THE BOQUETS (SIC), "GIRLS GIRLS" C/W "YEAH BABE," VEST 8000 (REL. 9/1963)

We love the girl groups here. We’ve played scores of records in this style over the last five years plus. Here’s a gritty goodie that’s been hidden in the cracks since its 1963 release.

The Bouquets made one single for Blue Cat Records that is considered a classic of the genre. “Welcome to My Heart” bears a strong resemblance to any number of Supremes hits, but succeeds via the emotional sincerity of the lead vocalist. It wasn’t their first—or only—record. (They are not the same Bouquets who recorded for Zell Sanders as The Clickettes, and also as one of many girl groups dubbed The Fashions. It gets confusing; the confusion is sub-divided into folder titled ‘huh?,’ ‘what the--,” and “wait a minute…”)

This is their first single, and the label, Vest Records, mis-spelled the group’s handle as Boquets. On this earthy effort, the girls sound like a tougher version of The Shirelles—as if that famous group adopted the attitude of The Shangri-las. There’s a skosh of Ikettes in the mix as well. “Girls Girls,” composed by Carl Williams and Thelma Lewis (the latter, I presume is one of the Boquets), veers between perky pop and moody passages with eerie modal harmonies. A bouncy electric organ (not my #1 pick, but c’est la vie) and a crisp rhythm section accompany the girls on this rambling account of a would-be seductress whose charms failed on the narrator’s fella.

This song evades the listener’s focus; it pings from style to style in a dreamlike manner. After several listens, I’ve only now sussed out its storyline. I find it easy to get caught up in the sudden shifts and mesmerized by certain moments—e.g., 00:39-00:42 (those sinister harmonies)—and all that back-and-forth dialogue clouds the clarity of this little playet. I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Cash Box reckoned “Yeah Babe” to be the A-side. It üs the feisty box with a flourish. That zesty organ works much better on this gritty groover with fab harmonies by the girls. Credited to Williams, Lewis, Muriel Collins and ? Cullins (the other two Boquets, perhaps?), it’s got that sound any soul DJ would welcome to get ‘em on the dancefloor. How this side has remained underground so long is a mystery. To hear it is to love it, as I hope you’ll agree.

The group next made a meh single for Amy Records, which I own, and the approved classic “Welcome to My Heart” for Blue Cat. After that, the bouquet was gone. And with it went a minor mystery of the girl-group style: who were these women, and what happened to them? We shall, perhaps, never know.

Tomorrow: Post #1900, with the fab debut disc of Billy Butler with The Four Enchanters on a pair of powerful Chicago soul sides, from a lovely 1962 vinyl Okeh Records promo.