The Less Obvious List: Girl Groups

 

The Girl Group era produced some of the greatest and most enduring pop music ever.  No doubt about that.  "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", "The Leader of the Pack", "Be My Baby", "Tell Him", "The Loco-Motion", "It's My Party", I Only Want to be With You", "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Do Wah Diddy".  The list of classic pop songs in the genre is literally endless.  Nonetheless, in any era and genre, there always are a select few of the should've been kind.  And this here is my Girl Groups "Less Obvious" shortlist then. 

 

 

The Flirtations/"Nothing But a Heartache" (1968)  

 

Failed U.S. Girl Group The Flirtations emigrated to the U.K. in a desperate last ditch attempt at a commercial success.  And, after having met up with Scouse writing/production team Wayne Bickerton and Tony Waddington, formerly of the Pete Best Four and much later a successful songwriting duo behind the '70s success of The Rubettes, and brother-sister act Mac and Katie Kissoon, their "Sounds Like The Flirtations" LP was recorded and released to a lukewarm public response.  However, containing a classic of monumental portions in the single cut "Nothing But a Heartache", a semi-legendary status was assured...albeit 40 years later.  A soundtrack to a KFC TV advert in 2008 cemented just that.  Still, generally - in spite of that KFC thing, it's boggling just how little known this gem remains.

 



 

 

Beverley/"Happy New Year" (1966)

 

Beverley Kutner was an up-and-coming Brit songstress when she recorded this little ditty by then a little known U.S. songwriter named Randy Newman, backed by the likes of Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones.  Later on she married - and recorded with - John Martyn.  The stellar Brit-girl-pop of "Happy New Year" was the inaugural release on Decca's Deram subsidiary in 1966. 

 

 

 

 

Jackie DeShannon/"Backstreet Girl" (Officially unreleased demo, 1965)

 

 

The multi-talented Ms. DeShannon, along with her co-writer at the time Sharon Sheeley (Eddie Cochran's fiancée at the time of his death), wrote this for Carpax signee Diana Dawn, although, arguably, it is Jackie's original demo which remains the ultimate version...

 



 

 

Renarata & the Delrons/"Look in My Diary" (Recorded circa 1967/Released 1997) 

 

Probably best known in their native U.S. for the minor hit "Whenever a Teenager Cries" (1964), while in the U.K. they made the Top 20 in 1968 with "Captain of Your Ship".  All the while "Panic" (1968), as well as a seemingly tailor-made cover of the Four Seasons "Bye Bye Baby" (1965) should've hit big and hard, it is their inexplicably late release of "Look in My Diary" which is the winner in my book.

 



 

 

The Blossoms/"Stoney End" (1967)

 

Why The Blossoms never made it on their own is a mystery of gigantic proportions.  "That's When the Tears Start" (1965) should've made big waves, but instead it just made ripples.  The Blossoms had Darlene Love, and they had Gloria Jones.  At the same time!  But instead of hitting the big time on their own they "merely" sang back-up for the very best of them, from Elvis to Aretha, via Dionne, and Tom Jones.  And why their version of Laura Nyro's "Stoney End" is less well known than, say, Barbra Streisand's vast inferior interpretation, is the biggest mystery of them all. 

 



 

 

Madeline Bell/"Picture Me Gone" (1965)

 

U.S. born Madeline Bell arrived in the U.K. in the mid '60s and immediately became a sought-after backing vocalist for, most notably, Dusty Springfield.  It is, however, an enigma why her own solo recordings never found flavour with the record buying public since they invariably were of the highest quality.  One case in point is this Chip Taylor-penned and Dusty Springfield backed-up epic from her long playing solo debut, "Bell's a Poppin'".  Several years later though, Ms. Bell found long awaited and deserved fame with the "melting pot" of a group that was Blue Mink.

 



 

Recommended listening:

 

Reparata & the Delrons/"The Best of" (ACE CDCHD 1066) 2005 Ace Records.

Darlene Love and others/"So Much Love; The Darlene Love Anthology 1958 - 1998" (ACE CDCHD 1169)  2008 Ace Records.

Madeline Bell/"Bell's a Poppin'" (W/bonus tracks) (RPM 281)  2004 RPM Records.

The Flirtations/"Sounds Like The Flirtations" (W/bonus tracks) (RPM Retro 839)  2008 RPM Records.

Various Artists/"Break-A-Way; The Songs of Jackie DeShannon 1961 - 1967" (ACE CDCHD 1208)  2008 Ace Records.

Various Artists/"On Vine Street; The Early Songs of Randy Newman" ACE CDCHD 1186) 2008 Ace Records.

Darlene Love



After appearing as one of the subjects in the Oscar-winning documentary "Twenty Feet from Stardom", the name Darlene Love isn't likely to be forgotten any time soon.  Again, that is.  After having spent five decades in someone else's shadow, Ms. Love's time, seemingly, has finally come.  And although said shadows belonged to some fairly famous folks such as Elvis Presley, Cher, Aretha Franklin, Tom Jones, and Dionne Warwick, Ms. Love was just always somehow destined to become a star in her own right.

 

Once a member of the girl group The Blossoms, preacher's daughter Darlene Wright was spotted and singled-out by the incomparable Phil Spector in the early '60s.  He renamed her Darlene Love.  Soon thereafter she scored big hits with early Wall of Sound classics like "He's a Rebel", "He's Sure the Boy I Love" and "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah".  Except they weren't issued under her own new-found name.  Instead Spector, apparently already the insufferable megalomaniac whom we've love to loathe, put them out under the names of already established girl group The Crystals, who were reportedly touring at the time, and Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans, the latter of which comprised of Darlene along with fellow Blossom Fanita James and singer Bobby James (No relation).



