All Women, All The Time

The One Kiss Can Lead To Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found box set is astonishing. I'm only on Disc 1 and already I'm blown away by how great these obscure songs are. Rhino did a good job of casting a wide net -- it's got The Marvelettes and The Chiffons, of course, but it also has early (I mean early) Dolly Parton, Dusty Springfield, Wanda Jackson...and dozens of short-lived groups who faded into obscurity, but not without leaving joyous, moving, emotional music for me to listen to and marvel at in 2006. It also has the originals of many songs that would later be hits for The Moody Blues, The Zombies and other latecomers with the taste to cover them and the fame to ensure they got heard.

The closest analog is the Beg, Scream and Shout box set, in that it provides a window into a music scene that boasted way more talent than the tip of the iceberg represented on our oldies stations. I loved Be My Baby, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, and all those other classics, but I really had no idea there was so much bench strength in the girl group scene.

The remastering is gorgeous. I've certainly never heard such vibrancy and immediacy in recordings from this time period.

It's hard to pick tracks from this, but here's a sampling:

The Cookies -- I Never Dreamed
Ellie Greenwich -- You Don't Know
Bessie Banks -- Go Now

Some other things I've been digging on lately:

Casey Dienel -- Dr Monroe. I'll see your Nellie McKay and raise you a less precious, more interesting jazz-influenced-but-not-enslaved piana-playin' songwriter

Shelley Short -- Like Anything, It's Small. Charming.