Jackie Verdell - I'm Your Girl (1974)

Jackie Verdell was born on 5 November 1937 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and after leaving high school she joined The Davis Sisters in 1955, at the start of their tenure with Herman Lubinsky and Ozzie Cadena's Savoy Records label. How she came to sing with one of gospel's most famous groups is a typical Golden Age gospel tale, as she was a soloist in the choir of Faith Temple in New York, pastored by Bishop A.A. Childs, where Ruth Davis was attending a broadcast at which Jackie was singing, and the rest is gospel history. Verdell possessed a powerful mezzo-soprano voice, and was second lead for The Davis Sisters between 1955 and 1960, featuring on many of their Savoy recordings, with her performances on records such as 'Lord Don't Leave Me', 'Following Him', and 'I Don't Know What I'd Do' making an impression on the young Aretha Franklin. Like Franklin, she left the gospel field in 1960 and began singing pop, her voice having deepened to a contralto and losing the upper register. She signed with Houston-based Peacock Records, releasing three singles between 1961 and 1964, and although none of them charted, her own composition 'Why Not Give Me A Chance' attained a small level of popularity, being covered in later years by soul singers O.V. Wright in the late 60's and by Ruby Wilson in the early 80's. In between recording her solo singles she returned to the Davis Sisters to record with them, eventually leaving for good in 1966 to concentrate on her own career, but after further unsuccessful pop singles on Decca Records and its Coral Records subsidiary, the late 1960's and early 1970's found her contributing background vocals (along with Cissy Houston, Judy Clay, and other members of The Drinkard Singers or The Sweet Inspirations) to records by Wilson Pickett, Dee Dee Warwick, Van Morrison, and Clarence Wheeler & The Enforcers, as well as one further solo single for Stax Records' Gospel Truth and Respect labels under the name of Jacqui Verdell. Her only solo album, 'Lay My Burden Down', produced by former soul singer Joe Simon, was released on Spring Records in 1983, and good as it was, her best work was undoubtedly in the 60's, and so here are all the singles and b-sides that she recorded in the decade or so from her first release in 1961. Jackie Verdell died in August 1991, at the age of 53.

Track listing

01 You Ought To Know Him (single 1961)
02 Bye Bye Blackbird (b-side of 'You Ought To Know Him')
03 Why Not Give Me A Chance (single 1963)
04 Hush (b-side of 'Why Not Give Me A Chance')
05 Y.K.W. (single 1964)
06 Come Let Me Love You (b-side of 'Y.K.W.')
07 Are You Ready For This (single 1967)
08 I'm Your Girl (b-side of 'Are You Ready For This')
09 Does She Ever Remind You Of Me (single 1967)
10 Don't Set Me Free (b-side of 'Does She Ever Remind You Of Me')
11 If We Are Really In Love (single 1968) 
12 Call On Me (b-side of 'If We Are Really In Love')
13 He's Mine (single 1973)
14 We're Gonna Have A Good Time (b-side of 'He's Mine')

Lynne Randell - The Right To Cry (1969)

Lynne Randall (she later changed the spelling) was born on 14 December 1949 in Liverpool, and her family migrated to Australia when she was five, settling in the Melbourne suburb of Murrumbeena. In her teens she attended Mordialloc High School, and was discovered  whilst working as a 14-year-old apprentice hairdresser for Lilian and Antonio Frank, when the manager of Australian mod group The Flies organised a publicity shoot for TV and press to display his band having their long hair done at a women's hair salon. During the shoot, The Flies lead singer Ronnie Burns sang with his guitar, and Frank suggested her young apprentice should sing along. Spry was so impressed by her voice he offered her a job at his discothèque, Pinocchios, and at her 15th birthday on 14 December 1964, thrown by her manager Carol West and which was attended by local radio DJs including Stan Rofe, she sang 'House Of The Rising Sun' and John Lee Hooker's 'Boom Boom', later cutting a demo in a dining room, which Rofe played on his radio show. Randell left school and was signed to EMI in 1965, and her first single was a cover of Lulu's 'I'll Come Running Over', which was released in February on the HMV label and became a No. 11 hit in Melbourne. She appeared on television on 'Bandstand', 'Saturday Date' and 'Sing Sing Sing' to promote the record, and it was quickly followed by 'A Love Like You', which hit No. 27 in Melbourne, and then in July by a cover of the Marvelettes' 'Forever'. She had regular appearances on TV's 'The Go!! Show' alongside contemporaries The Easybeats and Olivia Newton-John, as well appearing on 'Kommotion' with fellow pop artists including Burns, who was now a solo artist. Randell signed a new contract with CBS Records to release two further singles, with 'Heart' and 'Goin' Out Of My Head' both becoming Top 20 hits in Melbourne. 

Her trendy clothes and hairstyle, good looks and innocent image, backed up by a string of solid pop hits, earned her the title of Australia's 'Little Miss Mod', and she became the most popular female performer in the mid-1960's. On the back of her Australian success, Randell went to the United Kingdom and performed at Liverpool's Cavern Club, and by 1967 she was in the United States, where she toured with The Monkees as part of a bill which also featured Jimi Hendrix and Ike & Tina Turner. Her next single, 'Ciao Baby', was written by Larry Weiss and Scott English, and was recorded in New York and released on CBS Records in Australia, reaching No. 6 on Go-Set's Top 40 in June 1967, while Epic Records also released it in the US, making it her biggest hit. While touring the US, Randell became addicted to methamphetamine tablets which were sold legally as slimming pills, developing a long term addiction which later seriously affected her health. Her next single 'That's A Hoe Down'/'I Need You Boy' appeared in 1967 and she won another 'Most Popular Female Vocal' from Go-Set pop poll in October. She moved to Los Angeles in 1968 and released 'An Open Letter', but by then her health problems were getting worse, and her last single 'I Love My Dog' was released in 1969 on Capitol Records. She returned to Australia in 1980, working as a personal assistant to old friend Ian Meldrum, who was by then compère of 'Countdown', until 1986, and she then moved back to the US where she worked for Seymour Stein of Sire Records as his personal assistant in New York during the late 1980's. In the 1990's she moved back to Melbourne and made occasional appearances at oldies concerts, then in 2004 she went public about her methamphetamine addiction in an interview with Peter Wilmoth of The Age, admitting that her adrenal glands were atrophied to about 30% function, and she passed away at her home in June 2007. Her legacy is this great collection of recordings that she made while she was the toast of the Australian pop scene, and somewhat unusually for this type of album, listen out for some stunning guitar solos on 'Hold Me', 'Summertime', and 'Won't Be Long'   

Track listing

01 I'll Come Running Over ‎(single 1965)
02 Hold Me (b-side of 'I'll Come Running Over')
03 A Love Like You (single 1965)
04 Summertime ‎(b-side of 'A Love Like You')
05 Be Sure ‎(single 1965)
06 Forever (b-side of 'Be Sure')
07 I Got A Notion (unreleased test pressing 1965)
08 Heart ‎(single 1966)
09 That's What Love Is Made Of (b-side of 'Heart')
10 Going Out Of My Head ‎(single 1966)
11 Take The Bitter With The Sweet (b-side of 'Going Out Of My Head')
12 What'cha Gonna Do (from 'Lynne Randell Presents' EP 1966)
13 Won't Be Long (from 'Lynne Randell Presents' EP 1966)
14 Ciao Baby ‎(single 1967)
15 Stranger In My Arms (b-side of 'Ciao Baby')
16 That's A Hoe Down ‎(single 1967)
17 I Need You Boy (b-side of 'That's A Hoe Down')
18 The Right To Cry ‎(single 1968) 
19 An Open Letter (b-side of 'The Right To Cry')
20 Wasn't It You ‎(single 1968)
21 Grey Day ‎‎(b-side of 'Wasn't It You')
22 I Love My Dog (single 1969)
23 Mind Excursion (b-side of 'I Love My Dog')

Ayshea - Golden Oldies (1976)

Ayshea Hague was born in Highgate, London, and educated at Arts Educational School, London, training in ballet, music, drama and dance. She made her film debut at the age of nine as an uncredited extra in the 1958 film 'Tom Thumb', and at sixteen she was signed to her first record label Fontana, who released her debut single 'Eeny Meeny in 1965, and she continued to release singles throughout the rest of the decade. During the 60's she made appearances on television shows such as 'Thank Your Lucky Stars' and 'Discotheque', and in 1969 Granada TV's producer Muriel Young hired her to host her own pop show 'Lift Off With Ayshea'. The series ran for 141 episodes lasting until 1974, but in a particularly distressing accident, every episode was wiped while they were being digitally transferred, robbing us of classic performances from David Bowie, Slade, T. Rex, The Bay City Rollers and David Cassidy. After being romantically linked with Steve Winwood, Chas Chandler and Rod Stewart, she married Cat Stevens' record producer, Chris Brough (the son of ventriloquist Peter Brough), who acted as her manager and also produced her records. She was a regular on quiz shows such as 'The Golden Shot' and 'Celebrity Squares', and as an actress she appeared in 'Jason King' and had a recurring role in 'UFO', the Gerry Anderson live-action series. After starring in pantomimes and summer shows all over the UK, Ayshea then built up a large following for her live cabaret performances. In 1975, she represented Great Britain at the World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo with a song written for her by Elton John, entitled 'The Flowers Will Never Die', which was released as a single the following year, and following an engagement to Roy Wood, who had written and produced her 1973 single 'Farewell', she  married Steve Alder who had the lead role in the London stage production of the musical 'Jesus Christ Superstar'. She later moved to Los Angeles and appeared in the movies 'Gotcha' in 1985 and 'Demolition Man' in 1993, before moving back to Britain in 2000 to be close to her mother, Rose. Ayshea is perhaps better known for her TV appearances in 'Lift Off With...' and 'UFO' than as a singer, although she did release two albums in the early 70's, but her singing career spans a dozen years from 1965 to 1977, and covers a variety of genres, so here is a selection of some of her non-album songs from the singles that she released during that time. 

