Rockin' 'n' rollin' with the play 'Baby It's You'

After writing, directing, or producing a number of A-list movies, from “Freebie and the Bean” to “Dick Tracy,” Floyd Mutrux decided to step away from Hollywood. From the film industry, anyway.

He turned to his love of music and wrote six anthologies of American pops, including one based on rock 'n' roll’s first black all-girl group, The Shirelles. That play, “Baby It’s You,” opens tonight at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Mutrux directs the show. He told KPCC’s Steve Julian the story begins in 1958 and revolves around Florence Greenberg.

"She was smart," said Mutrux. "She was cool. She was smooth. And she knew what she liked."

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Greenberg and her husband had moved from New York City to idyllic Passaic, New Jersey. He still commuted in, but Florence was bored.

"She started to hear her teenage daughters’ music on the radio," said Mutrux. "Her daughter started listening to this disk jockey named Alan Freed who came from Cleveland. He used the term 'Alan Freed’s Rock 'n' Roll Show.' Rock 'n' roll is a black term. BB King said, 'When this nasty little thing called rhythm ’n’ blues met this sexy lady called Rockabilly, they got together one night and had a baby and named it Rock 'n' Roll."

Greenberg was tired of being a B-plus housewife and longed for being an A-plus... something. What, she wasn’t sure. Then she got an offer to work for the company that published Elvis Presley’s music.

Soon after she began, her youngest daughter had her listen to some girls at school, and Florence Greenberg discovered The Shirelles. One quick hit, then two flops, and Decca dropped the group. Florence was about to give up.

"Then this cat named Luther Dixon walks into her office, a black cat, who had written a white-for-life song called 'Sixteen Candles,'" said Mutrux. "They met. Sparks. Boom. She wrote 'Tonight’s the Night.' They re-released 'Dedicated,' boom, hit machine. 'Soldier Boy.' 'Mama Said.'"

The Shirelles enjoyed a few years of great success, but by 1970, America’s cultural and musical tastes had changed. Still, Florence Greenberg thrived. Early on she signed Burt Bacharach and Hal David, BJ Thomas, and Dionne Warwick.

"She was, for sure, the most important woman in the history of rock 'n' roll."

You can see the rest of her story, and hear a couple dozen of her songs, in Baby It’s You. The show opens at 8 tonight at the Pasadena Playhouse.