It’s a sad comment on the music industry that so many genres from the 50s and 60s were considered boys’ territory. Doo-wop and vocal surf music both produced great femme examples that often got overlooked and, with this collection, we see the same was true of the distaff side of beat music.
There were plenty of girl groups who wanted to operate as active musicians with their own instrumentation, as opposed to being petticoated puppets. Their subsequent gutsy reaction comes through strongly here on examples from both sides of the Atlantic. She Trinity sound powerful on I Fought The Law and Climb That Tree, while the foxy foursome CD front sleeve stars, The Debutantes, turn in an attractive cover of Shake A Tail Feather. Ann- Margaret sounds great on You Turned My Head Around, as does Sharon Tandy on her better known Hold On, while Beverly Jones turns away from her earlier Spector covers to deliver a gutsy Hear You Talking. Perhaps, however, the set is best illustrated by a speedy version of Shakin’ All Over from Raylene & The Blue Angels, where serious intent is topped off with stronger lead voice than on some of the other cuts.
