The Raelettes were a girl group

Girl group

A girl group is a popular music act featuring several young female singers who generally harmonise together.Girl groups emerged in the late 1950s as groups of young singers teamed up with behind-the-scenes songwriters and music producers to create hit singles, often featuring glossy production...

 in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, formed, as their name suggests, to provide backing vocals

Vocal music

Vocal music is a genre of music performed by one or more singers, with or without instrumental accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered instrumental music Vocal music is a genre of...

 for Ray Charles

Ray Charles

Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...

.

Its membership originally consisted of Darlene McCrea, Margie Hendricks, Patricia Lyles, and Gwendolyn Berry. Later members included Mable John

Mable John

Mable John is an American blues vocalist and was the first female signed by Berry Gordy to Motown's Tamla label.- Biography :...

, Merry Clayton

Merry Clayton

Merry Clayton is an American soul and gospel singer , and an actress...

, Clydie King

Clydie King

Clydie Crittendon is an American singer, best known for her session work as a backing vocalist....

, Minnie Riperton

Minnie Riperton

Minnie Julia Riperton was an American singer-songwriter best known for her 1975 single "Lovin' You". She was married to songwriter and music producer Richard Rudolph from 1972 until her death in the summer of 1979. They had two children - music engineer Marc Rudolph and actress/comedienne Maya...

, Susaye Greene

Susaye Greene

Susaye Greene , is an African-American singer, best known for being the last official member to join Motown girl group The Supremes, remaining in the group during its final years of existence from 1976 to 1977.-Early life and career:...

, Beverly LeSure, and Rita Graham who recorded the album 'Rita Graham Vibrations' produced by Ray Charles on his Tangerine label, the only major recording production Ray Charles produced on a single female artist on the Tangerine label. The 1980s' set of Raelettes included Avis Harrell, Madlyne Qubeck, Estella Yarbrough, Trudy Cohran, Pat Peterson and Alexandra 'Alex' Brown, who had a minor hit with the single "(Come On,) Shout", which was featured on the soundtrack of the movie Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Girls Just Want to Have Fun (film)

Girls Just Want to Have Fun is a 1985 dance film starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt, directed by Alan Metter.It resembles the style of Footloose and Flashdance. For many years, Comedy Central, Lifetime, USA Network, Lifetime Movie Network and ABC Family have aired the film...

.

Although they never gained fame for their singles, they had a number of pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 and R&B

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

 hits and several have gone on to promising solo careers. According to the biopic Ray

Ray (film)

Ray is a 2004 biographical film focusing on 30 years of the life of rhythm and blues musician Ray Charles. The independently produced film was directed by Taylor Hackford and starred Jamie Foxx in the title role; Foxx received an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance.Charles was set to...

, before becoming the Raelettes, the group were known as The Cookies

The Cookies

The Cookies were an American R&B girl group in the 1950s to 1960s. Members of the original lineup would later become The Raelettes, the backing vocalists for Ray Charles.-History:...

. The group's name was on occasions also spelled as The Raelets or Raeletts.

Singles

• "One Hurt Deserves Another" (#76 Pop/ #24 R&B))
• "I Want To (Do Everything For You)" (#96 Pop/ #39 R&B)
• "Bad Water" (#58 Pop/ #40 R&B)
• "I've Been Gett'n Long Alright" (#23 R&B)
• "I Want To Thank You" (#47 R&B)0.0.0.
• "Leave My Man Alone"