paris Sisters) died in France. It was the result of a falling. She was 59 years old. Plans were already in place for a professional reunion between the Sisters, shortly before her sudden passing. Albeth Paris and Sherrell Paris will most likely agree that Priscilla with her unmistakable voice in pop music is simply… irreplaceable. Two sons survived her. bio by www.spectropop.com
