The Influence of Religious Music on Rock and Roll

The Chantelles were a New York group, and it's notable that they were far more likely to have been influenced by Catholic or Episcopalian liturgical music. This may go some way towards explaining Johnnie Otis' observation that all the LA vocal groups in you had pitching problems, while the New York groups could sing in tune. So they were R&B singers, but the fact that these were Catholic school girls, specifically, points to something about how their music developed.