I'M THE GIRL: another femme frolic as the distaff side of music rules!

 

Yup! Nary a male voice to be heard in this jam-packed musical takeover by les femmes fantastique on a wide array of tracks from 1957 to '67! Here's what awaits your eager ears:

01) Chantels - I'm The Girl End 1105 10/1961

02) Victorians - You're Invited to a Party Liberty 55656 1/1964

03) Babs Tino - Too Late To Worry Kapp K-458X 4/1962

CAUSE & EFFECT SUITE:

04) Jo-Ann Campbell - Mama (Can I Go Out Tonight) Gone 5055 2/1959

05) Jan Bradley - Curfew Blues Formal FR-1014   5/1962

06) (Gladys Knight & The) Pips - Room in Your Heart
     Vee-Jay VJ-386 4/1961

07) Mar-Vells - Go On And Have Yourself A Ball Butane 778    12/1963

08) Chiffons - Just A Boy Laurie LR-3350 7/1966

SAD STORY #1:

09) McKinleys - A Million Miles Away Swan 4185 6/1964

SOUNDS LIKE THE SHANGRI-LAS!

10) Debs - Under A Streetlight Mercury 72494 10/1965

11) The Nu-Luvs - Take My Advice Mercury 72569 4/1966

THE TOKEN HIT:

12) Ronettes - Do I Love You Philles 121 6/1964

WHAT IN THE--?!?:

13) Yvonne Baker - Funny What Time Can Do Jamie 1290   10/1964

14) Beryl Marsden - I Only Care About You Decca [UK] F 11707     8/1963

SELF-ABUSE SUITE:

15) Ginny Arnell - Dumb Head M-G-M K13177 11/1963

16) Gerri Grainger - What's Wrong With Me Big Top 45-3150    5/1963

17) Carole Quinn - Good Boy Gone Bad          M-G-M K13265   8/1964

18) Corvells - (One) Is Such A Lonely Number Cub K9122 4/1963

SAD STORY #2:
19) Janet Deane - Another Night Alone Gateway 45-719 12/1963

TWO BY ANN COLE!

20) I've Got A Little Boy Baton 237 3/1957

21) Nobody But Me Sir 272 9/1959

22) Toys - Ciao Baby Philips 40432 2/1967

By Jove, where might a body lend an ear to this delightful blend of songs and patter? Why, RIGHT HERE, old bean!

And for those who want to read along with the commentary, here's a transcript!

(Due to ad-libs, this is not an exact transcription.)

The Chantels tell it right. I'M THE GIRL is the theme of this special episode of Frank's Jukebox. It's an all- female cast of performers, ranging from white pop to Black soul, on this freewheeling survey that spans the years 1957 to 1966. Our title track is a thing of singular beauty from vocalist Arlene Smith and songwriter-producer Richard Barrett. This was the group's final single for their first label, End Records, where they revolutionized female pop music with their major 1957 hit MAYBE. The majestic mood of this 1961 recording is hard to beat, but I'm gonna try for this slightly-longer-than-usual show.

I am Frank M. Young, the guy who finds these records, cleans 'em up, digitizes them and plays them for your enjoyment and edification. Nobody makes one red cent from all this. It represents an output of money and time for me and I'm glad to share these forgotten sides that deserve to be heard. 'Nuff said.

We straddle this continent from New York to LA, where The Victorians give a bad boy a second chance when they tell him YOU'RE INVITED TO A PARTY on a Liberty Records release from the first months of 1964--days before Beatlemania would upset the American music scene and temporarily displace some US performers. The British Invaders loved girl-group sides and did plenty of cover versions that scooped up American coin and reintroduced Yankee listeners to their own roots.

Babs Tino was a Puerto Rican thrush who made some of the best girl-group items in the early 1960s. TOO LATE TO WORRY is a Burt Bacharach-Hal David song and production that captures the perky-but-nervous feel of the composer's early musical style. Babs sings her heart out on this intense Kapp Records item from 1962.

