Customer Reviews

Girl Group Sounds: One Kiss Can Lead to

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Even those who've known me the longest will think I've finally imploded and left the planet for good...until they hear this one for themselves. Why? Glad you asked. It's because I can say without reservation that this is the Mother of All Boxed Sets. It's that simple. Having been a lifelong girl group fanatic and having bought several of these tracks as singles when they were released, I am FLOORED by the combination of material, taste, research and packaging that I now hold in my hands. It's truly a case of quality meets quantity. And even those cuts I already possess sound better in this collection. Within this clever hatbox (Bonwit Teller circa 1962?) resides a peerless collection that even the completist simply must have.
Perhaps it's most impressive characteristic is how the sub strains of this fascinating and addictive genre fall seamlessly into place on four packed to capacity CDs. The Great Disc Jockey in the Sky has tendered his resignation. Not all of the tunes here were intended as dance numbers, but you'll have a hard time keeping still for long and those with multi-disc players will be vindicated for making such a purchase.
This isn't a complete surprise, however. Nobody does box sets like Rhino. Only Deutschland's Bear Family comes close, and the edge must be given to Rhino as a result of their packaging prowess. Aside from the aforementioned hatbox, the graphics and superior commentary in the almost one inch thick '"diary" add to the overall value of this landmark package with its blue snakeskin cover (disclaimer: no reptiles were harmed or humiliated for this project).
Since none of the 120 selections here even approaches filler status, I won't babble on about my personal favorites- there are way too many. I'll just finish up by reiterating: there is no downside here. And the price is more than fair. A landmark release with very highest marks all around.

I've been in seventh heaven listening to Rhino's latest boxed set, One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds, Lost and Found. I'm a long-time fan of the early-60s Girl Group/Brill Building/Wall of Sound genre (and of Rhino Records, of course), and this boxed set is perhaps the finest representation to-date of the Girl Group part of that equation.

First, the details. This is a 4-CD set, each CD with 30 songs each, for a total of 120 girl group classics. It comes with the kind of in-depth liner notes, in a separate booklet, that one expects from the folks at Rhino. And it's all wrapped up in what looks to be a 60s-era hatbox, very cute.

The recordings are all first-rate, fully remastered in glorious mono (in most cases). Many of the songs here are available on other collections (such as K-Tel's long out-of-print The Brill Building Sound boxed set), but the sound here is much superior to what I've heard elsewhere. Take, for example, the forgotten gem "My One and Only, Jimmy Boy" by The Girlfriends. This song first got rediscovered on The Brill Building Sound, then later was included on one of Ace Records' Early Girls compilation CDs. In both those instances, the sound was muddy, without a lot of headroom; it sounded as if it had been recorded in a trashcan. Not so on Girl Group Sounds. Here the sound is bright and clear, almost as if it had been recorded last year instead of forty years ago. (It first hit the charts in February of 1964, where it got swept away by the Beatles invasion.) You can hear every footstomping beat, every crack from Hal Blaine's snare drum, and all the glory of Steve Douglas' rockin' sax solo. The sound is so vibrant, so joyous, you just want to get up and dance along.

As I said, most of the songs on the Rhino set have been available in other collections, although you had to look hard for them. Rhino's mid-1980s The Best of the Girl Groups compilations offered some of these tunes, as did K-Tel's late, lamented 1993 The Brill Building Sound box. More recently, U.K. reissue label Ace Records had dug up several of these cuts for their Early Girls and Where the Boys Are compilations, although both the sound and the liner notes are superior in this new Rhino set.

My favorite tunes? There's a bunch. "He's Got the Power," by The Exciters. "You Don't Know," a rare solo singing turn by songwriter Ellie Greenwich. "Please Don't Wake Me," by The Cinderellas. "I Never Dreamed," by The Cookies. "Break-A-Way" by Irma Thomas. The Bacharach-like "Girl Don't Come," by Sandie Shaw. "The One You Can't Have," by The Honeys, written and produced by Brian Wilson in his best better-than-Spector mode. The aforementioned, "My One and Only, Jimmy Boy," by The Cinderellas, a rollicking Wall of Sound-alike by future Bread-winner David Gates. "Dream Baby" by a very young Cher, where producer Sonny Bono shows that he learned something when he used to work for Phil Spector. "I'm Blue (The Gong-Gong Song)" by the Ikettes, recently revived in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 1. "Peanut Duck," an irresistibly odd dance number by an anonymous singer billed as Marsha Gee. A somewhat obscure Dusty Springfield number titled "I Can't Wait Till I See My Baby's Face." A rare live version of Patty & The Emblems' "Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl." And too many more to mention.

