[7] Brill Building songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil's "Uptown" gave the girls their second radio hit.

Having an ethnic flavor with flamenco guitar and castanets, the more uptempo "Uptown" featured Alston once again emoting convincingly over a boy, though this time with class issues woven into the story.

The controversial subject matter of the next single, 1962's "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)" (written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin and sung by Alston), resulted in limited airplay with the track only "bubbling under" the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 123.

However, Thomas had departed to get married, only to join another mildly successful group, the Butterflys, along with another original Crystal, Myrna Giraud.

Alston, known for her shyness and stage fright, was never comfortable with being out front, stepped down from the lead spot giving it to Dolores "LaLa" Brooks.

"Then He Kissed Me" soared to number 2 in the UK,[20] and the Crystals also headlined the TV programs Ready Steady Go!, and Tonight at the London Palladium.

Already unhappy with having been replaced by Love and the Blossoms on two singles recordings, the Crystals were even more upset when Spector began focusing much of his time on his other girl group the Ronettes.

"Little Boy", which reached number 92,[21] was a Wall of Sound production that was layered multiple times, which meant that the vocals were hard to distinguish from the music.

She was replaced by Frances Collins (aka Fatima Johnson), a dancer whom they had met while touring and mother of the rapper Prodigy.

As a trio, they recorded two singles for United Artists, "My Place"/"You Can't Tie a Good Girl Down" (Sep 1965) and "Are You Trying To Get Rid Of Me Baby"/"I Got A Man" (Feb 1966).

One more single was released by Alston, Brooks and Thomas on the tiny Michelle Records in 1967 ("Ring-A-Ting-A-Ling"/"Should I Keep On Waiting") and they disbanded later that year.

After living in Europe for two decades, Brooks returned to the US in 2001 and, as of 2022, performs under her own name across the world, and as the Crystals in the UK and Canada, where she holds the trademark rights to the name.

[6][22][23] "Then He Kissed Me" was the opening song to which Elisabeth Shue danced around her bedroom in Adventures in Babysitting (1987); it was the song in which Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco enter the Copacabana on their first real date in the movie Goodfellas (1990); it was featured during the episode 'Homer and Marge Turn a Couple Play' on The Simpsons (2006); it was also featured in the episode 'Stand By Meg' on Family Guy (2018).