The Very Best of the Shirelles [Rhino, 1994]Shhh--quiet with your Chantels and Shangri-Las. Mmmm--later for Martha and the Marvelettes. Shirley Owens and her junior high pals were the archetypal girl group, the original and always the greatest. They had more than 16 perfect records in them, but although this omits "The Things I Want To Hear" and "It's Love That Really Counts" from Scepter's Greatest Hits, which is merely one of the greatest phonograph albums ever made available to the general public, it compensates with "Boys" and "Foolish Little Girl" and "I Met Him on Sunday" and "Don't Say Goodnight and Mean Goodbye." Then there are all the ones you know and a bunch you may not, topped by "A Thing of the Past," where Shirley's failure to hit a high note realizes the rock and roll essence John Lennon only thought he heard in "Angel Baby." Sweetened and seasoned by forgotten smoothie Luther Dixon, she was one of the music's great unspoiled singers, more expressive than all but a handful of the showoffs who followed in her brave footsteps--proud, tender, intensely vulnerable, her womanly sexuality tied to an emotional life richer than the guys she adores will ever be able to handle. A+
>>122590282based, 60s girl groups are criminally underrated
>>122590282He's doing it for good boy male feminist points. Typical Christgau.
>>122590282>>122590546the Marvelettes and Martha and the Vandallas kept going into the late 60s but some other groups like the Shirelles and Orlons quickly went kaput when the British Invasion happened; they just couldn't adapt
>>122590282>and a bunch you may notHopefully you'd better not know their shit cover of Tommy Dorsey's "The Music Goes Round and Round." I listened so you don't have to.
I've heard on authority (or to say Steve Hoffman Forum) that the singles versions of their hits are better sounding than the LP releases, more punch to them.
>>122591465we know a bunch of old men with fried ears are a great judge of audio fidelity, no?
>>122593255They're audiophiles, they know what they're talking about
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zAX5StHD6Ahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB96YI66gk4You be the judge. The LP one has more space to it and is set up for stereo but the 45 mix is more compressed so it's punchier sounding.
>>122591038The Marvelettes and Vandellas were part of the Motown machine which met the British Invasion head-on and only got stronger for it. The Brill Building groups didn't fare as well. Those writers just gave up trying to hook the youth audience and focused on more mature artists like Dionne Warwick, who I think Christgau even described as "the girl group's big sister".
>>122591465Most collectors will tell you the same thing. They were meant to be heard through crappy transistor radio speakers.
doo wop really sucks i'm sorry
>>122595903The Shirelles were really just pop, they didn't even have the cliched "dun dun dun dun" doo-wop rhythm on most of their hits.
>>122591038The later stuff like "Here I Am Baby" sounding a little chiller and more adult and not as adolescent as "Please Mr. Postman."