The Girl Group sound was inspired by the popular female pop singers of the 1950s (Patti Page, Rosemary Clooney, et al), the burgeoning R&B genre (Ruth Brown, Etta James, et al), and various female doo-wop groups. The fire was lit by early rock 'n' roll, and the fuel provided by the era's best producers, songwriters, and studio musicians. Its birthplace was New York, but it quickly migrated to Los Angeles, Detroit, London, and beyond. At its best, the Girl Group sound mixed bits of Brill Building pop, Phil Spector Wall of Sound, sassy Motown soul, and the sound of swingin' London -- although it doesn't fall squarely into any of these camps. After all, Brill Building songwriters also wrote for male teen heartthrobs and manufactured groups like the Archies and the Monkees; the Wall of Sound powered hits by The Righteous Brothers and Ike & Tina Turner; Motown was at least as much Temps and Tops as it was Supremes and Marvelettes; and London pop eventually devolved into schmaltzy Tom Jones and Englebert Humperdinck. So the Girl Group sound was more than the sum of its parts -- it was its own distinct sound, whether fronted by a real group or a solo singer with backups.

To many critics, the post-Elvis, pre-Beatles era was a musical wasteland, but they just weren't listening hard enough. The best of the Girl Groups (and solo singers working with backup groups) transcended the factory-like approach to the music, working with the best songwriters, producers, and studio musicians to create classic tracks that bear their unique imprint. I'm talking about groups like The Shangra-La's, The Chiffons, and The Shirelles, and solo singers like Ronnie Spector (of The Ronettes), Darlene Love (of The Blossoms), Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark, Leslie Gore, and, of course, Diana Ross (and The Supremes). These are great songs, great performances, and great records. I can listen to them all day long -- and often do.

One Kiss Can Lead to Another is the first & only box set dedicated solely to the "girl group" genre. This is NOT a "girl groups" box set, as some people seem to believe, but a collection of "girl group sounds", as the title states it. Hence, the box is most certainly not intended for an audience of vinyl-hoarding purists, but it IS a mass-market-friendly exploration of the grand productions & catchy pop songs being delivered by female solo acts and groups from the period. The sheer number of "sounds" that were collected for this set -- 120 songs on four CDs -- is almost overwhelming by itself, but what is truly amazing about it is the number of artists. There is relatively little "overlap", and the number of strange and hard-to-find one-offs, b-sides, and flat-out obscura by artists both "known" (Peggy Lee, Jackie DeShannon) and "unknown" (Peanut, The Whyte Boots) is where the real reward lay.

DO NOT get this box set if you are looking to find a crowd-pleasing selection of hits. While there are some undeniably great gems within, the box set works best as a sort of "Intro to Girl Group 101" text. There is a variety of sounds, artists, and experiments covered but no particular facet of the girl group genre is represented with any real depth. This is just as well -- there are plenty of compilations out there that detail this long-maligned genre with much more specificity (The "Girls in the Garage" compilations come to mind), and the volume of sounds herein more than makes up for it.

One Kiss Can Lead to Another actually bears a lot of similarity to that OTHER genre-defining classic Rhino set, the whopping Nuggets & Nuggets II. Much like that set, you will find little in the way of keg-party smashes in favor of much more interesting & bizarre cuts by artists of varying popularity (and, as a caveat, prolonged listening to the box set in one sitting might prove to be an exercise in the endurance of repetition). There are no real "career"-defining moments here for any of the artists nor any unified sound; This is simply a good collection of the good, the strange, and the flat-out weird.

There will be plenty of naysayers that are eager to point out the fact that the set lacks any true "hits", that the lack of actual Spector recordings and inclusion of many Spector "rip-offs" is abundant, that the packaging is rather "gimmicky" and that several of the artists included (Wanda Jackson?) aren't true "girl groups". That's okay -- those who dig strict adherence to convention over having fun probably shouldn't be listening to girl groups in the first place. For the rest of us, the box is nothing short of amazing, and downright touching in the way it's compilers have managed to cull so many great/weird/interesting recordings for a genre as condescendingly named & long-dismissed as this one. What sets this collection apart from the number of budget-bin compilations is the fact that so many "standards" have been left off in favor of less-popular hits, in hopes that the listenener will be forced to think about the nature of the sound rather than be omforted by the familiarity of the sound itself. For anyone interested in looking beyond the oldies-station format and into the ups, downs, side-steps and downright mis-steps of girl group music as a whole, this is the collection for you, and it's every bit worth it. It's a literal hat-box of fun.

