“Where do all the Hippies Meet? South Street! South Street!” sang The Orlons in 1963 in a song that reached #3 on US Pop charts at the time. This old school R&B song rings true 62 years after its release!
According to the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, “The South Street that the Orlons sang about in 1963 as ‘the hippest street in town’ represented another phase in the street’s long and colorful history. The emergence of South Street as a countercultural center in the 1960s was an indirect result of government plans announced in the 1950s to build a crosstown expressway along the South Street corridor that would link the I-95 and Schuylkill expressways. With the demolition of much of South Street imminent in the late 1950s and early 1960s, property values declined significantly and the area became a low-rent haven for bohemians and artists.”
Somehow South Street has remained an underdog story for more than 50 years. The Black quartet of Stephen Caldwell, Shirley Brickley, Marlena Davis, and Rosetta Hightower formed at Overbrook High School. Overbrook has been operable since the 1920s, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, and was home to notable alumni like Will Smith and Wilt Chamberlain.
Living in Philadelphia you are constantly reminded of our distant past, things like the Liberty Bell, the Constitution Center, or Ben Franklin’s grave. But right now there are teenagers walking the same halls that Wilt the Stilt walked, students attend the school Will Smith attended before he moved in with auntie and uncle in Bel-Air, and there are students singing in the hallways where the Orlons formed their group.
This song is ripe for a house remix or a hip-hop sample. Who has the guts to do it?
Hats off to The Orlons, a Philadelphia treasure and this week’s Philly Song of the Week!
Philly Plain Dealer 
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