THE PERMANENTS, "OH DEAR, WHAT CAN THE MATTER BE" C/W "LET ME BE, BABY" (CHAIRMAN 4405, REL. 9/1963)

We visit Chairman Records for the third time in recent history for a completely generic Black girl group whose real identity is hard to suss out. The Permanents (as in the salon hairdo) came and went with a lone fall 1963 platter written and produced by Sylvester Bradford, a Black songwriter who was partially blind. He penned such hits as “Tears on My Pillow” (Little Anthony & The Imperials, Kylie Minogue, et al) and “I’m Ready” (Fats Domino, The Band, et al) and hundreds of other lesser-known but solid sides for a plethora of artists, most often with songwriting partner Al Lewis (not the guy who played “Grandpa” on The Munsters).

When I encounter an unknown, New York-based girl group, I go through the usual suspects. These girls are not The Cookies, who’d already made one pseudonymic single for Chairman. They couldn’t be The Blossoms, who are West Coast denizens. It’s possible—not a fact—that this group could be The Jewels, who later recorded for Dimension Records, in disguise. They sound more Southern and have some of the rowdy air of that group’s recordings.

Neither song is any great shakes. This is a specimen of the girl group sound of 1963—one that many of the forthcoming British invaders adored and emulated on their singles and albums. Their co-opted versions, tho’ often charming, made it impossible for many real American girl groups to achieve any traction on the charts. Only The Dixie Cups, a New Orleans group imported to New York, were able to unseat The Beatles from the throne of #1 on the pop charts at the height of the mania that surrounded that most famous of rock bands in the spring of ’64.

This imminent threat was unknown or ignored by US music in the fall of ’63, when this innocuous-yet-pleasing one-off appeared to general malaise. Red-label retail copies are exceedingly rare; one small run of a few hundred copies exists. The white-label promos are more common, and there aren’t a ton of those.

“Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?” opens with a beguiling-yet-random Asian motif which is immediately abandoned for the earthy singalong that follows. It’s based on an old nursery rhyme, which is altered beyond recognition and placed in a drum-heavy chugger. The girls have a good line in call-and-response, and there’s a heavy amount of gospel influence in their singing. Art Kaplan, who played the memorable saxophone break on Little Eva’s ’62 chart-topped “The Loco-Motion,” does his thing on a brief but distinctive break.

There’s nothing wrong with this record; as with The Jewels’ singles, it’s confident, attitudinal and without much distinction. Being ordinary is no crime, but this is a prime example of American music in a bit of stasis awaiting the revolution right around the corner.

Hear it >>>>> HERE. <<<<<

Cash Box added a word to the B-side’s title in their generic thumbs-up review of today’s record.

“Let Me Be, Baby” is the more appealing B-side. It’s more steeped in the New Orleans side, with a not to Barbara George’s recent hit “I Know” via a trumpet solo ala that big-charting record.

The earthiness appeals, and the singers feel more engaged on this side. This deck is above the bell curve of ’63 girl group pop, and once again might have been the better plug side. It fades out at just the right moment; it’s said its piece and there’s no need to repeat it.

Hear it >>>>> HERE. <<<<<

If these are The Jewels, they made two singles for Dimension, the best-known of Don Kirshner’s early 1960s labels, towards the end of its days in 1964 and ’65. By that time, music had adapted to constant seismic shifts and trended away from the sounds of “old”—which could mean a matter of months in the fast-paced world of the record biz.

Tomorrow: two sides from Reprise Records of ’63—an impressive and tough Elvis impersonation by Ral Donner and a proto-soul mover by Little Joe Cook of “Peanuts” fame. Both are on Reprise’s trademark crap styrene, yet they sound great.