After a couple of more mostly artistically unsatisfactory and frustrating years working for Spector, The Blossoms struck out on their own and quickly became known as the backing singers for hire on the U.S. West Coast, appearing regularly on T.V. shows such as Shindig as well.  From Doris Day to Marvin Gaye; if a trio of superb backing singers was needed The Blossoms were more than likely contenders.  Along the way, though, were the occasional one-off single releases under their own moniker, such as Laura Nyro's "Stoney End", which was issued on Lou Adler's Ode Records in 1967.  Arguably, it's their crowning achivement but it was sabotaged by both poor distribution and no promotion - not to mention Barbra Streisand's abominable cover hit version a couple of years later.



Spells working for the kings of Las Vegas, Elvis Presley, and Tom Jones, yet financially lucrative - momentarily at least - did little to further The Blossoms' career outside the back-up singing circuit.  Volatile relations within the group didn't help matters much and they had broken up by the early '70s, by which time Darlene had begun dating Righteous Brother Bill Medley, although that match made in music heaven didn't last.
The '70s Darlene spent mostly in the employment of diva Dionne Warwick, but an unexpected and needless to add, unwanted reunion with Phil Spector was imminent once he bought out her solo deal with Philly soul impresarios Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff in the mid '70s.  Back to square one, then.
By the early '80s Darlene Love had, perhaps understandably, all but given up on the music business and was making an honest living cleaning houses in Hollywood.  However, following steady gigs appearing on cruise ships, a mid-'80s Girl Group revival was ignited once the musical "Leader of the Pack - The Ellie Greenwich Story", in which Darlene Love had a starring role, briefly ran on Broadway and in return helped to properly re-launch her career.



Darlene's old pal from the '60s Cher quickly came calling for her expertise services, and all of a sudden things were looking up once more.  Further steady work came in the guise of Aretha Franklin, Luther Vandross, and others.  Also, annual appearances on the David Letterman Show performing what has become her signature song, the Wall of Sound chestnut "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" - one of the greatest Christmas songs of all time, have helped to keep her name afloat for a couple of decades now.  And let us not forget her acting role as Danny Glover's wife in the "Lethal Weapon" franchise!
So it really didn't come as a big surprise when somebody got the bright idea to make a documentary focusing on those unsung - excuse the poor pun! - heroes of the music business; backing singers.  And of course it didn't take a nuclear scientist to see that Darlene Love fitted the job description to a T...

Recommended listening:

"So Much Love - A Darlene Love Anthology 1958 - 1998" (Ace Records, U.K.  2008)
"Back to Mono, 1958 - 1969"/Various Artists (Phil Spector-produced) (ABKCO, 1991)

Recommended reading:

"My Name is Love".  Darlene Love with Rob Hoerburger (1998/2013)

Recommended viewing:

"Twenty Feet from Stardom".  Written & directed by Morgan Neville (2013)
"Girl Groups - The Story of a Sound".  A 1983 documentary based on the Alan Betrock book.



Always Magic in the Air...

A few years ago I read Ken Emerson's amazing account of the Brill Buliding era, "Always Magic in the Air".  In fact, everyone even vaguely interested in the golden era (the early '60s) of American pop music should.  Furthermore, for every ill-informed idiot who claims there wasn't a whole lot going on Stateside until the almighty Beatles first crossed the Atlantic in '64, this should be a required reading.
Focusing on the masters of song, such as Leiber & Stoller, Goffin & King, Pomus & Shuman, Greenwich & Barry, Mann & Weil, Bacharach & David, and Sedaka & Greenfield, Emerson's tale was obviously an inspiration for the good folks at U.K.'s Ace Records, who launched their still-ongoing CD "Songwriter series" around the time the book was first published, in the mid-'00s.
Apart from the aforementioned songwriter teams, said series have also featured the early works of Neil Diamond and Phil Spector (separately, of course :-), plus career overviews of Boyce & Hart, Randy Newman, Sloan & Barri, Lee Hazlewood, Bert Berns, Chip Taylor, and Jackie DeShannon - to name but a few.
Of course every serious music enthusiast owns, for instance, Bobby Vee's big hit version of Goffin & King's "Take Good Care of My Baby".  But not everyone's aware of the fact that Dion recorded the original version of that little gem.  Well, Ace's compilers take both matters into account and include Dion's scarcely heard interpretation rather than Bobby's more familiar - and, frankly, better - one on their Vol. 2 collection of Goffin & King's compositions. 
There are numerous other similar examples of how these excellent Ace series both educate and entertain the listener. 
Digging for dusty obscurities ripe for (re)discovery is also something the Ace people obviously see as an often rewarding challenge.

 

Apart from the obvious highlights of the series (Goffin & King Vol. 1, Mann & Weil, Greenwich & Barry), personally I was also pleasantly surprised by the Sloan & Barri CD, as well as the Penn & Oldham, Jackie DeShannon, and Chip Taylor collections.  Previously something I thought were merely a few hit wonders, thanks to the Ace folks, I am now a proper fan.

Always magic in the air, indeed...

 



 

Links:

 

Ace Records

Always Magic in the Air: The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era