Chapel of Love

1964 American pop song
the London Boys song

"Chapel of Love" is a song written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector, and made famous by The Dixie Cups in 1964, spending three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The song tells of the happiness and excitement the narrator feels on her wedding day, for she and her love are going to the "chapel of love", and "[they'll] never be lonely anymore." Many other artists have recorded the song. It was originally recorded by Darlene Love in April 1963, but her version was not released until 1991. The Dixie Cups' version was the debut release of the new Red Bird Records run by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller along with George Goldner. The Ronettes included the song on their debut album released in November 1964 with production by Phil Spector. In 1973, singer and actress Bette Midler had a moderate hit with a cover of "Chapel of Love".

The song was written in 1963 by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, who had themselves recently married; Barry later said that "the concept of marriage was very much in my head" at the time. It was written for Darlene Love to record, but producer Phil Spector was dissatisfied with her version and it was not released for some years. The Mel Tones – a group of three young women from New Orleans, Barbara Ann Hawkins, Rosa Lee Hawkins, and Joan Marie Johnson – had traveled to New York City with their manager Joe Jones to attempt to get a record deal. They were given the song "Chapel of Love" to sing, and passed an audition with Leiber and Stoller in the Brill Building. The group rehearsed the song with Barry and Greenwich before recording it. The arrangement was by Wardell Quezergue, and Leiber and Stoller added lyrics and some touches to the arrangements. Leiber and Stoller then decided to issue the record as the first release on their own new record label, Red Bird, and changed the group's name to The Dixie Cups. The song was arranged by Joe Jones and produced by Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, Ellie Greenwich, and Jeff Barry. It charted at number one on June 6, 1964, on the Billboard Hot 100 knocking The Beatles out of the number one spot and remained at the top for three weeks. and hit number one in Canada on the RPM Chart. The "Chapel of Love" version by The Dixie Cups sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The song was later included on the soundtrack to films ranging from Full Metal Jacket to Father of the Bride. The hit single recorded by The Dixie Cups was ranked No. 279 on Rolling Stones list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, being the group's only song on the list. Billboard named the song No. 33 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time.