A trawl through the Polydor, Mercury, Philips and Fontana labels throws up 20 very desirable, teen trauma tracks. Hear Jenny Wren's fierce anguish on Chasing My Dreams All Over Town! Hear Kiki Dee's perfect Spector pastiche Miracles! Hear Pattie Lane's crying solo on Paper Dreams! And then there's Claire Francis' But I Don't Care, which is one of the most dramatic, exquisite Girl Group 45s of them all. This is the best compilation of UK girl pop since the genre-kickoff Here Come The Girls some two decades back. Sleevenotes by blonde bombshell Sheila B, the Diana Dors of NYC.
The Brit girl emerged at the tail end of America's pop renaissance and on the brink of a British beat boom, sweetly situated between the Ronettes and the Rolling Stones, and in the care of producers and writers who thrived on pop's endless possibilities. Up until 1963, female singers had to make do with Brenda Lee hand-me-downs and obvious American standards. Even Helen Shapiro, EMI's proud bastion of the 1961 teenage girl, still exemplified the adult vision of pop. It would take an influx of self-contained boy bands and fanatical producers to overthrow the old guard and redefine the music biz in British terms—with American pop as a point of reference rather than the template.
Once England found its edge, the productions-whether homemade or American-ripped-bore a distinctive U.K. sound. Producers and writers raised on America's vast palette of pop showed a determination to outdo their U.S. competition and found willing guinea pigs in scores of singing schoolgirls. Together they breathed new life into female pop, spiking the Tin Pan Alley formula with folk, beat, and boundless Britpop dreams. Quality was always high, and the hunger for a hit audible on every release.
Come 1964, one could barely keep track of the legions of girls waiting to get on tape. Girl pop reproduced at a frightening rate, but without a Brian Epstein or Andrew Loog Oldham to whisk you from the coat check counter to Friday night appearances on Ready, Steady, Go!, there was no thanking your lucking stars for many of these gals. The pop charts were swift and unjust, barring even the most fabulous of 45s from a fair shot. Thus the no-name Brit girl quickly settled back into her civilian life,
It is driven and dedicated girl pop collectors who slaughtered the Brit girl inferiority myth and prompted reissue labels to revisit the vaults for the rare masters. Following the Here Come The Girls and Dream Babes compilations, Girls Are At It Again drives the Brit Girl argument even further, with its all access pass to the Polydor, Philips, Fontana, and Mercury labels where lives the overlooked artifacts from Tracy Rogers, Claire Francis, and Diane Lancaster. As those of us who have ventured beyond Cilla and Sandie well know, so much of the good stuff hails from these lesser-known ladies.
