Barbara Harris started singing in her hometown
churches at an early age and moved to
Queens,
New York City, when she was 11 years old. In high school, she joined a band with four other young singers: Barbara Parritt (later Toomer), June Montiero, Betty Stokes and Betty Blocker. Stokes and Blocker eventually left the group, so Harris, Parritt and Montiero formed a
trio. Their friend Bobby Uri, a
manager, named the band
The Charlettes, making them work doing background vocals for several recording artists. At a talent show in
Brooklyn, they met Eddy Chase, who in turn introduced them to manager Vince Marc and songwriter/recording executive
Bob Crewe. The group was then named
The Toys and landed their first recording contract on Crewe's
DynoVoice Records. Marc introduced them also to songwriters
Sandy Linzer and
Denny Randell. The couple wrote most of the songs the trio recorded. They took a piano piece from a
Bach exercise book (
"Minuet in G major" by
Christian Petzold), put a
Motown bassline to it, and "
A Lover's Concerto" was born: it was released in 1965 and soon rose to No. 2 on the U.S.
Billboard Hot 100. The band followed that up with another hit, "Attack!", also written by Linzer and Randell: released in 1966, it reached the Top 20. The songwriters also produced the group's 1965–66 recordings on the DynoVoice
record label. The first U.S.
tour of the trio was with
Gene Pitney. Barbara Harris continued to perform on public television and at "Oldie Shows" as
The Toys featuring Barbara Harris. She has also sung with Joe Rivers, known for
Johnnie & Joe's hit, "
Over the Mountain, Across the Sea". In 1998, she produced and released her first solo CD, entitled
Barbara Now, for which she wrote all but two of the songs. In 2016, she released the singles "Forever Spring" and "(Rock 'n' Roll) Soothes The Soul". ==Members==