The Opals

The Opals – Female vocal group. Consisting of four (and sometimes three) teenage girls in East Chicago, the Opals – sometimes without getting recording credit – backed other singers and released some singles of their own, although never making a name for themselves outside of the Chicago area. Mickey McGill of the Dells (a very popular doo-wop group from the Chicago area) discovered the girls while they were singing at Steve’s Chicken Shack in Gary. After McGill introduced the Opals to Calvin Carter of Vee-Jay Records, they became the “Shoop Shoop Girls” (back-up singers) for Betty Everett’s “It’s in his Kiss,” a major hit of 1963. The back-up vocals on “It’s in his Kiss” exemplify the great talent of the forgotten Opals. From 1963 to 1965, the Opals went on to release three singles without producing a hit record, even though heavy hitters like Curtis Mayfield, Billy Butler and members of the Dells (Mickey McGill and Verne Allison) were among their songwriters. Around the same time, the Opals backed recording artists Otis Leavill and Major Lance. Members of the Opals included Rosie Addison, Rose E. Kelley, Myra Tillotson, and Betty Blackmon.