Track listing

01 Eeny Meeny (single 1965)
02 Keep My Love (b-side of 'Eeny Meeny')
03 Celebration Of The Year (single 1968)
04 Only Love Can Save Me Now (b-side of 'Celebration Of The Year')
05 Who's Gonna Rescue Jesus? (single 1970)
06 Flowers Are Mine (b-side of 'Who's Gonna Rescue Jesus?')
07 Both Sides Now (b-side of 'Master Jack' 1971)
08 Farewell (single 1973)
09 Don't Wait Till Tomorrow (single 1975)
10 The Flowers Will Never Die (single 1976)
11 Golden Oldie (promo single 1977)

Jan Panter - Si Si Señor (1969)

Jan Panter hailed from Finsbury Park in London, and began her short recording career in 1965 with a cover of the Mary Wells song 'My Two Arms - You = Tears' ('My Two Arms Minus You Equals Tears'), which was released on the soon-to-be-defunct Oriole label. 'Let It Be Now' came out a few months later on CBS, and a year later she was working with producer Mark Wirtz, who directed the session for the best-known of her singles, 'Scratch My Back'/'Put Yourself In My Place', with 'Scratch My Back' being more rock-orientated than most of her other recordings, and featuring some prominent fuzz-guitarwork. Following a gap of a couple of years Panter was back, this time with an out and out pop record, with 'Si Si Señor' appearing in the UK and Spain on President Records, and also being released on Columbia Records in Germany, with a b-side in the same language. One more song was recorded in 1969 but was never issued, and with that Panter's career was over, leaving behind enough music to make an album which is just shy of half an hour, but which contains some great 60's soul, pop and R'n'B. 

Track listing

01 My Two Arms - You  = Tears (single 1965)
02 Does My Heart Show ‎(b-side of 'My Two Arms - You  = Tears')
03 Let It Be Now (single 1965)
04 Stand By And Cry ‎(b-side 'Let It Be Now')
05 Scratch My Back (single 1966)
06 Put Yourself In My Place (b-side of 'Scratch My Back')

07 Stella In Lights (b-side of UK issue of 'Si Si Señor')
08 Si Si Señor (single 1969) 
09 Wenn Die Liebe Kommt (b-side of German issue of 'Si Si Señor' 1969)
10 Yours Sincerely (unreleased acetate 1969)

Tammy St. John - Concerning Love (1969)

Judith Coster was born in Hornchurch, Essex, and is the sister of the famed operatic mezzo-soprano Janet Coster. Judith was gifted with a voice whch had a deep, soulful delivery that could convincingly have come from the other side of the Atlantic, and at the age of 14 she was signed to Pye Records, who released a number of singles by her under the name of Tammy St. John. Although they didn't make much of an impression when they were released in the 60's, a few of her records were later embraced as part of the Northern Soul boom, with 'Life And Soul Of The Party', 'He's The One For Me',  'Nobody Knows What's Going on in My Mind', and 'Stay Together Young Lovers' all became vastly expensive to find as original copies were snapped up by DJ's. Her third single was the Fangette Willett barnstomer 'Dark Shadows And Empty Hallways', and this atmospheric track is in keeping with the dramatic sound of singers such as Dusty Springfield, but it also has elements of the girl groups, particularly the teenage mini operas being recorded by the Shangri-La’s. St John's voice was sophisticated and strong, a bit like a young Sandie Shaw, and the song comes across as both sophisticated and mature rather than simply self absorbed teen melodrama, especially considering that it's sung by a 15-year old girl. St. John only released five singles during her short career, and so this is a rather short album, which was the original reason that I held back from posting it, but in the end I decided that these songs are too good to keep hidden, and so this is the first of a few of these shorter albums to be posted in this series. 

Track listing

01 Boys (single 1964)
02 Hey Hey Hey Hey (b-side of 'Boys')
03 He's The One For Me (single 1965)
04 I'm Tired Just Lookin' At You (b-side of 'He's The One For Me')
05 Dark Shadows And Empty Hallways (single 1965)
06 I Musn't Cry (b-side of 'Dark Shadows And Empty Hallways')
07 Nobody Knows What's Goin' On (In My Mind But Me) (single 1966)
08 Stay Together Young Lovers (b-side of 'Nobody Knows What's Goin' On')  
09 Life And Soul Of The Party (previously unreleased 1967)
10 Concerning Love (single 1969)

Bev Harrell - Give Me Time (1971)

Petite blonde pop vocalist Bev Harrell was one of the most popular female solo singers in Australia in the late 1960's, beginning her career on radio when she was just six years old in the children's radio talent series 'Kangaroos On Parade' in her hometown of Adelaide, South Australia. She started performing as a pop vocalist as a hobby in 1965 while she was still at school, and appeared as a guest singer at Adelaide suburban dances with local bands such as The Harts and The Vibrants. In 1966 she joined Barrie McAskill as co-lead singer of the reformed The Clefs, which was led by Tweed Harris, but when The Clefs relocated to Melbourne later in the year Harrell decided to stay in Adelaide, and she was eventually spotted by promoter Ron Tremaine, who offered to become her manager, turning professional under his guidance. In the mid 60's she moved to Melbourne with her new manager and boyfriend Daryl Sambell, and she soon became a regular on television pop shows including Bandstand and Kommotion. After signing with EMI, her first single was a cover of 'What Am I Doing Here with You?' by Johnny Rivers, which was written by singer/songwriter P.F. Sloan, and when it was released in late 1966 it became a national Top Ten hit, charting in most cities in January 1967, and earning her the prestigious "Best Australian Female Vocal" award in the 1966 Australian Record Awards. Thanks to her hit single, Harrell's career took off, and she gained considerable exposure as a supporting artist on tours by international names including Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, Winifred Atwell, The Rolling Stones and Roy Orbison. Two more national Top 40 placings followed, with her second single being the Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil song 'Come On Over To Our Place', originally recorded by The Drifters in 1965, and re-titled 'Come On Over To My Place'. 

June 1967's 'You Baby'/'You Are The Love Of My Life' didn't chart, but EMI still felt confident enough to release the EP 'Come On Over To Bev's Place', and her debut album 'This Is Bev' the same year. Moving to Columbia Records, her next single 'One In A Million'/'Give Me Time' fared significantly better, reaching the top 30 in most Australian cities, but unfortunately none of her subsequent singles made the charts, although they were all fine songs. In 1969 and 1970 Harrell was one of many Australian female entertainers who were sent to Vietnam to entertain Australian troops, along with colleagues such as Pat Kennedy and Anne and Sue Wills, and she also toured through Europe and Canada, where she had her own television special 'Two New' on Toronto TV. In January 1971 she released a single on Bell Records, with 'Back To The People' being written by fellow Antipodean Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees, although according to Bee Gees expert Joseph Brennan, she didn't know the Gibbs and was simply offered the song by their publisher. Returning to Australia in 1972, she signed to RCA and issued three singles in 1972 and 1973, plus the album 'I Believe In Music' in 1974. Today she continues to work regularly on the musical stage and on the club and corporate circuit, and was awarded the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2006. This album collects together all of her non-album singles and b-sides from 1967 to 1971, as when she returned to Australia in 1972 she tended to go down the middle-of-the-road route for her singles, with covers of songs by Carly Simon and The Grass Roots, alongside the Christmassy 'Carols By Candlelight'. By limiting the album to just her 60's output I think it makes a nice 44-minute album, and shows that despite not being that well known outside her native Australia, she could hold her own against more well-known female singers of the time.   

