“Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” by The Shirelles

Gerry Goffin wrote the words, Carole King wrote the music, and in 1960 the Shirelles made the first recording of "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow", cutting it for their debut album, Tonight's the Night. Scepter put it out as a single that November with "Boys" on the flip, and it took them to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, the first time a girl group had got there. The first pressing called it simply "Tomorrow".

Lead singer Shirley Owens balked at first, hearing it as too country, and only came round once a string arrangement was added. With Paul Griffin on piano and Gary Chester on drums, it became a swaying, aching plea built on the question in its title, and some radio stations banned it, judging the words too sexually charged. That undercurrent is exactly why it still stings.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.