Melodrama gets a bad rap, but there are few emotional experiences that are as pure, as enervating. American teens in 1963 didn't have opera (light or otherwise), pulp horror magazines or the Grand Guignol, and they couldn't have cared less about their mother's soaps, but they did have the radio. And in two minute increments, the radio fed out miniature urban operas packed with enough misery, longing, pain and conflict to satisfy their every vicarious desire.

Revisionist pop memory sometimes obscures just how ubiquitous Girl Group music was in the early sixties-the Beatles were even star struck over Ronnie Spector--but since many of the groups were interchangeable puppets fronting for producers and songwriters, albums were a rarity, and women's voices get short shrift on oldies radio, relatively few of the acts are remembered by non-collectors. But as One Kiss makes immediately and forcefully clear, there was much more to the GG sounds than the Ronettes, Shangs and Supremes.

And what One Kiss is mostly is thrilling, pushing track after marvelous track of unknown, impassioned, instant teen pop into ears that too rarely find such a concentrated bounty. I'm personally most pleased to see the Goodees, the exquisitely tasteless Southern-fried Shangri-La's, find a wider audience with their "Leader of the Pack" cop "Condition Red"-especially when the record sounds so great-but there are dozens of acts that deserve spotlight treatment. Like the mysterious Bitter Sweets, turning in a clinically hysterical Shangs' routine penned by Brute Force... or the very fine (and finally gaining notice) Reparata and the Delrons... the Lovelites, authors of the most agonized "somebody ple-eeease" ever laid on tape... Dawn's relentless, paranoid "I'm Afraid They're All Talking About Me"... Toni Basil's washed up lament "I'm 28"... and teen guitar goddess Char Vinnedge, whose Luv'd Ones were riot grrrls in 1966. Then there's "Peanut Duck," an utterly mad, irresistible slice of Philly Soul recorded by a nameless singer, discovered on an unlabeled acetate, and subject of a growing cult.

The set's greatest strength is its lack of orthodoxy, so rather than a tour of the Brill Building and Spectorland (Phil's ouput is conspicuously absent), the Girl Group definition is expanded out in distant ripples, not just to Memphis' Goodees but to England for Andrew Oldham discovery P.P. Arnold's lovely early recording of "The First Cut is the Deepest," into the rockabilly raunch of Wanda Jackson, from soul to surf to and all around the pop bubble.

This is a gorgeous box, a worthy tribute to the women who are on it. The package's conceit is that it's a black and white striped, velvet-lined hat box with a cord handle. Inside, each CD mimics a different vintage compact, complete with a mirror and photo-realistic pat of powder. Each CD is a powder puff. But that's where the soft and floppy metaphor ends, because these dolls are tough and artful, and they come bearing great gifts to all who have ears to hear. Essential. (this review originally appeared in Scram Magazine #22)

As a girl group fan from way back this set is the answer to my prayers. While I already have a few of the songs on other collections, there are so many I don't have or have never even heard before that it makes no difference. Listening to this collection it is amazing the wide variety of musical styles included within the "girl group" sound: teenage pop, soul, rock, folk rock, big production dramatic ballads, psychedelic...one never gets bored. Of particular interest are songs later made more famous by other artists. The originals are better in most cases...listen to "You're No Good" by Dee Dee Warwick, "I Can't Let Go" by Evie Sands, and "Go Now" by Bessie Banks. An extensive booklet comes with the set, with a page for each song.

Linda Smith

Well we have waited so long for a set like this, I for one think its about time the girl group sound got its due. Just look at all the websites and fan sites devoted to it. I am very happy with this set so far, of course there will be the omissions, I am sure everybody who is a fan of the girl group sound has their favorites that were left off, so let me get mine out of the way first. There is no Annette, Shelley Fabares, Andrea Carroll or Connie Stevens, and I would love to finally have "Sneaky Sue" by Patti Lace and the Petticoats on CD. but what can ya do? thank goodness for my 45s! With that said I think it is put together very nicely. I have been collecting girl groups since I was a little just a kid, and I still haven't heard about half of the set. That just goes to show you what a large genre this is. I like the hat box design, its very original and it sits nicely next to my other cool Rhino box sets. I like the idea of putting the CDs in compact replicas. I like the "diary" style book. I am happy with the pictures and info. I finally have a cool picture of Tracey Dey! Sure they could have thrown something else in like a promise pin or something else like they have in the past sets (ie fuzzy dice, collectible cards, key chains, something fun), but none of that detracts from fact this is a very necessary set, with tons of great songs. I still cannot believe after all this time there are so many songs to discover still! So buy buy buy, this set, right away, you won't be sorry! Meanwhile, I am dropping nickels in the wishing well for a girl group sound Vol Two.... Vol Three..... Well Why not? Doo-Wop has three volumes! P.S. You are gonna love Dolly Parton's contribution to the GG sound! Really Great!!!

