Something Good! Cookies and More!

Earl-Jean McCrea

Earl-Jean was born Earl-Jean McCrea in 1942 in Brooklyn, New York.  Her family moved to North Carolina when Earl-Jean was only two but returned by the time she entered her teenage years.  Right after high school she would marry Grant Reavis at the age of 18.

Original Cookies

Her older sister, Darlene, was a founding member of the Cookies who formed in 1954 and recorded on the Atlantic record label.  That group would be invited by Ray Charles to become his backing group and in 1958 would become the “Raelets.

By 1961, Darlene had departed the Raelettes  and would put together a new line-up of Cookies bringing in her kid sister Earl-Jean.  The group would come to the attention of song writing husband and wife team Gerry Goffin and Carole King inking a contract with Dimension Records in 1962.

According to a book written by Sheila Weller “Girls Like Us”, Earl-Jean would become pregnant while with the Cookies, the baby allegedly fathered by Goffin who was still married to Carole at the time.

After giving birth, Earl-Jean would leave the Cookies who by that time had scored four Hot 100 listings,  As a solo act, Earl-Jean would release another Goffin/King single “I’m Into Something Good” in the Spring of 1964 which would peak at number 34 for her.  Later that year Brit invaders Herman’s Hermits would take the song into the Top 20 – their debut in the U.S., hitting number 13.

There would be one more Goffin/King recording shot for Earl-Jean but it would go nowhere.  Next, Earl-Jean would join Cookie teammates Dorothy Jones and Margaret Ross releasing two more Goffin/King singles in 1964/1965.  The girls would record under additional girl-group names as well.

Apparently when hard times fell on the singer, Gerry and Carole assisted her financially.  She would eventually open her own day care center and would become a early childhood specialist.

Honey Bees – Palisades – The Stepping Stones – The Cinderellas

Earl-Jean/Cookies/Plus Selected Discography

45 Cookies – Dimension – Chains – Number 17 Hot 100 – Number 6 R&B b/w Stranger In My Arms – December, 1962

45 Cookies – Dimension – Don’t Say Nothin’ Bad (About My Baby) – Number 7 Hot 100 – Number 3 R&B b/w Softly In the Night – March, 1963

45 Palisades – Chariman – Make the Night A Little Longer b/w Heaven Is Being With You – March, 1963

45 Stepping Stones – Philips – I Got My Job Through the New York Times b/w The Nearness Of You – May, 1963

45 Cookies – Dimension – Girls Grow Up Faster Than Boys – Number 33 Hot 100 – Number 18 R&B b/w Only To Other People – November, 1963

45 Cinderellas – Dimension – Please Don’t Wake Me b/w Baby Baby (I Still Love You) – March, 1964

45 Earl-Jean – Colpix – I’m Into Something Good Number 38 Hot 100 b/w We Love and Learn – June, 1964

45 Cookies – Dimension – I Never Dreamed b/w The Old Crowd – June, 1964

45 Earl-Jean – Colpix – Randy b/w They’re Jealous Of Me – September, 1964

45 Honey Bees – Fontana – One Wonderful Night b/w She Don’t Deserve You – October, 1964

45 Honey Bees – Fontana – You Turn Me On Boy b/w Some Of Your Lovin’ – April, 1965

45 Cookies (without Earl-Jean) – Warner Bros. – Wounded b/w All My Trials – May, 1967

LP – Dimension – The Dimension Dolls Volume 1 – May, 1962

CD LP – Sequel UK – The Complete Cookies – 1994

CD LP – RPM Retrodisc UK – Chains/The Dimension Links – 2009

With tracks by the Cookies – Cinderellas – Palisades – Honey Bees and Earl-Jean