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April 18, 2024


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The Girl Group Sound: 25 All-Time Greatest Hits From Red Bird Records (Varese Sarabande)

By: Gary "Pig" Gold

SO very much more than simply a sequel-of-sorts to Sarabande's AD 2000 "All-Time Greatest Girl Groups" collection, "The Girl Group Sound" focuses exclusively upon walls of sound constructed for -- and more than often BY -- that crack team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, as originally released in seven-inch slabs on their pioneering Red Bird and Blue Cat labels 'way back when. Um, call them a Stiff Records (and Edmunds / Lowe) of the Sixties if you must, but Leiber and Stoller in their own mischievous way always were eyeing the toppermost of the Beatle-stuffed charts, and you know what? Despite all mop-topped odds, they actually MADE it quite a few times!

Yep, you'll recognize all those classics ("The Boy From New York City" and "Chapel Of Love" most obviously), and hopefully along the way even discover for yourself a few should'a-beens as well (ie: ever heard the ORIGINAL version of "Go Now"?!!) But needless to say it's Shadow Morton's epic Shangri-La's productions herein ("Remember Walking In The Sand," "Give Him A Great Big Kiss" and, of course, "Leader Of The Pack") that still steal the show, as Clearasil-effective now as they were in '64.

No sir, to this very day they just can't make records like these anymore, which is why this disc is here --..and should be in YOUR collection as well, immediately.

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