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Lately, I've been obsessed with Bette Midler, though I don't quite remember what started this obsession -- there's at least a noticeable gap between this and when I made my queer history playlist. So far I've listened to her first two albums, her first live album, the two tribute albums she's made for a couple of individual artists, and her latest studio album, It's the Girls, itself a tribute to an entire....genre? class? mode? of music, that of the girl group. To this end, I've made the following:
Yeah, this eighteen-hour-long playlist is a lot more documentary than the last one I posted, as it is, for the most part, a compilation of compilations, contextualizing most of the Bette Midler albums I mentioned, and by extension recapitulating the general importance of the girl group to modern pop music. First you have the prototypical girl group, the Boswell Sisters, followed by their immediate successors the Andrews Sisters. Honestly, as someone who doesn't actually live in the U.S., I don't think I'd have heard of these groups without first hearing Bette's versions of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" or "It's the Girl", but listening to them now, I can understand why they're considered so foundational.
The Chordettes' "Mr. Sandman" I have heard before, though I don't quite remember how, and the DeCastro Sisters were originally billed as the Cuban Andrews Sisters, but I don't have too much confidence in the staying power of what compilations are available for their music, so I only included a couple of singles each. Then there are the big multi-artist compilations of girl groups proper, 2001's Girl Group Greats and 1990's The Best of the Girl Groups, with redundant tracks removed. Another big multi-artist compilation follows, though unlike the previous ones they're united by their producer, the titanic (and abusive, but he's dead now) Phil Spector, then it's back to single-artist compilations.
Phil's wall-of-sound technique is generally applied to songs that, while important to the genre, are ultimately bubblegum, so it's appropriate to have the first of these single-artist compilations be that of the Shangri-Las, where Spector's technique was often applied to songs as serious as "Leader of the Pack" or "I Can Never Go Home Anymore". Following them are a number of singles from the Chiffons and the Cookies, two other bands which featured at least twice in the multi-artist compilations I mentioned: the singles I included, aside from the repeats, were those to be found in the somewhat bloated compilation One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds, Lost & Found. After these you have Martha and the Vandellas, where I used one of Spotify's generic compilations and rearranged it according to their 1966 Greatest Hits, though I include as "bonus tracks" the major singles of theirs which immediately succeeded this album. "Come and Get These Memories", "Heatwave", and "Dancing in the Street" -- that sequence really sells, at least for me, just how much of a reference girl groups have been for later, presumably more serious artists.
The next group is the Marvelettes, whose vocal variety is somewhat unique here -- most other girl groups typically have the one girl singing lead, but here there are at least two -- and then the group that's probably the best, but definitely my favourite: the Shirelles. I knew of the Shirelles before I even knew of the Shirelles, as the handful of non-girl group tracks I've included immediately after theirs testify: their iconic "Boys" and "Baby, It's You" were covered by the Beatles for their first album.
The Beatles themselves would be covered by the last of the classic girl groups I've included, whose story has been archetypal since before it was retold in the musical Dreamgirls; here, I've recreated the 1974 version of their album Anthology. Really, the Supremes were not the Supremes without Diana Ross, but to get the full idea of their (mutual) loss, I've also included the best of the group's output with Jean Terrell and, for contrast, the 1976 Diana Ross' Greatest Hits and an Ann Peebles compilation.
Why have Ann Peebles represent the parallel tradition of non-girl-group soul? To compare with Diana Ross's solo output is the excuse; really, it's because she's one of the solo female artists the divine Miss M covers in her first two albums, which are both included here, along with her aforementioned live and tribute albums. Eh, I'm still obsessed -- but, as she nods to the girl group's continuing existence in this present day with a cover of "Waterfalls", I've also cut between her live album and her latest work the singles from the classic TLC album CrazySexyCool.
What other contemporary girl groups do I enjoy? To be honest, I'm not sure: I don't really listen to the Spice Girls and the numerous outfits they inspired, I generally prefer Beyonce's solo work than all that she produced as part of Destiny's Child, and the one Japanese group I listen to -- Chai -- is more of a girl band than a girl group. Still, in this plainly sexist world we live in, one has to acknowledge how much harder woman artists would have it without the pioneering work of, say, Diana Ross and the Supremes, and that isn't to acknowledge the virtues imparted in-and-of-themselves by, say, the tight harmonization of the Boswell Sisters, the dark romanticism of the Shangri-las, or the mature tenderness of the Shirelles. But what about you? What's your experience with girl groups?
