Career
She is best known for her novelty hits "The Nitty Gritty" (1963) (United States no 8), "The Name Game" (1964) (United States no 3) and "The Clapping Song" (1965) (United States no 8 and United Kingdom no 6). "The Clapping Song" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. By 1954 she had written two songs which were recorded by The Chords.
Ellis was originally in the group The Metronomes and she went on to marry the lead singer, Alphonso Elliston.
Ellis had recording contracts with the Kapp Records subsidiary Congress and later Columbia and Bell, but retired from the music industry in 1968. Of her hits have been recorded by Madeline Bell, The Belle Stars, Laura Branigan, Aaron Carter, Gary Glitter, Ricardo Ray, Pia Zadora, Southern Culture on the Skids, Gladys Knight and the Pips (a version of "The Nitty Gritty", produced by Norman Whitfield) as well as a 1980s high energy dance version of The Name Game by actor and personality "Divine" aka.
Harris Glenn Milstead. In addition, her song "Soul Time" was sampled by the United Kingdom band, The Go! Team for their single "Bottle Rocket".