Our next two selections make up a Cause & Effect Suite. We start with a remarkable musical meeting: Bo Diddley, sax man King Curtis and maraca shaker supreme Jerome Green in the studio with Southern bombshell Jo-Ann Campbell for the full-throttle MAMA (CAN I GO OUT TONIGHT). This Gone Records release was featured in the must-see rock 'n' roll movie GO JOHNNY GO in conjunction with its early 1959 release.

     Jan Bradley follows-up with the downside of teenage fun in her CURFEW BLUES, a Chicago-made side for the Formal label in 1962, on the B-side of her debut single. Two records later, she'd hit with the classic Mama Didn't Lie and be signed to Chess Records. The lush, slightly insane string arrangement is impressive but distracting. We'll hear what may be the same arranger on a recording by Yvonne Baker later on in this episode.

Still in the Windy City, we call on The Pips, with lead singer Gladys Knight. This future soul superstar was just getting started out when ROOM IN YOUR HEART, the B-side of her Vee Jay records hit EVERY BEAT OF MY HEART, was released in 1961. This is a different shade of blue from the girl-group sound heard throughout this episode, but it's one of the best Bs of its era and is a decided star turn for Ms. Knight, who sings to a red-hot band.

The Mar-vells also recorded as The Fabulettes, where their SCREAMIN' AND SHOUTIN' on Sound Stage 7 is a Northern Soul favorite and thus commands ye big bucks. GO ON AND HAVE YOURSELF A BALL is one side of their first 45, issued twice in 1963. Co-written by Dee Ervin, who was behind many a great little-known soul and r&b gem, it's a catchy Motown-ish item with that classic girl-group sound: a double-tracked lead vocal backed up with strong harmony support. D. Jones and The Continentals are the band behind the group, and they're solid, too.

The Chiffons had a bunch of early hits, then hit a career lull. A motown imitation called SWEET TALKIN' GUY got them back in the pop charts in 1966. Inferior to their earlier records, it led to a mediocre soundalike called OUT OF THIS WORLD. On the flip of that 1966 single is JUST A BOY, an inventive, atmospheric song that far outclasses that flat carbon-copy of a so-so hit. The creative team behind The Chiffons were The Tokens, a white vocal group and they composed this ambitious item.

Our next record has A SAD STORY attached to it. It was recorded by Scottish siblings The McKinleys as the B side to their 1964 classic SOMEONE CARES FOR ME. The song was written by William Dunbar, who, in early 1964, approached UK pop star Terry Dene at a dance hall in Aberdeen, Scotland. He and a friend performed some of Dunbar's original material, and Dene was taken by their work. He got out a portable tape recorder and captured the unwitting lads' performances of several songs. Later that year, a friend played Dunbar the McKinleys' single and he recognized his song. Only it had Terry Dene's name as the composer. Dunbar had never heard from Dene nor knew his song was deemed commercially worthy. The youth complained to a newspaper, which published a front-page story about this theft to no avail. As he wrote in 2016: "A MILLION MILES AWAY was attributed to Dene and I never met [the McKinley sisters] and never got a penny from the performances of that song." Always copyright creative work, kids! It's a fine song but it would be finer with the real composer's name on the record.

The Shangri-las are one of the great girl groups of the 1960s. Like any performer with big hits, they had soundalike responses--some of which, as with The Coasters, are pretty good on their own merit. Here are two such recordings. Up first are The Debs, who scored an unsung classic with UNDER A STREETLIGHT, the B-side of a dumb novelty song for Mercury Records in the fall of 1965. They shared a song with The McKinleys: UK folkie Donovan's haunting GIVE HIM MY LOVE. Unplanned synesis! This is a fantastic-sounding record with some sloppy songwriting: the verses are absurdly short, yet it works though it feels abrupt.

     After that are The Nu-Luvs, who came from Poohkipsie, New York. They were produced by The Shangri-la's main helmer George "Shadow" Morton and thus benefitted from his first-hand mastery of this desperate teen trauma sound. TAKE MY ADVICE sounds like someone set a teenage girl's diary to music. Again, abruptness hurts this record--the fadeout is way too premature. It was only the B-side, so nobody cared--in both cases. This, too, was a Mercury release in the spring of '66.

