Arlene Smith, the lead singer of the Chantels whose soaring vocal on the 1958 hit "Maybe" helped define the sound of early rock and roll, has died at 84. Her manager and close friend, Paul Errante, confirmed her death to The Associated Press. Smith died of a heart attack on a Wednesday at a New York City hospital, according to the AP report syndicated by ABC News. (ABC News)

Smith co-wrote "Maybe" and sang lead on the recording, which reached the Top 20 and sold more than a million copies. The song's credits initially left her name off — a fact the AP noted in its obituary. Janis Joplin later covered "Maybe," bringing the song to a new generation of listeners.

The Chantels began singing together in the early 1950s at St. Anthony of Padua School in the Bronx. The original lineup was Smith, Sonia Goring, Renée Minus, Jackie Landry, and Lois Harris. They were teenagers when they started harmonizing in the school choir, and they carried that church-rehearsed blend into a recording career that placed them among the first girl groups to land a national hit.

Smith left the Chantels in 1959, around the time their record label, End Records, went bankrupt. The group was later voted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2002.

After stepping away from the group, Smith built a second career far from the spotlight. She earned a master's degree in education and taught music to elementary school students in New York City public schools. She retired from teaching in the 2000s, according to the AP. Errante told the wire service that Smith never married or had children.

Smith's birthday was October 5. She was born in 1941, making her 84 at the time of her death.

What stays with listeners is that voice — a teenager from the Bronx singing a song she helped write, landing a sound that radio would not let go of. "Maybe" sold a million copies before most of the industry knew what to call what these young women were doing. Joplin, who never met a great vocal she did not want to learn from, made it her own a decade later. The Chantels' church-choir harmonies and Smith's lead became a template that later girl groups built on through the 1960s and beyond.

Errante, her manager, was also described as a close friend. No additional survivors were named in the AP report.