Lead Singer of ’50s Girl Group Dies at 84 After Heart Attack

Bill Tompkins / Getty Images Arlene Smith, the lead vocalist of the all-female doo-wop group the Chantels, died on July 29 at age 84. Smith’s death in a hospital in the Bronx, where she was born, was caused by a heart attack, her manager and friend, Paul Errante, confirmed. The original five-member lineup of the Chantels formed in the early 1950s, with Smith and four of her Bronx schoolmates. Their second single, 1957’s “Maybe,” is the group’s most well-known song and a doo-wop staple that…