Joan Marie Johnson, of the Singing Trio the Dixie Cups, Dies at 72

Joan Marie Johnson, a founding member of the musical trio the Dixie Cups, whose hit “Chapel of Love” unseated the Beatles from the top of the Billboard 100 in 1964, died on Sunday at her home in New Orleans. She was 72.

The cause was heart disease, other members of the group said.

The Dixie Cups began when Ms. Johnson invited Barbara Ann Hawkins to sing with her in a high school talent show in New Orleans. “I was on my way to the grocery store and she stopped me and said, ‘I heard you sing,’” Ms. Hawkins said.

Barbara Ann’s sister, Rosa Lee Hawkins, soon joined them. Ms. Johnson later discovered that the Hawkins sisters were her cousins. All had grown up in the city in the Calliope housing project.

The group did not win the talent show, but their harmonizing made an impression on a talent scout in the audience, Ms. Hawkins said. Soon they were in New York signing a recording contract.

The trio found almost immediate success with “Chapel of Love.” It reach the top of the Billboard 100 chart in June 1964, unseating The Beatles’ “Love Me Do.”

It remained there for three weeks and was later covered by the Beach Boys and featured in the soundtracks to the movies “Full Metal Jacket” (1987) and “Father of the Bride” (1991). The group produced other hits, including “Iko Iko” and “People Say,” but none were as popular as “Chapel of Love.”

Ms. Johnson, ill with sickle-cell anemia and frustrated by the trio’s manager, left a few years after the group was formed, Ms. Hawkins said, though in later years they reunited to perform on special occasions.

Ms. Johnson, whose married name was Faust, was divorced and had no children. There was no immediate word on survivors.