Yeah, this eighteen-hour-long playlist is a lot more documentary than the last one I posted, as it is, for the most part, a compilation of compilations, contextualizing most of the Bette Midler albums I mentioned, and by extension recapitulating the general importance of the girl group to modern pop music. First you have the prototypical girl group, the Boswell Sisters, followed by their immediate successors the Andrews Sisters. Honestly, as someone who doesn't actually live in the U.S., I don't think I'd have heard of these groups without first hearing Bette's versions of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" or "It's the Girl", but listening to them now, I can understand why they're considered so foundational.
The Chordettes' "Mr. Sandman" I have heard before, though I don't quite remember how, and the DeCastro Sisters were originally billed as the Cuban Andrews Sisters, but I don't have too much confidence in the staying power of what compilations are available for their music, so I only included a couple of singles each. Then there are the big multi-artist compilations of girl groups proper, 2001's Girl Group Greats and 1990's The Best of the Girl Groups, with redundant tracks removed. Another big multi-artist compilation follows, though unlike the previous ones they're united by their producer, the titanic (and abusive, but he's dead now) Phil Spector, then it's back to single-artist compilations.
Phil's wall-of-sound technique is generally applied to songs that, while important to the genre, are ultimately bubblegum, so it's appropriate to have the first of these single-artist compilations be that of the Shangri-Las, where Spector's technique was often applied to songs as serious as "Leader of the Pack" or "I Can Never Go Home Anymore". Following them are a number of singles from the Chiffons and the Cookies, two other bands which featured at least twice in the multi-artist compilations I mentioned: the singles I included, aside from the repeats, were those to be found in the somewhat bloated compilation One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds, Lost & Found. After these you have Martha and the Vandellas, where I used one of Spotify's generic compilations and rearranged it according to their 1966 Greatest Hits, though I include as "bonus tracks" the major singles of theirs which immediately succeeded this album. "Come and Get These Memories", "Heatwave", and "Dancing in the Street" -- that sequence really sells, at least for me, just how much of a reference girl groups have been for later, presumably more serious artists.
The next group is the Marvelettes, whose vocal variety is somewhat unique here -- most other girl groups typically have the one girl singing lead, but here there are at least two -- and then the group that's probably the best, but definitely my favourite: the Shirelles. I knew of the Shirelles before I even knew of the Shirelles, as the handful of non-girl group tracks I've included immediately after theirs testify: their iconic "Boys" and "Baby, It's You" were covered by the Beatles for their first album.
The Beatles themselves would be covered by the last of the classic girl groups I've included, whose story has been archetypal since before it was retold in the musical Dreamgirls; here, I've recreated the 1974 version of their album Anthology. Really, the Supremes were not the Supremes without Diana Ross, but to get the full idea of their (mutual) loss, I've also included the best of the group's output with Jean Terrell and, for contrast, the 1976 Diana Ross' Greatest Hits and an Ann Peebles compilation.
Why have Ann Peebles represent the parallel tradition of non-girl-group soul? To compare with Diana Ross's solo output is the excuse; really, it's because she's one of the solo female artists the divine Miss M covers in her first two albums, which are both included here, along with her aforementioned live and tribute albums. Eh, I'm still obsessed -- but, as she nods to the girl group's continuing existence in this present day with a cover of "Waterfalls", I've also cut between her live album and her latest work the singles from the classic TLC album CrazySexyCool.
What other contemporary girl groups do I enjoy? To be honest, I'm not sure: I don't really listen to the Spice Girls and the numerous outfits they inspired, I generally prefer Beyonce's solo work than all that she produced as part of Destiny's Child, and the one Japanese group I listen to -- Chai -- is more of a girl band than a girl group. Still, in this plainly sexist world we live in, one has to acknowledge how much harder woman artists would have it without the pioneering work of, say, Diana Ross and the Supremes, and that isn't to acknowledge the virtues imparted in-and-of-themselves by, say, the tight harmonization of the Boswell Sisters, the dark romanticism of the Shangri-las, or the mature tenderness of the Shirelles. But what about you? What's your experience with girl groups?