All Hail Arlene Smith! Let the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame Prostate Fall!

Arlene Smith, the powerful lead vocalist behind the Chantels' seminal 1958 classic "Maybe," had a voice good enough to be accepted into the fabled Julliard School of Music. Still, she kept a foot in the pop music business, recording as a soloist for a young Phil Spector and performing background vocals on a number of sessions.



But perhaps the real essence of Smith lies not in her overlooked contributions to popular music, but what she does outside the business. A school teacher by day, she devotes a lot of her outside time and energies to after-school programs for disadvantaged youth. Perhaps this little-known fact about her reveals more about her than anything she waxed on vinyl.