Thursday, February 24, 2011

Forgotten Music -- Girl Groups

Girl group - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Girl groups emerged in the late 1950s as groups of young singers teamed up with behind-the-scenes songwriters and music producers to create hit singles, often featuring glossy production values and backing by top studio musicians. In later eras the girl group template would be applied to disco, contemporary R&B, and country-based formats as well as pop."

Girl groups are still around, of course, but the ones I remember flourished in the late '50s and early '60s. The Chantels had what I think of as the greatest Girl Group slow-dance song of all, "Maybe."

One of my all-time feel-good Girl Group songs is by the Angels, "My Boyfriend's Back."

And for a darker feeling, it's hard to beat The Shangri-las and "The Leader of the Pack."

But back to feeling good, and the best Girl Group song of all, I'd go with "Da Doo Ron Ron" by the Crystals.

For you readers interested in rock 'n' roll history, I'd recommend the first three titles on this page. As for me, I'm going to listen to the Crystals some more.

9 comments:

Fred Blosser said...

Aside from the Angels and the Chantels -- who had different production teams, I think -- I suppose the groups associated with Phil Spector, the Brill Building, and Motown are best remembered. My own favorite was the Murmaids' one-hit wonder "Popsicles and Icicles," written by David Gates in his pre-Bread era.

Anonymous said...

Some of us have never forgotten the great girl groups: over the years we've seen most of them (or what's left of them), including the great Arlene Smith (of the Chantels), Darlene Love, various components of The Shirelles, The Angels and most of the Motown groups. We even saw The Cookies last year.

Be careful you're getting the originals, however. Some years back we saw a group calling themselves The ShangriLas but they weren't; the average age was about 25.

Jeff

Todd Mason said...

Those choruses particularly were prone to imposture...

"Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" is one of the few soap opera classics that wasn't a Shangri-Las hit..."Da Doo Ron Ron" did seem healthier in attitude and honesty...and his name was Bill, after all.

Unknown said...

That's probably why I like it so much.

George said...

Phil Spector and his Wall of Sound had a hand in several of these Girl Group hits. As I recall, Spector married one of the Ronettes.

Todd Mason said...

Ronnie Spector, and she was apparently glad to be rid of him, in too many ways.

Cap'n Bob said...

There were lots of great girl groups and they did some great songs. Maybe and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow are a couple of my fab faves.

Deb said...

I know she's pretty much screwed up her life since, but Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black" had a great girl-group sound--and she thanked the Shangri-Las in the liner notes.

Unknown said...

She stole their hair style.