The Second Disc | Expanded and Remastered Music News

If you want to know Where the Girls Are, look no further than two of Ace Records latest releases. The eighth installment of the labels Where the Girls Are series is a grab-bag of the best girl-group pop youve never heard, while The Artistry of Brenda Holloway gives a much-deserved spotlight to the underrated Motown vocalist who so often found herself in the shadows of Diana Ross or Martha Reeves.

Where the Girls Are Volume 8, compiled and annotated by Malcolm Baumgart and Mick Patrick, offers 25 girl-pop nuggets that sound as fresh today as when they were first recorded in the 1960s. There arent many familiar artists represented, but one group with top-tier credentials here is certainly The Blossoms. When Lou Adler launched his Ode Records, it was with a 45 of the Darlene Love-led groups rendition of Laura Nyros Stoney End. Here, then, is their follow-up, Nick Ashford, Valarie Simpson and Jo Armsteads Cry Like a Baby, previously recorded by none other than Aretha Franklin. The Blossoms, who got their due as perhaps the preeminent group of background singers in the recent film Twenty Feet from Stardom, are also heard on I Still Like Rock and Roll under the pseudonym The Darlenes. The latter was produced by Lee Hazlewood for the Stacy label, who frequently utilized the girls under a variety of names largely intended to fool his then-rival Phil Spector. Speaking of Spector, his onetime Teddy Bears partner Carol Connors future Academy Award-winning songwriter of Gonna Fly Now from Rocky gets a slot here with the deliciously sassy My Baby Looks, But He Dont Touch.

Another familiar name here is Little Eva. Her post-Dimension Records output is infrequently revisited, so its a treat to hear her 1965 cover of Stand by Me with unusually rocking guitar! Stand by Me is just one of the songs on Volume 8 from the production team of Feldman-Goldstein-Gotteher, recipients of a previous Ace anthology all their own. (Where the Girls Are affords the label the chance to revisit past subjects, and indeed this volume complements many previous titles in the Ace catalogue.) Also from the F-G-G team is The Four Havens Gee, But Hes Fine, Ravita Marcells Thats My Man, and Diane Christians Why Dont the Boy Leave Me Alone. Grammar notwithstanding, this is one of those productions that shouldnt have missed. The angst-ridden teen drama is set to a big, bold, string-laden arrangement, and offers a powerful lead and tight vocal harmony in other words, all of the ingredients for a hit.

Van McCoy, another past Ace subject, wrote Carol Slades I Wanna Know Right Now with strings adding a hint of elegance, and wrote and produced Kendra Spotswoods classy Stickin with My Baby. Though information as to some of these artists has been lost to time, Baumgart and Patrick have done an exceptional job tracking many down. We learn, for instance, that Spotswood was a New Jersey singer once known as Sandi Sheldon and a part-time touring Shirelle!

The Bonnets Ya Gotta Take a Chance, recorded at Los Angeles famed Gold Star studio, would have fit snugly on Aces Phils Spectre series. Its a dead ringer for Spectors bombastic Wall of Sound productions, and writer/producer Al Allen recalls Hal Blaine being the man responsible for the thunderous drums, and Larry Levine or Stan Ross engineering. The music of New York writer-producer Bert Berns was also anthologized by Ace, and here, the Bang Records founder is represented with two quirky tracks from a group alternately dubbed The Pussycats and The Witches (Berns and Farrells My Little Baby arranged by Artie Butler, and Come On and Ska, with a Teacho Wiltshire chart, respectively).

There has yet to be a definitive history of the early recordings of Philadelphias Mighty Three trio of Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff and Thom Bell, but there are a handful of choice titles here that should set the pulse racing of any Philly Soul fan. The Orlons I Aint Comin Back was co-written by Gamble and produced by Gamble and Huff, and is a quintessential slice of uptempo Philly pop-soul circa 1965. Huff co-wrote No, No Baby for The Sherrys, and the Madara/White production on Mercury was a deliciously defiant slab of girl group goodness with a Steve Douglas-esque honking sax solo, a rollicking piano part and potent horns. The third member of the Mighty Three, Thom Bell, co-wrote Nikki Blus (Whoa Whoa) I Love Him So with Chubby Checker who also produced! Theres no sign of Bells future lush style here, but the track is another sassy, danceable and catchy nugget with prominent piano and punchy brass.

In addition, Philly fans will find 1965s rousing Gotta Have Your Love from The Sapphires a Brill Building gem by Tony Powers (early partner of Ellie Greenwich) and Jack Keller, produced by Jerry Ross and arranged by Jimmy Wiz Wisner plus the future Mrs. Gamble Dee Dee Sharp, with a female spin on Mel Tormes cool Comin Home Baby.

Theres more after the jump on both Where the Girls Are and The Artistry of Brenda Holloway! Read the rest of this entry

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The Second Disc | Expanded and Remastered Music News