One can't do a girl-group show without something from the notorious Phil Spector. THE TOKEN HIT for this episode wasn't a big smasheroonie, but did get onto the national pop charts. DO I LOVE YOU isn't the first song a person might think of when they hear the name Ronettes, but it's a fine item from the summer of 1964, during a period when Spector collaborated with songwriters-bodyguards Pete Andrioli and Vince Poncia. The onslaught of British groups kept many American acts off the high end of the Billboard Hot 100, but they still experienced some success. It must have been frustrating for all parties involved to put all their efforts into records that would be kind of ignored. In late 1967, the song received a sunshine pop cover version by male group The Magic Ring that also got into the lower berths of the charts. By that time, Phil Spector was temporarily out of the music business, and planning his next moves in a rapidly changing scene. This lesser-heard side by The Ronettes has a haunting feeling and it's a Spector production that gets everything just right.

We follow that piece of pop perfection with this episode's WHAT IN THE? Yvonne Baker and The Sensations made a string of fine singles for various labels, starting in 1956. Their usual MO was to do a mediocre cover of a pop standard on one side and an exciting, creative group original on the B. They had two big hits with 1962's LET ME IN and a version of the Teresa Brewer hit MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC but their best sides never got played on the radio nor troubled the hit parade.

     In 1964, Ms. Baker teamed up with composer Van McCoy and arranger Richard Rome to make one strange single for Philadelphia label Jamie Records. FUNNY WHAT TIME CAN DO is a mash-up of early soul and chamber music, with a baroque string arrangement that bobs and weaves all over the place in weird voicing that can't help but feel sinister. Ms. B sings McCoy's fine song as if no nonsense is in the room, which suggests that the gonzo strings might have been overdubbed. GIve them credit for trying something different! 'Cos this is DIFFERENT different. You know. Just enjoy--and duck for cover!

We round things out with a rare UK recording by Liverpool lass Beryl Marsden, whose UK Decca debut, in summer 1963, included I ONLY CARE ABOUT YOU, a song gifted with a kooky arrangement of a different kind. In contrast to her gritty cover version of Barbara George's hit I KNOW, this catchy self-effacing ditty has a chunky, synthetic blend of super-compressed sound, garnished with pianos, guitars and what I'd swear are banjos. London studio stalwarts The Breakaways can be heard somewhere in the massive chonk of this quirky production, which seems inspired by the contemporary efforts of producer Joe Meek. He guarded his recording secrets with a maniac's intensity, so "regular" producers and engineers had to guess at how he achieved his bizarre sounds. Sometimes they came close, as with this never-issued-in-America side.

And now, here's what I call THE SELF-ABUSE SUITE. A sub-genre of the girl group sound are songs in which the narrator goes into a downward spiral of self-doubt and/or self-loathing. While these psychological stances are brutal and not recommended for our listeners, we can learn something about ourselves from witnessing these outbursts of vitriol. I think.

Up first, Ginny Arnell excoriates herself in DUMB HEAD, a dark masterpiece of self-hatred that comprised one side of an MGM single from 1963. Speaking of Joe Meek, he did a UK cover of this berserk song with studio group The Sharades in 1964. That this is played for comedy, because hating one's self and not forgiving one's self are such a laff riot, makes it all the weirder. That it has a catchy melody makes it more of a spectacle.

    Black vocalist Gerri Grainger takes a more sophisticated stance of self-doubt with Otis Blackwell's song WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME, the B-side of a single for Big Top Records, also from '63--apparently a vintage year for beatin' up on one's poor self. This more louche, after-hours nightclub approach is more palatable, and less about self-hatin' than self-doubt. Still, Gerri's pretty hard on herself.

    Ginny...Gerri...you're fine people! No need to worry yourselves! Next week, we'll do some role-playing exercises where you each congratulate yourselves for being worthy human beings. Well, our time's up. I'll see you both in a week. Make an appointment with the receptionist.