Track listing

01 You Really Didn't Mean It (b-side of 'What Am I Doing Here With You' 1967)
02 Walk Among The Stars (b-side of 'Run On The Run' 1968)
03 One In A Million ‎(single 1968)
04 Give Me Time (b-side of 'One In A Million')
05 Mon Pere (single 1968)
06 At Times Like These, Mamma (b-side of 'Mon Pere')
07 One Way Ticket (single 1968)  
08 I Am The World (b-side of 'One Way Ticket')
09 You'll Never Find A Love Like Mine (acetate 1968)
10 Everybody Needs Love (single 1969)
11 My Little One (b-side of 'Everybody Needs Love')       
12 The Looking Glass ‎(single 1970)
13 Yes I'm Ready (b-side of 'The Looking Glass')
14 Bringing Back Those Memories (single 1970) 
15 Sing (b-side of 'Bringing Back Those Memories')
16 Back To The People (single 1971)
17 Travelling Easy (b-side of 'Back To The People')

Twiggy - Beautiful Dreams (1978)

Lesley Hornby was born on 19 September 1949 and raised in Neasden, and her mother taught her to sew from an early age, being able to use this skill to make her own clothes, and sparking her interest in fashion. In January 1966, aged 16, she had her hair coloured and cut short in London at Leonard of Mayfair, owned by celebrity hairdresser Leonard, and as the hair stylist was looking for models on whom to try out his new crop haircut, a professional photographer Barry Lategan took several photos of Hornby, which the hairdresser hung in his salon. Deirdre McSharry, a fashion journalist from the Daily Express, saw the images and asked to meet the young girl, and after arranging to have more photos taken, the publication featured an article and images of Hornby, declaring her "The Face of '66". Hornby's career quickly took off, and with her streamlined, androgynous sex appeal, and change of name to Twiggy (from "Twigs", her childhood nickname), she was soon seen in all the leading fashion magazines, commanding fees of £80 an hour, bringing out her own line of clothes called "Twiggy Dresses" in 1967, and taking the fashion world by storm. She began modeling extensively, quickly gaining international recognition, and her appearance on the cover of the U.S. edition of the leading fashion magazine Vogue (April 1967) heralded her rise to fame. She extended her celebrity into a singing career, releasing an award-winning debut single 'Beautiful Dreams' in 1967, and following this with 'When I Think Of You' later the same year. In 1970, Twiggy retired from modeling, and Ken Russell cast her in the starring role of his campy homage to musicals of the 20's and 30's, 'The Boy Friend'. 

Released in 1971, the film found Twiggy not just acting but singing and dancing as well, and while the film was a disappointment at the box office, for the most part critics were kind to Twiggy's work in the film. Three of her songs from the soundtrack album were later released as singles, and in 1971 she cut a one-off single for Bell Records, 'Zoo Dee Zoo Zong'/'Little Pleasure Acre'. In 1974 she was given her own musical variety series on BBC television, and after the show was renewed for a second season, she signed an international recording contract with Phonogram, with her 1976 self-titled debut album being a commercial success in the U.K., and spawning the hit single 'Here I Go Again'. A follow-up album titled 'Please Get My Name Right' was released in 1977, with the backing being supplied by the American group Clover, who would also back Elvis Costello on his debut album 'My Aim Is True' later the same year. A third album for Mercury was recorded but not released, though a single from the sessions, 'Tomorrow Is Another Day', was issued in late 1977. After cutting a single with longtime friend David Essex in 1978,  she recorded a disco album with production help from Donna Summer and Juergen Koppers, but with disco losing ground in the marketplace, the album went unreleased until 2007, when it was eventually issued as 'Heaven in My Eyes'. Through much of the 1980's she concentrated on her acting, and the singing career took a backseat, so this collection encapsulates her time in the music business, with her singles and b-sides from that first 1967 offering up to her retirement following the release of the David Essex song 'Falling Angel' in 1978. As the singles from 'The Boy Friend' were very theatrical, I've edited out a lot of the dancing in 'A Room In Bloomsbury' and faded 'I Could Be Happy With You' so that we just have the music.  

Track listing

01 Beautiful Dreams (single 1967)
02 I Need Your Hand In Mine (b-side of 'Beautiful Dreams')
03 When I Think Of You (single 1967)
04 Over And Over (b-side of 'When I Think Of You')
05 Zoo De Zoo Zong (single 1971)
06 Little Pleasure Acre (b-side of 'Zoo De Zoo Zong')
07 A Room In Bloomsbury (single by Twiggy & Christopher Gable 1972)
08 You Are My Lucky Star (single 1972)
09 All I Do Is Dream (b-side of 'You Are My Lucky Star')
10 I Could Be Happy With You (b-side of 'Overture "The Boyfriend" 1972)
11 It's De-Lovely (from the soundtrack to the 'Cole Porter In Paris' TV special 1973)
12 In Love Together (b-side of 'Here I Go Again' 1976)
13 A Woman In Love (single 1977)
16 Falling Angel (single 1978)
17 Virginia (And The Circus Side Show) (b-side of 'Falling Angel')

The Orchids - Love Hit Me (1965)

While the female singers and girl groups on the British recording scene of the 1960's were typically in their late teens or early twenties, The Orchids were 14 year-old schoolgirls when they made their first record. Georgina Oliver, Pamela Jarman and Valerie Jones were in the same class at Stoke Park Grammar School For Girls in Coventry, where they used to get together in break times to sing the hits of the day together, and they often went dancing together on Saturday afternoons at the Locarno Ballroom in the central precinct, and later at the Orchid Ballroom in Primrose Hill Street. One day, having gone alone for once, Pam horrified the others by announcing she had entered them all into a talent contest at the Orchid, and they won the competition, singing Motown and Spector songs, and they shared the prize money of one pound sterling. Larry Page, then manager of the Orchid Ballroom, gave them the name The Orchids after the name of his ballroom, and this former pop singer would go on to achieve greater fame later, most notably as manager of the Kinks. Contracted to Decca and assigned in the studio to producer Shel Talmy, their first appearance on vinyl was as backing vocalists for 'School Is In' by Johnny B. Great and the Goodmen, with their own debut quickly following, and 'Gonna Make Him Mine' was an exuberant and upbeat offering with a sound that was a blend of UK beat and US girl group, with the Shel Talmy original 'Stay At Home' on the flip. The trio's schoolgirl status was relentlessly exploited, and their first publicity pics required them to wear school uniforms, much to their mortification. 

The follow-up single 'Love Hit Me' went for the full Spector treatment, leading to a "Britain's answer to the Crystals" tag, and they appeared on 'Ready Steady Go!' to promote its release, as well as making an appearance on the children's show 'Five O'clock Club'. Mike D'Abo's first group A Band Of Angels (coincidentally, see last week's post) was also on the bill and there was a running gag between them and The Orchids that they couldn't stand each other, with D'Abo loudly complaining to hostess Muriel Young, "They're nothing but a bunch of schoolgirls!" as the girls brushed past him to the mikes. Their next single was a cover of Ray Davies' 'I've Got That Feeling', with 'Larry' on the b-side, and this wasn't a tribute to Larry Page but a cover of an American song written by the 'Bobby's Girl' duo of Hoffman and Klein. One last single was recorded, but 'Oo-Chang-A-Lang' was only issued in the US, and it had to be under the name of The Blue Orchids to avoid confusion with sundry other Orchids in the USA. As well as their TV appearances, the group appeared in the 1964 pop movie 'Just For You', singing 'Mr. Scrooge', and they also appeared in a comic-strip story in an issue of Judy, the popular girls' weekly. In 1965 they were finally allowed a change of image and the group was relaunched as The Exceptions, releasing just one single with 'What More Do You Want' on the A-side, and a Georgina Oliver original on the flip with 'Soldier Boy'. The girls have mentioned that they recorded a number of other songs, including some with Bert Berns, but none have ever come to light, and so the total output from the group was just these four singles, but they are remembered due to a combination of factors: their image, their sound, their association with Talmy, Page, Berns, and Oldham , and their standing as a rare example of a true British teenage girl group. An article on the girls in this month's Record Collector ended with a plea for a retrospective album, and so here it is, although obviously it's a short one at just 23 minutes, but it's full of great 60's pop and soul. 

