#20: Pretty Little Girl by the Monarchs

City: Halifax, NS
Radio Station: CJCH
Peak Month: October 1956
Peak Position in Halifax ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Pretty Little Girl”
Lyrics: “Pretty Little Girl”

The Monarchs were a doo-wop group from New York City.  The members consisted of Arthur Allen, Arthur Kemp, Fred Wells, Robert Galloway, and Robert White. They released a single titled “Wanna Go Home” on Wing Records in 1955. They switched labels to record on Neil Records in 1956. Their first effort was “Always Be Faithful”. Their third single release was “Pretty Little Girl” late summer ’56. A photo of the group at the top of this post features the five members on each side of a table with a manager and his spouse at the back of the table.

All the members of the Monarchs wrote “Pretty Little Girl”. The song is about a guy who wants to go steady, now, with a girl he thinks is the sweetest thing in the world. He promises he won’t take another girl.

“Pretty Little Girl” peaked at #2 in Pittsburgh, and #6 in Boston and Halifax (NS).

The group had one last effort on the Liban label in 1959 with “Love You That’s Why”.

More recently, Tom Locke on his Moments in Time radio show did a spot on two groups both named The Monarchs. Of the group featured in this post who sang “Pretty Little Girl”, Locke wrote “The Monarchs…out of New York were competing with groups like Frankie Lemon and the Teenagers, The Cleftones, The Solitaires, The Harptones and the Five Satins at the time that has been considered to be the height of the Doo Woo era. An original copy of a Monarchs record on the Neil label is extremely rare as this label was only around for a short period of time and had just 7 releases.”

March 29, 2024
Ray McGinnis

References:
“The Monarchs,” discogs.com.

CHCH 920-AM Halifax (NS) Top Ten | October 6, 1956