In 1961, when the girl-group era ramped up in the U.S. with the Marvelettes' Please Mister Postman, Europe and Scandinavia began producing their own female pop-rock groups and solo artists. Many were quite good, but few ever made it to the charts in the States. Instead, they developed hits and a following in their home countries. Today, most Americans are still largely unaware of the sizable foreign female pop movement in the '60s and the depth of the output. Enter Ace Records, a British re-issue label in London.
Over the past six years, Ace has released a wave of artfully packaged and relentlessly satisfying "beat girl" CDs with liner notes that feature detail-rich essays, photos and recording dates. The label's releases include compilations of singles by female pop singers from Sweden, Britain and France—the recording centers of Euro-pop in the 1960s. While most of the beat-girl singles are less soulful than the acts on Motown and Stax, the quality of the pop songs, singing and orchestrations is quite good—particularly the material from Sweden and the U.K.
Two worthy CDs released by Ace this year are The Girls Want the Boys! Sweden's Beat Girls 1964-1970 and Love Hit Me! Decca Beat Girls 1962-1970. Both are superb. The Swedish collection features a fascinating mix of pop singles sung in Swedish and broken English. Some of the songs are hip covers of American hits, such as Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) and Music to Watch Girls By—both sung in Swedish. All of the sides from Sweden have a strong beat, strong pop sensibility and female singers with cool, husky voices.
Interesting Swedish singers here include Anni-Frid Lyngstad (who would become a member of ABBA), Britt Bergström, Bella And Me, and Lill Lindfors.
Love Hit Me! features British beat girls who recorded for Decca between 1962 and 1970. On these sides, you hear an even bigger beat than the Swedish approach. Decca was in a hurry to make up for lost ground. The label had two big misfires at the dawn of the 1960s. Decca refused to release Ray Peterson's cover of Tell Laura I Love Her—a song by Jeff Barry and Ben Raleigh about the dying wish of a drag-race crash victim that went to #1 in the U.K. when recorded by Ricky Valance at EMI. Decca also passed on signing the Beatles.
Included on this album is Twinkle, Barry St. John (her Hey Boy is a killer), Marianne Faithful, the Exceptions, Beverley and Babbity Blue.
Ace also has released several French pop beat-girl collections. The best of the bunch is C'est Chic! French Girl Singers Of The 1960's. Most of the French pop-rock writers seemed to be too busy aping what was going on in Britain to develop a singular sound of their own while many of the singers were off key or worked overtime to sound 12 years old. Sometimes the sound could be grating. The collection above does a good job of featuring the shrewdest material, such as Les Filles C'est Fait Pour Faire L'amour by Charlotte Leslie, A La Fin Tu Gagneras by Jocelyne, and Roller Girl by Anna Karina. Even Petula Clark turns up here on Donne Moi. Many pop fans may be unaware that throughout the 1950s, Pet spoke and sang in fluent French, making her a star there.
If you dig '60s pop or are curious about what was going on across the Atlantic, you'll find much of this material addictive, whether you understand what the female Swedish and French artists are singing or not. And listening to the cultural contrasts in the hooks, beats and instrumentation is fascinating stuff. Kudos to Ace for taking this material seriously and teasing out the fun.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find the Swedish collection here, the British Decca collection here and the French collection here.
JazzWax clips: Here Sweden's Anni-Frid Lyngstad...
Here's Britain's Barry St. John...
And here's France's Charlotte Leslie...
from JazzWax http://ift.tt/2gNjyEF
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