Track listing

01 Gonna Make Him Mine (single 1963)
02 Stay At Home (b-side of 'Gonna Make Him Mine')
03 Love Hit Me (single 1963)
04 Don't Make Me Mad (b-side of 'Love Hit Me')
05 Mr. Scrooge (from the soundtrack of the film 'Just For You' 1964)
06 I've Got That Feeling (single 1964)
07 Larry (b-side of 'I've Got That Feeling')
08 Oo-Chang-A-Lang (single 1964)
09 What More Do You Want (single as The Exceptions 1965)
10 Soldier Boy (b-side of 'What More Do You Want')

Josie And The Pussycats - Tabby Road (1970)

During the 1968-69 television season, the first Archie-based Saturday morning cartoon 'The Archie Show' was a huge success, not only in the ratings on CBS, but also on the Billboard charts. The fictitious band had a massive hit with 'Sugar Sugar', reaching No. 1 on the UK and US charts in September 1969, and Hanna-Barbera Productions wanted to duplicate the success their competitors Filmation were having with 'The Archie Show'. After a failed attempt at developing a teenage-music-band show of their own called 'Mysteries Five' (which eventually became 'Scooby-Doo, Where are You!'), they decided to go to the source and contacted Archie Comics about possibly adapting one of their remaining properties into a show similar to 'The Archie Show'. Archie and Hanna-Barbera collaborated to adapt Archie's Josie comic book into a music-based property about a teenage music band, adding new characters while dismissing others. The group was to consist of level-headed lead singer, songwriter and guitarist Josie, intelligent bassist Valerie, and air-headed blonde drummer Melody, while other characters included their cowardly manager Alexander Cabot III, his conniving sister Alexandra, her cat Sebastian, and muscular roadie Alan. In preparation for the upcoming cartoon series, Hanna-Barbera began working on putting together a real-life girl group, who would provide the singing voices of the girls in the cartoons, and also record an album of songs to be used both as radio singles and in the TV series. 

The Josie and the Pussycats recordings were produced by La La Productions, run by Danny Janssen and Bobby Young (a pseudonym for Bob Engemann of The Lettermen vocal group), and they held a talent search to find three girls who would match the three girls in the comic book in both looks and singing ability. After interviewing over 500 finalists, they settled on casting Kathleen Dougherty (Cathy Dougher) as Josie, Cherie Moor (later to find fame in 'Charlie's Angels' as Cheryl Ladd) as Melody, and Patrice Holloway (sister of Motown star Brenda Holloway) as Valerie. Janssen presented the newly formed band to Hanna-Barbera to finalize the production deal, but they wanted Janssen to recast Holloway, because they had decided to portray Josie And The Pussycats as an all-white trio and had altered Valerie, who had been conceived as black and was already appearing as such the revamped Josie and the Pussycats comic book, to make her white. Janssen refused and threatened to walk away from the project, and after a three-week-long stand-off between Janssen and Hanna-Barbera, Hanna-Barbera finally relented, allowed Janssen to keep Holloway, and changed Valerie back to being black, making her the first black female character on a regular Saturday morning cartoon series. Of the songs that were broadcast, lead vocals were split pretty much 50/50 between Holloway and Moor, as Dougherty felt she was stronger on harmony than lead, and ceded her spotlight to Moor, so although Josie was the group leader, it was Valerie and Melody who provided the trio with its singing voices. 

Each episode found the Pussycats and crew en route to perform a gig or record a song in some exotic location where, somehow, often due to something Alexandra did, they became mixed up in an adventure. The antagonist was always a diabolical mad scientist, spy, or criminal who wanted to take over the world using some high-tech device, and The Pussycats usually found themselves in possession of the plans for an invention, an item of interest to the villains, a secret spy message, etc., and the villains chased them to retrieve it. Eventually, the Pussycats would ruin the villain's plans, resulting in a final chase sequence set to a Pussycats song. With the villain captured, the Pussycats would return to their gig or recording session, and the final gag was always one of Alexandra's failed attempts to interfere with the Pussycats' performance or steal Alan away from Josie, and while early plans were to be for a live-action Pussycats segment at the end of each episode, this idea did not make it to the final cut. To cash in on the show Hanna-Barbera released an album of the songs featured in the series, plus a few choice covers, and extracted two singles from it in the form of 'Every Beat Of My Heart' and 'You've Come A Long Way Baby'. Sales were nowhere near as good as they'd hoped, and so further singles were licensed to Creative Products, to be exchanged for sending in box tops from Kelloggs cereals. These four promotional singles are now extremely rare, and so it was good to finally get to hear them on a recent Rhino records collection, although only 5,000 copies of the compilation were pressed and that's now as hard to find as the original singles. So for anyone with fond memories of watching Josie And The Pussycats on Saturday morning TV, here are all their singles, along with a couple of previously unreleased tracks, and that classic theme tune. And sorry about the title, but I just couldn't resist.    

Track listing

01 Every Beat Of My Heart (single version 1970)
02 It's All Right With Me (b-side of 'With Every Beat Of My Heart' 1970)
03 You've Come A Long Way Baby (single version 1970)
04 Stop, Look And Listen (b-side of 'You've Come A Long Way Baby')
05 Letter To Mama (single 1970)
06 Inside, Outside, Upside Down (b-side of 'Letter To Mama')
07 Josie (single 1970)
08 Voodoo (single 1970)
09 If That Isn't Love (b-side of 'Voodoo')
10 I Wanna Make You Happy (single 1970)
11 It's Gotta Be Him (b-side of 'I Wanna Make You Happy')
12 Together (previously unreleased)
13 Dreammaker (previously unreleased)
14 The Time To Love (previously unreleased)
15 Josie And The Pussycats Theme

If you're now hankering to relive your childhood then the whole first series is here to watch, as long as you're prepared to put up with some pesky ads. 

She Trinity - Have We Sinned? (1970)

I though that I'd completed my series of under-recognised girl singers of the 60's, but an article in the current Record Collector alerted me to a band that I'd overlooked, but who deserve to be included. The original line-up of Lady Greensleeves was Shelly Gillespie, Sue Kirby and Robin Yorke, and they formed a group together in their native Canada in the early 60's. In late 1965 they all emigrated to England, and it was there they they enlisted the services of Pauline Moran as their bassist, and then signed a management deal with Peter Grant, who put them in touch with producer Mickie Most. It was Most who re-christened them She Trinity, and he took them into the studio to record their first single, a re-interpretation of The Bobby Fuller Four's 'I Fought The Law' entitled 'He Fought The Law'. The big difference between She Trinity and the plethora of other girl groups around at the time was that they played their own instruments, which in 1966 was something of a novelty. Their second single was a cover of Lou Christie's 'Have I Sinned', but it was their next one which attracted attention, with the unwieldy title of 'The Man Who Took The Valise Off The Floor Of Grand Central Station At Noon'. Sue Kirby had left the band quite early on, and the remaining members felt that they needed a keyboard-player, so Marion "Rusty" Hill joined them, and she was later replaced in 1967 by Eileen Woodman, who stayed until the very end. Their cover of 'Yellow Submarine' was recorded by the band themselves before Most arrived at the studio, and he played it to Brian Epstein to see if he would let them release it, but Epstein was so annoyed that he rush-released The Beatles version as a single, to squash any success that the band might have had with their version. In 1967 future jazz great Barbara Thompson joined the group on flute and saxophone, and singer Beryl Marsden was also a member for a while, although she didn't record with them. In 1968 the band released a single under the pseudonym of Gilded Cage, with Maxine Silverburg as the vocalist, and this was followed a year later by a reggae version of 'My Bonnie', which the group now say was recorded against their better judgement. One last single was released under the She Trinity name, which was a re-recording of 'Hair' - the b-side to one of their Gilded Cage singles - and on the flip was the outstanding 'Climb The Tree', which was a great piece of UK psyche, although the music was actually by a band called Onyx, with Eileen Woodman singing the lead vocal. The single didn't sell that well, and in 1970 the band quietly split up, with the various members going their own ways, but luckily they have left behind a great collection of UK pop and psyche which we can enjoy today. 

Track listing

01 He Fought The Law (single 1966)
02 The Union Station Blues (b-side of 'He Fought The Law')
03 Have I Sinned (single 1966)
04 Wild Flower (b-side of 'Have I Sinned')
05 The Man Who Took The Valise Off The Floor Of Grand Central Station At Noon (single 1966)
06 Yellow Submarine (single 1966)
07 Promise Me You'll Cry (b-side of 'Yellow Submarine')
08 Across The Street (single 1967)
09 Long Long Road (For The Broken Hearts) (single as Gilded Cage 1968)
10 Baby Grumbling (b-side of 'Long Long Road (For The Broken Hearts)')
11 My Bonnie (single as Gilded Cage 1969)
12 Hair (single 1970)
13 Climb That Tree (b-side of 'Hair')

Friday Brown - The Problem (1970)

For the final post in this series of forgotten girl singers of the 60's we go right back to one of the very first posts, from Friday Brown, in which I mentioned that Brown had written and recorded an unreleased concept albumin the early 70's. Although all of the songs and poems for it were written by Brown, with 'Gossip Song' having been originally created for two female voices, it was never completed or released. The album was put together by Ray at whitefiles.org, having been compiled from rough tracks and some studio quarter-inch tape masters, as well as other copies which had to be used because of damage to some of the master recordings. The concept documents the trials and tribulations that women faced in the late 60's in their personal lives and relationships, and is written completely from a female perspective, which in itself was pretty ground-breaking in 1970, so enjoy this lost album from an unjustly overlooked talent. 

