The latest in a lovingly compiled series which has cut sensible cross-sections through the minor hits and leather-skirted misses lost in the deluge of 60s girl pop. After (back-) combing methodically through the ballgown bouncers, the Faithfull-led folkers and late- 60s soul-rockers, this round-up reflects the shift from doo wop backing and frantic beat to a more soulful sound that emerged between 1962 and ’66.
It’s no mere mopping up of a single label’s output, and the sleevenotes are full of anecdotal sparkle. Polly Perkins’ novelty You Too Can Be A Beatle is a clattering early highlight, along with Billie Davis’ cheeky cover of That Boy John (did she really turn down a date with Lennon when she was supporting the Fabs?). The midperiod high is Carol Friday’s ‘bad boy’ classic Gone Tomorrow (“Something made me stare at him/Sitting there in blue denim”), followed by a welter of belters from the fringe of the Northern scene. Marion Angel’s Tomorrow’s Fool; Jacki Bond’s Why Can’t I Love Him (from the exotic Strike label) and Van Lenton’s Immediate obscurity, You Don’t Care, are top of the bobs.
