Be My Baby [music]
The subtitle 'The girls of the sixties', but that's when all the acts were at their peaks. A few of the tracks are actually from the 50s and 70s. (There's a small note explaining this on the back of the sleeve, which wasn't obvious on Amazon.) I'd imagined from the title that the music would be all Motown-esque girl groups, but it's a little more diverse than that. The tracks are arranged in a vaguely chronological order, the earlier stuff mainly being on the first disc and the later stuff on the last one, and, as always with anything 1960s, my liking for the music wears off as the decade progresses. Disc three has things like Janis Joplin singing 'Me And Bobby McGee', Merrilee Rush's 'Angel of the Morning' and Cher doing a cover 'Sunny'. Not really my sort of thing.
Disc one is where it's at, as far as I'm concerned. It opens with The Ronettes doing 'Be My Baby'. And then comes The Crystals doing 'Then He Kissed Me', and The Supremes with 'You Can't Hurry Love'. There are a few tracks on disc one that don't quite fit the patterns – Peggy Lee's 'Fever' and Doris Day's 'Move Over Darling', but I really like them, so they're not really a problem.
Disc two has more of the Brits, like Petula Clark, Sandie Shaw, Cilla (doing 'Something Tells Me'; one of her less screechy ones), and of course the mighty Dusty. (I don't own a purely Dusty CD. WHY DO I NOT HAVE DUSTY IN MEMPHIS? Stupid Mim.) It makes a tolerable alternative when I've listened to disc one too many times, and it does have a bit of Ronettes, Crystals and others on.
I don't have any regrets about buying this set, even if disc three won't get played very often. It wasn't very pricy, and fills the Motown/Wall of Sound gap in my music collection nicely.
For now, at any rate…
I'm not sure I'd lump Janis in with "girl bands" either but the problem is she doesn't quite fit anywhere. Whatever you do, don't take your hair inspiration from Janis-take it from Dusty.
ReplyDeleteThe set sounds like a good collection of, "Sing Along Songs" that everyone knows the lyrics to, and can pass time on a walk or a road trip.
We have loads of these type pf collections and there are always a few odd tracks flung on them somewhere that make no sense! This sounds like a good one though x
ReplyDeleteI like the sound of disc one and two. I love the Motown girl bands, but now that I think of it, I don't think I have any Motown, apart from the odd song on a 1960s compilation. I'm quite a big fan of Sandie & Dusty, so I guess disc two would be my favourite. xxx
ReplyDeleteStrangely, I don't collect music.
ReplyDeleteI don't even like to chose it.
I prefer radio, and what ever the DJ is playing. I suppose making a choice is sometimes to much of a bother to me. :)
I'll have disc three, it sounds far more up my street!
ReplyDeleteMotown and 1960s girl bands always remind me of naff weddings and our awful girls' school disco. xxx
I dont collect any music, I like 30s and 50s pandora radio. I do have a few kitschy albums for the covers. My favorite is my touch of leonard nimoy album
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of Motown, or girl groups and singers generally, but I like the odd bit here and there. I surprised myself by quite liking Mary Ford recently though.
ReplyDeleteCher is from my hometown & she came to Nepal about 7 yrs ago!!!
ReplyDeleteI saw Petula at the Sonoma county fair as a child.
I always thought the Ronettes were more badass than the Shangri-las?