Track listing

01 I Do Love You I
02 Today
03 Housework
04 Gossip Song
05 The Bathroom
06 Early Morning
07 Together
08 The Problem
09 Put Me Together
10 Simple Song - You And I
11 His Friends
12 Love Songs
13 Oh Woman
14 I Female
15 I'm Bored
16 The Anniversary
17 I Do Love You II

Dana - All Kinds Of Dana (1971)

Rosemary Brown was born on 30 August 1951, and was one of seven children. Her father Robert Brown had moved to London to seek employment opportunities after World War II, but when Rosemary was five, the family moved back to Derry, where she grew up in the Creggan housing estate and Bogside, and at age six, she won her first talent contest. She attended Thornhill College, a girls' Catholic school in Derry, and other children in her community nicknamed her 'Dana' (Irish for bold or mischievous) because she would practice her judo moves. Shortly before turning 16, and with the help of teacher and music promoter Tony Johnston, Brown signed with the Decca Records subsidiary label Rex Records, and recording as Dana, she debuted with the single 'Sixteen', written by Tony Johnston, while the b-side 'Little Girl Blue' was her own composition. While still studying A-level music and English, she became popular in Dublin's cabaret and folk clubs at weekends, and was crowned Queen of Cabaret at Clontarf Castle in 1968. Rex Records' secretary Phil Mitton suggested she audition for the Irish National Song Contest, due to take place in February 1969, where the winner would represent Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest. With mixed feelings due to nerves she made it through to the final in Dublin where she sang 'Look Around' by Michael Reade, later released as her fourth single, but she ended up coming second to Muriel Day singing 'Wages Of Love', also written by Reade. 

In December 1969 Tom McGrath invited her to try again the next year, feeling that one of the entered songs, the ballad 'All Kinds of Everything', would suit her. Her second attempt to win the Irish contest was a success, and on Saturday 21 March 1970, the eighteen-year-old schoolgirl performed the song at the Eurovision finals held in the Amsterdam RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre, before an estimated viewing audience of two hundred million. Perched on a stool while wearing an embroidered white mini-dress, she was the last of twelve contestants to perform that night, and after the voting had finished she was declared the winner with 32 points, beating the favourite, UK's Mary Hopkin. The winning song was released as a single on 14 March, and it shot to #1 in the Irish singles chart before the contest had even begun and stayed there for nine weeks. It also spent two weeks at the top of the UK singles chart, and was a success in Australia, Austria, Germany, Israel, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland and Yugoslavia. Her debut album 'All Kinds Of Everything' was recorded at Decca Studios in West Hampstead, London, on the weekend of 25 April 1970, being released in June, and it included four tracks co-written by the singer, as well as a new recording of the album's title track. Her follow-up single was issued in September, but Jerry Lordan's 'I Will Follow You' failed to chart, and it took her next single to break the one-hit wonder tag which threatened to define her career, with a cover of Paul Ryan's 'Who Put The Lights Out', written for his brother Barry's third album, reaching number 5 in Ireland, and number 14 in the UK. It was, however, to be her last successful single for three years, broken only by the Irish chart showing of 'Sunday Monday Tuesday' in 1973. This lack of success caused her agent to recommend she join the former head of Bell Records Dick Leahy on his new label, GTO Records, and her first single for the label was 'Please Tell Him That I Said Hello'. Within a month of its release in October 1974 it was number 7 in Ireland, and after a slow start it eventually climbed to number 8 in the UK chart. Further singles for GTO followed, with mixed success, but 'It's Gonna Be A Cold Cold Christmas' did give her a Christmas number 4 in 1975. 

In September 1976, while promoting her new single 'Fairytale', she lost her voice, and her left vocal cord, which had been cauterized the year before, required urgent surgery to remove what turned out to be a non-malignant growth, as well as a small part of the cord itself. This caused some newspapers to report on the possibility that she might never sing again, but having failed to regain her singing voice after the operation, she contacted Florence Wiese Norberg, a respected singing teacher, and with her help she resumed live performances with a week-long engagement at Caesar's Palace in Luton in December 1977. Her career has taken many unusual turns along the way, playing the part of a tinker girl in the 1971 film 'Flight Of The Doves', a children's adventure film starring Ron Moody and Jack Wild, and presenting two shows on BBC Television: a series of 'A Day With Dana' in 1974 and four series of 'Wake Up Sunday' in 1979. In 1978 she married Damien Scallon, and in 1999, as Rosemary Scallon, she stood as an independent candidate in the European elections, winning a seat in the European Parliament, representing Connacht–Ulster. Considering that her career has encompassed singer/songwriter, actress, television presenter, cabaret star, and even member of Parliament, she will forever be remembered for singing one song, and so this collection will go some way to showing how she reached that point in her career, and then how it progressed after she'd achieved world-wide stardom in 1970.   

   
Track listing

01 Sixteen ‎(single 1967)
02 Little Girl Blue (b-side of 'Sixteen')
03 Come Along, Murphy (single 1968)
04 Patrick O'Donnell (b-side of 'Come Along, Murphy')
05 Heidschi Bumbeidschi (single 1968)
06 Ten Second Girl (b-side of 'Heidschi Bumbeidschi')
07 Look Around (single 1969)
08 No Road Back (b-side of 'Look Around')
09 All Kinds Of Everything (single 1970)
10 Channel Breeze (b-side of 'All Kinds Of Everything')
11 I Will Follow You (single 1970)
12 With A Little Love (b-side of 'I Will Follow You')
13 Who Put The Lights Out (single 1971)
14 Always A Few Things (b-side of 'Who Put The Lights Out')
15 The Far Away Place (Canadian single, from the film 'Flight Of The Doves' 1971)
16 Today (single 1971)
17 Don't Cry My Love (b-side of 'Today')
18 Isn't It A Pity (single 1971)
19 Swallow Fly Away (b-side of 'Isn't It A Pity')

Clodagh Rodgers - Mister Heartache (1968)

Clodagh Rodgers was born on 5 March 1947 in Warrenpoint, County Down, in Northern Ireland, and was raised in a musical household, where her father Louis was a dancehall tour promoter. At age 12 she was appearing as warm-up for acts such as Jim Reeves and Michael Holliday, and at 14, thanks to her father’s connections, she toured Europe with Johnny Cash. By the time the tour was over, she'd been offered a recording contract with Decca Records, and so her family moved to Willesden, in north London, to allow her to seize this opportunity – only to find that Decca would leave her languishing for 18 months. The Shel Talmy-produced 'Believe Me I'm No Fool' became her first single, issued in November 1962 and credited to Cloda Rodgers, but it was ignoed by the British record-buying public. For the follow-up she was billed as Cloda Rogers, but 'Sometime Kind of Love' seemed a little dated by the time of its release in March 1963, and a third single 'To Give My Love To You' fared no better on its release three months later, although fans now tend to flip the disk for its b-side, the catchy Country 'n' Western-style 'I Only Live To Love You'. She impressed audiences as part of the UK team at Belgium's Knokke Cup that year, and also gained exposure through an appearance in the comic caper 'Just For Fun', alongside the likes of Dusty Springfield, The Breakaways and Louise Cordet, in which she sang 'Sweet Sweet Boy'. 1964's 'Mister Heartache' was her final single for Decca, and she signed a new management deal with Keith Prowse, who secured her a deal with Columbia Records, but the release of the sophisticated 'Every Day Is Just The Same', did little to engage the record-buying pubic. A third Columbia release, an updating of Ethel Waters' 1930's track 'Stormy Weather', fared no better in 1966, although on a happier note she did meet John Morris on a two-month package tour of the UK with The Walker Brothers, and they later married, with him becoming her manager. Under his professional guidance she joined RCA in 1968, issuing a couple of great singles, 'Play The Drama To The End' and 'Rhythm Of Love', both ignored by the public. On a TV appearance to promote the singles, she was spotted by US songwriter Kenny Young, a former Brill Building writer who was best known for penning 'Under The Boardwalk' for The Drifters, and he contacted RCA to offer her his latest composition 'Come Back And Shake Me', and this classic piece of late-60's pop swept up the UK charts, reaching number three in the spring of 1969. The success of the single saw Rodgers whisked into the studio to cut her first album, and as well as including the hit, Young also gave her a clutch of new songs to record for the album. From this point on she became a regular on TV variety shows, and released over half a dozen albums in the new decade, but is now probably best remembered for representing the UK in the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest with the bouncy 'Jack In The Box'. To get to that point, though, she had to pay her dues with a handful of commercially unsuccessful but artistically worthwhile singles, which are gathered here for you to judge for yourself.