Okay, group therapy's over. Back to the show. Here's Carole Quinn with one side of a fab MGM single from 1964. GOOD BOY GONE BAD is a sublime specimen of the bad boy style of girl-pop song. Ms. Quinn's sinuous voice has a lush arrangement with haunting touches on this scarce single I found in a little store in Bellingham, Washington that had hardly anything of interest but did yield this seldom-seen platter.

For MGM's subsidiary Cub Records, The Corvells made their long single, released in April 1963, the month and year I was pressed and issued as well! (ONE) IS SUCH A LONELY NUMBER is a nice example of the early influence of the bossa nova sound in Black music. With a perky oboe and trombone to guide her, the lead Corvell delivers a great vocal on this arrangement by Alan Lorber. This group made the next single on Cub's catalogue as The Fortunes, singing THE GHOUL IN SCHOOL, theme song to the foreign import WEREWOLF IN A GIRL'S DORMITORY, a movie that's every bit as good as its title promises. What would one call a group who were one-record wonders under two names? Well, that's this lot.

The story of Janet Vogel's life is a real heartbreaker. She was a member of The Skyliners, a superb white vocal group whose records we've played here and on the daily feature. Her stratospheric soprano voice is astounding, but she was a terrific song stylist whose performances feel real and present. She left The Skyliners around 1964, when they did a stylistic about-face. As Janet Deane, Ms. Vogel made one solo single for Pittsburgh's Gateway imprint. It is, in essence, another Skyliners recording, but with her in the lead role; members of the group back her on this powerful single. ANOTHER NIGHT ALONE is a moody ballad about loneliness and the burden it brings to those who suffer it. Vogel’s vulnerable, expressive voice is ideal for the eerie melody and narrative, as she floats like a ghost past happy couples, an outsider to the game of love—a sad story unimproved as this haunting side fades out. This is another of those records that has just what it needs to work and does its job with graceful melancholy. The unpromoted single died on release; The Skyliners' fans didn't know it existed and the label did nothing to promote it.

     Janet Vogel suffered from deep depression; it’s possible she was bipolar. In an age when mental illnesses weren’t well-treated, Vogel struggled to cope with daily life while battling her inner demons. Coupled with the pressures of raising three children and a husband who had his own issues, life became too difficult for Vogel to navigate. In 1980, at age 37, she was on her way to a tribute event for The Skyliners and had gathered some memorabilia about the group to show there. She committed suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning in her car.

     Her son later wrote a screenplay about her life which was made into a 2011 film called “Since I Don’t Have You.” It was well-received but is impossible to track down at present. I’m curious to see it, though I imagine it’s heavy viewing.

     This is another of the records kindly gifted me by Steven Anderson. Thank you again, Steven.

For a 180, here's supreme soul stylist Ann Cole. She made a series of first-class singles in the 1950s for Baton Records and its subsidiary Sir. I'VE GOT A LITTLE BOY is the killer flip of her all-time classic I've Got My Mojo Working from 1957. The singer penned this fine blues. She's on fire here and I know this side is a deejay favorite with good reason! Whew!

     A year later, for Sir Records, she let her jazzy side loose on NOBODY BUT ME, penned by Billy Myles and possessed of a killer minor-key groove. This is perhaps my favorite of all her sides and considering their overall quality that's sayin' a lot!

We've reached the end of the road here, and The Toys wave us a bittersweet adieu with their 1967 Philips release CIAO BABY. It's on the light 'n' lively side, with a fluffy bossa-nova beat that barely disguises the kiss-off story sung so enchantingly by these lasses, who'd had a big hit the the Motown-ish A LOVER'S CONCERTO two years earlier. But this is no kiss off from us! We love you and are honored that you spent some time here.

See you in two weeks with another episode! B well, be kind and keep in mind the daily Frank's Jukebox feature on Facebook--one of the only reasons to use that social media platform anymore. See you real soon-like!