This is not a new Ace series of girlgroup rarities but, instead, a collection of songs with girls’ names in the titles. Such a concept has been well used in the US, often on doo wop collections that did at least have a musical genre in common.
While this collection is subtitled “Ponytail Pop 1955-1965”, it gathers together a wide variety of artists whose styles are, at best, disparate. Eddie Holland’s Jamie and Eddie Cochran’s wonderfully powerful Jeannie, Jeannie, Jeannie sit alongside Fabian, Frankie Avalon and Neil Sedaka. Group fans will enjoy obscurities from The Valentines, The Passions and The Diamonds, but will also duplicate tracks from The Beach Boys and Jan & Dean that they will already have several times over. Having said that, any collection that includes Arthur Alexander’s Anna, Joe Turner’s Corrine, Corrina and Gene Pitney’s own version of Hello Mary Lou has something going for it.