Track listing

01 Believe Me I'm No Fool (single 1962)
02 End Of The Line (b-side of 'Believe Me I'm No Fool)
03 Sometime Kind Of Love (single 1963)
04 I See More Of Him (b-side of 'Sometime Kind Of Love')
05 Sweet Sweet Boy (from the film 'Just For Fun' 1964)
06 Mister Heartache (single 1964)
07 Time (b-side of 'Mister Heartache')
08 My Love Will Still Be There (from the film 'It's All Over Town' 1964) 
09 Every Day Is Just The Same (single 1966)
10 You'll Come A'Running (b-side of 'Every Day Is Just The Same')
11 Stormy Weather (single 1966)
12 Lonely Room (b-side of 'Stormy Weather')
13 Play The Drama To The End (single 1968)
14 Room Full Of Roses (b-side of 'Play The Drama to The End')
15 Rhythm Of Love (single 1968)
16 River Of Tears (b-side of Rhythm Of Love')

The Breakaways - That Boy Of Mine (1970)

The Vernons Girls were an English musical ensemble of female vocalists, put together by the Vernons football pools company, eventually settling down to a sixteen strong choir, and recording an album of standards in 1958, and issuing a string of singles throughout the early 60's. In 1962 three of the group decided to break away and form their own trio, and so Betty Prescott, Margo Quantrell and Vicki Haseman left the Vernons and called themselves The Breakaways, because that's what they had done. Heading for London, they found themselves a manager and landed a recording contract with Pye Records, but before they had a chance to record their first single they were roped in to provide backing vocals on Joe Brown and the Bruvvers' 'A Picture of You', which became a top three hit in the spring of 1962. The group’s vocal competence and adaptability soon meant that they were performing back ups for many of the top artists of the day – not just for Pye, but for a host of labels, and it is perhaps as session singers that the girls are best remembered. Their first release under their own name was a somewhat prim version of US girl group the Crystals' 'He's A Rebel', following which Prescott left the group, to be replaced by Jean Ryder. They joined Joe Brown again in the film 'Just For Fun', released in February 1963, and Haseman and Brown hit it off, later marrying and having children, including the 1980's singer Sam Brown. In November 1963 the girls were relaunched with a sexy all-in-black look to promote their new Tony Hatch-penned single 'That Boy of Mine', although for many it's the flip, a version of Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich’s 'Here She Comes' which is the better recording. Quantrell followed in the wake of Wendy Richard and Billie Davis by putting in an appearance on a novelty record by Mike Sarne, 'Hello Lover Boy', but the whole group had already backed 'That Was The Week That Was' comedian Kenneth Cope on his 'Hands Off, Stop Muckin' About' 45 earlier in the year. After backing Joe Brown on a Christmas-themed EP they released their third single 'That's How It Goes' in March 1964, while in France the Vogue label issued a four-track EP consisting of all the songs from the group's second and third singles. 

In 1965 they provided backing vocals for Burt Bacharach, achieving a credit as 'and chorus' on the huge hit 'Trains And Boats And Planes', and they also sang on another of his songs 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart' that same year. Displaying a somewhat curious choice of material, they issued a version of 'Danny Boy' in November 1965, but again it's the b-side that has gone on to be more highly regarded, with the Marty Wilde-penned 'Your kind Of Love' being a fan favourite. 1967 saw the release of the sumptuous 'Sacred Love' on CBS, while session work included providing the vocals for the Tony Hatch Sound’s version of Francis Lai's 'Live For Life', and the following year the group donned pink baby doll dresses to back Cliff Richard on the Royal Albert Hall stage in his bid for Eurovision glory with 'Congratulations'. Another label switch in 1968 failed to get them back in the charts, but the session work continued into the 70's, and the girls provided vocals on the Mark Wirtz Orchestra And Chorus album 'Come Back And Shake Me', with Quantrell giving a fine solo performance on 'I Can Hear Music'. They continued to work as session singers over the following years, both together and individually, and Vicki joined her husband's group 'Brown's Home Brew' in the early 70's, and also recorded as part of the Tree People and the New London Chorale, with The Breakaways formally splitting in the mid-70's. Their catalogue is quite a varied mix of Northern soul stompers, novelty records, well-chosen covers, and credited backing to singers like Russ Loader, but it's their perfect vocal harmonies for which they will always be remembered. 

Track listing

01 He's A Rebel (single 1962)
02 Hands Off, Stop Muckin' About (single by Ken Cope And The Breakaways 1963)
03 Why Am I So Shy (b-side of 'Hands Off, Stop Muckin' About')
04 That Boy Of Mine (single 1963)
05 Here She Comes (b-side of 'That Boy Of Mine')
06 All Things Bright And Beautiful (by Joe Brown & The Bruvvers with The Breakaways 1963)
07 The Holly And The Ivy (b-side of 'All Things Bright And Beautiful')
08 That's How It Goes (single 1964)
09 He Doesn't Love Me (b-side of 'That's How It Goes')
10 Danny Boy (single 1965)
11 Your Kind Of Love (b-side of 'Danny Boy')
12 Don't Go Breaking My Heart (single by Burt Bacharach with The Breakaways 1965)
13 Someone To Talk To (from the film 'Darling' 1965)
14 When Your Heart Is Broken (single by Russ Loader with The Breakaways 1965)
15 Live For Life (single by The Tony Hatch Sound with The Breakaways 1966)
16 Sacred Love (single 1967)
17 I Can Hear Music (from 'Come Back & Shake Me' by Mark Wirtz 1970)

Julie Grant - When The Lovin' Ends (1965)

Vivien Foreman (aka Julie Grant) was born on 12 July 1946 in Blackpool, Lancashire, and she was a keen performer even as a child, making her British stage debut as one of the Siamese children in the original production of 'The King And I' in London’s West End. After winning a talent contest at Brighton’s Butlin’s holiday camp in 1960 (beating none other than Helen Shapiro), she began singing semi-professionally in working men’s clubs in Leeds, where she then lived. Her father shared an accountant with established star Frankie Vaughan, and Julian Grant arranged an audition for her with a manager in London, giving her a new name based on his own, and she was soon signed to Pye Records. Her debut single 'Somebody Tell Him' was released in April 1962 but failed to sell, and subsequent singles 'So Many Ways' and 'When You're Smiling' suffered the same fate. Frustrated that her talent wasn’t translating into sales, Pye bosses turned to the songbook of up-and-coming writers Gerry Goffin and Carole King, and she cut a version of The Drifters' US hit 'Up On The Roof', which resulted in a UK top 40 hit in January 1963. The follow up, the bouncy 'Count On Me', made the top 30, as Grant hit the headlines over her friendship with The Beatles, and rumoured romance with George Harrison. After a change in style resulted in 'That's How Heartaches Are Made' being a flop, she returned to poppier fare with the 45s 'Don't Let Me Down' and 'Hello Love', but they couldn’t recapture her previous success, despite a national tour with The Everly Brothers and The Rolling Stones. It took the subtler 'Come To Me' in 1964 to see her back in the UK top 40, but by the time of her next release 'Baby, Baby (I Still Love You)' in January 1965, Pye had begun to lose interest in her, failing to adequately promote her next three singles, and when they all failed to chart, her contract was not renewed. Shortly afterwards she joined Spanish group The Zaras as lead singer and began touring mainland Europe and the US. She ended up moving to the States permanently, and now runs her own talent agency. While her first few singles were very much formulaic early 60's pop, around 1964 she started to cover US Motown acts, and from then on her music became more soulful, so this collection concentrates on this later, more sophisticated part of her career. 

Track listing

01 Count On Me (single 1963)

02 Then, Only Then (b-side of 'Count On Me')
03 That's How Heartaches Are Made (single 1963)
04 Cruel World (b-side of 'That's How Heartaches Are Made') 
05 Every Day I Have To Cry (single 1964)
06 Watch What You Do With My Baby (b-side of 'Every Day I Have To Cry') 
07 Lonely Without You (single 1964)
08 As Long As He Knows He's Mine (b-side of 'Lonely Without You')
09 You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You (single 1964)
10 I Only Care About You (b-side of 'You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You')
11 Come To Me (single 1964)
12 Can't Get You Out Of My Mind (b-side of 'Come To Me') 
13 Stop (single 1965)
14 When The Lovin' Ends (b-side of 'Stop') 
15 Giving Up (single 1965) 
16 'Cause I Believe In You (b-side of 'Giving Up')    
17 Baby, Baby (I Still Love You) (single 1965)
18 My World Is Empty (Without You) (b-side of 'Baby, Baby (I Still Love You)') 

The Chantelles - I Think Of You (1968)

In 1958 Iris 'Riss' Long wanted to form a vocal trio with her friend Lynne Abrams, so she put an advert in The Stage for a third member, and received a reply from Mary O'Brien, who joined the group as the third singer in The Lana Sisters. They appeared twice at the Royal Albert Hall and toured with Cliff Richard, Adam Faith, and Morecambe & Wise, and their single 'You've Got What It Takes' became a Top 10 hit in Ireland in 1960. When O'Brien left to pursue a solo career under the name Dusty Springfield, firstly with her brother Tom Springfield and another friend Tim Feild to make The Springfields, and then going solo in 1963, Long left The Lana Sisters and formed The Chantelles with two friends, Sandra Orr and Jay Adams. After establishing a name for themselves as a live act, The Chantelles landed a contract with Parlophone, and in April 1965 they issued 'I Want That Boy' as their first 45, being a cover of a song by little-known US singer Sadina. The confident production and spot-on vocal harmonies generated great interest in the record and it made the top 40 of pirate station Radio London's charts. The follow-up 'The Secret Of My Success' was released that summer, and was something of a disappointment, but the girls bounced back in October 1965 with the release of the pop gem 'Gonna Get Burned', with the flip 'Gonna Give Him Some Love' having since found favour on the UK's Northern soul dance circuit. In 1966 the group was invited to appear in the crime caper movie 'Dateline Diamonds', which also featured Kiki Dee and The Small Faces, and in it they performed 'I Think Of You' and 'Please Don't Kiss Me', both of which were issued as a single in April 1966 to coincide with the film's release. Despite some fine single releases, the group didn't enjoy much chart success following that first 45, and so in 1966 they moved to the Polydor label, who issued 'There's Something About You' later that year. When that too failed to chart they moved labels again, this time to CBS, and in 1967, in a somewhat surprising move, they were asked to record an updated version of the Gershwin standard 'The Man I Love'. Even more surprisingly, the group's second and final single for the label in 1968 wasn't even granted a UK release, with 'Out Of My Mind' only appearing in Germany and the US, where the group were billed as The Chantelles Of London to avoid confusion with the American girl group The Chantels. It was a rather ignominious end to a fine UK girl group, and there were few enough of them around, so enjoy this collection of one of the best of them. 

Track listing

01 I Want That Boy (single 1965)
02 London My Home Town (b-side of 'I Want That Boy')
03 The Secret Of My Success (single 1965)
04 Sticks And Stones (b-side of 'The Secret Of My Success')
05 Gonna Get Burned (single 1965)
06 Gonna Give Him Some Love (b-side of 'Gonna Get Burned')
07 I Think Of You (single 1966)
08 Please Don't Kiss Me (b-side of 'I Think Of You')
09 There's Something About You (single 1966)
10 Just Another Fool (b-side of 'There's Something About You')
11 The Man I Love (Single 1967)
12 Blue Mood (b-side of 'The Man I Love')
13 Out Of My Mind (single 1968)
14 More To Love (Than Moonlight) (b-side of 'Out Of My Mind')
15 Weeping Willow (out-take 1968)
16 Leader Of The Pack (out-take 1968)

Sue & Sunny - The Show Must Go On (1972)

Yvonne (Sue) and Heather (Sunny) Wheatman were born in Madras (now Chennai) in India, and after moving to Britain they eventually settled in Camberley, Surrey, where they set their sights on a career in pop. In November 1962 they signed to the Oriole label, and their first single 'Just Let Me Cry' was issued the following year under the name The Myrtelles. The song had originally been recorded by Italian singer Mina, though the version by Lesley Gore remains the best known. After quitting Oriole they signed to Columbia as Sue and Sunshine, and the Spector-esque 'A Little Love (Will Go A Long, Long Way)' was released in November 1964, with backing on the record by The Breakaways. One further 45 followed, with 'We’re In Love' backed with Sue's own composition 'Don’t Look Behind', but for future releases they adopted the name of Sue and Sunny, with their first single under the new name being a cover of the Carla Thomas song 'Every Ounce Of Strength'. This 1965 record marked the beginning of the more soulful style that the sisters would become known for, with their next single, a cover of Willie Kendrick's 'You Can't Bypass Love' being even better than the last one. With their career in the UK proving a bit of a slog, the pair jumped at the opportunity to play the US air bases in Germany, and while there they cut some records for the lucrative German market, which were issued there in 1967 and 1968, with better songs on the b-side of both releases. They returned to the UK in 1968 and were signed by CBS, but they were becoming much better known for their superlative backing vocals for many of the top performers of the day, including appearances on Joe Cocker's 'With A Little Help From My Friends', and backing Lulu at the 1969 Eurovision song contest in Madrid. They continued to release singles when they could, like 1968's 'The Show Must Go On', with ithe great Kenny Lynch-penned Motown-esque 'Little Black Book' on the flip, as well as recording as The Stockingtops. In 1969 they were finally given the opportunity to record an album, which they filled with original gospel-styled tracks and a nice selection of covers, including Curtis Mayfield's 'People Get ready', Joni Mitchell's 'Michael From Mountains', and Ike and Tina Turner's 'River Deep, Mountain High'. Later that year the sisters joined session group Brotherhood Of Man and scored a top ten UK hit with 'United We Stand in 1970. They stayed with Brotherhood Of Man for a couple of years, and in 1974 Sunny scored a UK top ten hit with 'Doctor's Orders' under her own name. Although they will always be better known in the music industry for their backing vocal work, they did release a number of great singles in their early days as a duo, so enjoy the vocal stylings of the much under-rated Sue And Sunny.  

Track listing

01 Every Ounce Of Strength (single 1965) 
02 You Can't By Pass Love (single 1965)   
03 Hans Und Franz In Germany (single 1967)
04 Shame On You (b-side of 'Hans Und Franz In Germany')
05 Wir Dummen Mädchen Sind Ja Selber Schuld (single 1968)  
06 Spielt Mir Noch Einmal Die Bye Bye Melodie (b-side of 'Wir Dummen Madchen.....)

07 The Show Must Go On (single 1968)
08 Little Black Book (b-side of 'The Show Must Go On')
09 Stop Messing Around With My Heart (b-side of 'Let Us Break Bread Together' 1969)
10 Running Round In Circles (single 1969)
11 Ain't That Tellin' You People (single 1970)
12 Didn't I Blow Your Mind (b-side of 'Ain't That Telling You People')
13 Freedom (single 1971)
14 Break Up (b-side of 'Freedom')
15 I'm Gonna Make You Love Me (single 1972) 
16 High On The Thought Of You (b-side of 'I'm Gonna Make You Love Me')

P. P. Arnold - First Cuts (1970)

Patricia Cole was born in Los Angeles, California, on 3 October 1946, and grew up singing gospel songs in the local church. At 15 she became pregnant and went on to marry the child’s father, but the marriage was not a happy one and after being offered an audition to become a member of the Ikettes in 1964, she won a place in the girl group and promptly left her abusive husband and began touring the US with Ike and Tina Tuner. When Ike and Tina Turner's now-classic 'River Deep, Mountain High' flopped in the States but became a top-three hit in the UK in the summer of 1966, the band and their backing group were offered a slot as support act for the Rolling Stones in Britain. During the tour Pat (as she was then known) became friendly with Mick Jagger, who arranged a meeting with his manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, who had just set up a record label with Tony Calder. Cole was signed up with little delay, and it was at this point that she was given the stage name P.P. Arnold. Her first duties at Immediate included supplying backing vocals for Chris Farlowe, but she also went into the studio to cut her own material, and 'Everything's Gonna Be Alright' became her debut solo single in February 1967. Written by Oldham and David Skinner, the song was a soul gem, and though it failed to chart its pounding beat has subsequently made it a favourite on the Northern soul dance scene. While on tour in a package that included Roy Orbison and the Small Faces, her second single was released in April 1967, and the Cat Stevens-penned 'The First Cut Is The Deepest' became her first hit, reaching number 18 in the UK charts.

For promotional appearances she enlisted the backing of another Immediate signing, and so The Nice were her backing band until their success meant that they needed to focus their own efforts, and they were replaced by TNT. 'The Time Has Come' was selected as the follow up single, but if fared less well that its predecessor, just scraping into the UK top 50 charts. In 1968 '(If You Think You’re) Groovy' was issued as her next single, being written by The Small Faces' Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane, and the group also performed the musical backing, but it didn't help propel the record into the charts, not being helped by distribution problems with Immediate. Three months later her first album was released, the prophetically titled 'The First Lady Of Immediate', which included her singles to date and a few new tracks, including several that she'd written herself. In July 1968 her version of 'Angel Of The Morning' saw her return to the UK charts, but once again Immediate's distributions problems meant that it only reached number 29, whereas it should have registered much higher. Nonetheless, a second album 'Kafunta' was released in August 1968 on the back of the single’s success, with this one being more ambitious than its predecessor, but perhaps including a few too many cover versions, plus one notable self-penned song 'Dreamin''. Following a surprising decision to re-issue 'The First Cut Is The Deepest' in 1969, Immediate folded the following year, after which Arnold signed to Polydor, where Barry Gibb took over production on 'Bury Me Down By The River' and 'Give A Hand, Take A Hand'. She spent much of the 70's as a backing singer, and in the early 80's she appeared in a number of TV series, including Dallas spin-off 'Knot's Landing', as well as performing in the musical 'Starlight Express', but for fans of a certain age she will always be remembered as 'the first lady of Immediate'.

Track listing

01 Everything's Gonna Be Alright (single 1967)
02 Life Is But Nothing (b-side of 'Everything's Gonna Be Alright')
03 The First Cut Is The Deepest (single 1967)
04 Speak To Me (b-side of 'The First Cut Is The Deepest')
05 The Time Has Come (single 1967)
06 If You See What I Mean (b-side of 'The Time Has Come')
07 (If You Think You're) Groovy (single 1967)
08 Though It Hurts Me Badly (b-side of '(If You Think You're) Groovy')
09 Angel Of The Morning (single 1969)
10 Bury Me Down By The River (single 1969)
11 Give A Hand, Take A Hand (b-side of 'Bury Me Down By The River')
12 Would You Believe (single 1969)
13 Am I Still Dreaming (b-side of 'Would You Believe')
14 A Likely Piece Of Work (single 1970)

Jackie Lee - Lonely Clown (1967)

Jacqueline Flood was born in Dublin, Ireland on 29 May 1936, and by the age of 14 she was singing on Irish radio and with various dance bands. After moving to London in the early 50s' she worked as a hospital lab technician until joining singing group Ronnie Aldrich’s Squadronaires, performing frequently on BBC radio with them. After changing her professional name to Jackie Lee, she left the group in April 1955 and made her recording debut for Decca Records, but 'I Was Wrong' and her subsequent single were not successful. In 1959 she joined the group The Raindrops as lead singer, but their first single 'Along Came Jones' fared no better than her solo material, and further releases suffered the same fate. In 1962 Lee took part in A Song For Europe to find the UK's entry for the Eurovision song contest, but she lost out to Ronnie Carroll's 'Ring-a-Ding Girl'. in 1963 she recorded her first German-language single 'Tschau, Tschau, Amigo', which was aimed at the lucrative German market, but that also failed to sell, and so she rejoined The Raindrops to appear in the film 'Just For You', performing their version of Little Eva's 'The Locomotion'. Within a year she'd quit the group and released 'I Cry Alone', written by up and coming songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David, but it did no better than any of her other records, as did her next two singles. The quality of her records definitely increased, even if this didn't translate into commercial sales, and both 'The Town I Live In' and 'You Too (Can Have Heartaches)' were strong songs. For her next single she was renamed Emma Rede, but 1967's 'Just Like A Man' also disappeared without trace, although the b-side 'I Gotta Be With You' has since found favour on Britain’s Northern soul scene. Due to the lack of success of 'Just Like A Man', a planned second single, a recording of 'Window Cleaner', only reached acetate stage, and later that year she reverted to the Jackie Lee name for the strident 'Born To Lose', from the film 'Robbery!', to the same response as all her other releases. Undespondent, she kept busy with a variety of engagements as leader of two groups of session singers, Tears Of Joy and the Jackie Lee Singers. In January 1968, under the name Jacky, she released 'White Horses', which was the theme to a Czech children’s TV programme, and she finally got the hit single that she'd spent so long trying to achieve, spending three months in the UK charts in early 1968, peaking at number ten. Even though the follow-up single 'We’re Off And Running' didn't emulate that success, she was able to release the 'White Horses' album off the back of her hit single. She carried on recording and releasing singles well into the mid-70's, but this collection is to highlight the fact that despite their lack of commercial success, her 60's singles are all worth hearing, and as a special bonus there's also an E.P. from her alter ego Emma Rede.  

Track listing

01 There Goes The Lucky One (single with The Raindrops 1962)
02 There's No-One In The Whole Wide World (single with The Raindrops 1962)
03 (I Was The) Last One To Know (b-side of 'There's No-One In The Whole Wide World')
04 The End Of The World (Ended When You Said Goodbye) (single 1963)
05 Goodbye Is Such A Lonely Word (b-side of 'The End Of The World')
06 Down Our Street (single with The Raindrops 1963)
07 My Heart Is Your Heart (b-side of 'Down Our Street')
08 Come On Dream, Come On (single with The Raindrops 1963)
09 Here I Go Again (b-side of 'Come On Dream, Come On')
10 I Cry Alone (single 1964)
11 Cause I Love Him (b-side of 'I Cry Alone')
12 Lonely Clown (single 1965)
13 Love Is Gone (b-side of 'Lonely Clown')
14 I Know Know Know I’ll Never Love Love Love Anyone Else (single 1966)
15 So Love Me (b-side of 'I Know Know Know I’ll Never Love Love Love Anyone Else')
16 The Town I Live In (single 1966) 
17 You Too (Can Have Heartaches) (b-side of 'The Town I Live In')
18 It's A Big Mistake ‎(acetate 1966)
19 Till You Come Back To Me ‎(acetate 1966)
20 Your Other Love ‎(acetate 1966)
21 Born To Lose (single 1967)

Bonus E.P. by Emma Rede

Track listing

01 Just Like A Man (single 1967)
02 I Gotta Be With You (b-side of 'Just Like A Man')
03 Ever Or Never At All ‎(acetate 1967)
04 Window Cleaner (acetate 1967)
05 Someday You'll Love Me (acetate 1967)
06 For The Last Time (previously unreleased)
07 This Is My Love (previously unreleased)
08 When He Wants A Woman (previously unreleased)

Christine Quaite - Guilty Eyes (1966)

Christine Quaite was born in Leeds, Yorkshire on May 11th, 1948, and although both her grandfather and uncle were professional dancers, they didn't influence her musically. She began singing at the age of eight, when she entered a seaside talent contest in the Yorkshire resort of Bridlington, and finding that she enjoyed it, she went on to enter many similar competitions. She later joined the Judean Club, a Jewish youth club in Leeds, where other members included future pop singer Julie Grant, and Jeff Christie, who would later have a major international success with his group Christie's 'Yellow River' single. The club would put on a show every couple of weeks, and Quaite was one of the singers, while pianist Paul Conway also directed the shows. At one of her competitions Quaite came second, receiving a recording contract from Oriole Records as a prize, and as the b-side for her second single she used a song that Conway had written for one of their shows. She was only 13 at the time, but her powerful voice belied her tender years, and her first record 'Oh My', backed with 'Guilty Eyes', was released in 1962, followed by a cover of Johnny Crawford's 'Your Nose Is Gonna Grow', with the original 'Our Last Chance' on the flip. Her third single 'Whisper Wonderful Words' borrowed the tune from Bizet's 'Habanera' from 'Carmen', with lyrics added to make it a pop song. Being a recording artist in her early teens, her life was very complicated, and her school would never allow her time off to visit the recording studio, so she had to play truant to make her records. Despite some minor commercial success in the US with 'Tell Me Mama', none of her singles charted in the UK, and her contract with Oriole ceased when the label went bankrupt in 1964. She continued doing TV, radio and cabaret work around the country, and in June 1965 she signed with manager-producer-songwriter Bunny Lewis, with Lewis' Ritz Productions company signing her to a new recording contract with Laurie Records of New York, in the expectation it would guarantee her further releases there. Her first record under the new deal was a Bobby Goldsboro song, 'If You've Got A Heart', which reached acetate stage in the US but was never released, and this was followed by Bacharach/David's 'Long After Tonight Is All Over'. Both singles were, however, issued in the UK on the Stateside label, but these were to be her last recordings. At the time of her last single she was still only 18 years old, and it seems unbelievable that her recording career was over at such a young age, but she did leave behind a clutch of excellent singles, especially the later soul-influenced ones, and so hopefully this collection will bring her to the attention of an appreciative new audience.

Track listing

01 Oh My! (single 1962)
02 Guilty Eyes ‎(b-side of 'Oh My!')
03 Your Nose Is Gonna Grow (‎single 1962)
04 Our Last Chance (b-side of 'Your Nose Is Gonna Grow')
05 Mister Heartache ‎(single 1963)
06 Whisper Wonderful Words (b-side of 'Mister Heartache')
07 Tell Me Mama (single 1963)
08 In The Middle Of The Floor (b-side of 'Tell Me Mama')
09 Here She Comes (single 1964)
10 I Believe In Love (b-side of' Here She Comes')
11 Mr. Stuck-Up (single 1964)
12 Will You Be The Same Tomorrow (b-side of 'Mr. Stuck-Up')
13 Huggin' My Pillow (acetate 1964) 
14 If You've Got A Heart (single 1965)
15 So Near, So Far (b-side of 'If You've Got A Heart')
16 Long After Tonight Is All Over (single 1966)
17 I'm Hoping (b-side of 'Long After Tonight Is All Over')