i have over 50 boxed sets, and by far this is the best packaged i have ever seen. i have shown all my friends and all were very impressed. it comes in a conventional sized women's hat box with a carrying rope. as you remove the lid and open the box, the 4 cd's are in individual cardboard cd cases centered in the box with black felt cardboard material filling the round box. in the round lid are the listings of songs and artists, and on top of the 4 cd's is a 200 page booklet that has pertinent information about each artist and song. there are pictures of almost every artist, as well as pictures of the original 45 labels. the bios of the artists and songs are informational and entertaining. each cd has many familiar songs along with many never heard before, including songs by big name artists that were released before they became successful. 2 examples: a song by cher, written by sonny, and released 2 years before they released "i got you babe." a pop song released in 1964 by dolly parton before she became a country star. there are 120 songs on the 4 cd's with most being ignored totally by radio. there was only one song out of the 120 that i absolutely hated; the rest were not only listenable, but in most cases very good to excellent. this is a definitely worthwhile purchase if you're into the sixties music.

To me, listening to the songs in this box set, like listening to obscure Motown songs (of which there is a number in this set), is a reminder of how good a lot of the songs of the '60s were, apart from the major songs that get overplayed in oldies radio and turn into aural wallpaper. Although I already have a fair number of the songs in other collections, it was great to hear them in context with the songs that I never heard. The choices for the Shangri-La's the Honeys & Dusty Springfield were excellent.The Connie Francis and Brenda Lee songs were pleasant surprises. My favorite song from this set is I Never Dreamed by the Cookies, who seem to have plenty of songs under various guises. You can hear echoes of other musical generes in this set such as the British Invasion (the original versions of I'm Into Something Good & I Can't Let Go)and even New Wave (what can the song Egyptian Shumba be but the B-52's? They should have covered it). The shadow of Phil Spector hovers over this set, as many of the songs used many of his techniques (and the same musicians & singers). The inability of Rhino to license any of his songs is no real liability, and they are available in their own box set. The only thing I would have done differently is to add a song or two by Franciose(sic)Hardy. All in all, a very enjoyable box set.

Now see, this is what we music lovers want more of! Who needs yet another collection of the same couple of dozen girl group hits that seem to get picked for almost all projects like this? There are so many rare gems, great b-sides and seldomly anthologized album tracks on this glorious boxed set that I won't do more than single out a couple of them. But before I do, I must congratulate Rhino on topping themselves once again; even more than usual, the packaging design is fabulous, the song selection magnificent, and the annotations in the included book interesting and informative. Okay, so close to half of the songs are by solo artists, but most of them do have that girl group sound, and I'm glad these choices were made. Biggest surprise for me was the early Dolly Parton cut, "Don't Drop Out." Who knew? Although we also have tracks by Connie Francis, Jackie DeShannon, Petula Clark, Lulu, Brenda Lee, Lesley Gore and Dusty Springfield, they are not the same old three or four tracks by each that we've heard on countless collections. Other favorite solos are Carole King's "He's A Bad Boy" and an early Cher single, "Dream Baby." And the actual GIRL GROUPS? Sure, we're treated to The Exciters, The Shirelles, The Chiffons, The Ronettes, The Supremes and The Shangri-Las, but again, very few of the oft-repeated, biggest hits; one can get those just about anywhere. Then there are the lesser-known groups, some of whom are ripe for rediscovery: Reparata & The Delrons, The Jewels, Luv'd Ones, The Honey Bees, The Breakaways, The Ribbons (their "Ain't Gonna Kiss Ya" is another new favorite), The Velvelettes and many more. This set is a Must Have for anyone who loves the light and breezy girl group and solo female pop sounds of the 1960's, but wants something more than business as usual -- and even if this box would seem designed just to appeal to serious collectors in search of rarities, ONE KISS... will likely prove just as delightful to the casual listener. Ignore the audiophiles who are complaining about poor sound (I think they're exaggerating). I've listened to this entire collection in my headphones, and I have no complaints. If most of the cuts are in mono, and some of them contain some scratchy sounds or a little tape hiss, well I'm not complaining. They sure sound better than most of my worn out 45's, and anyway, the imperfections seem to me to be part of the charm. I still think this is well worth the money!

This has got to be the greatest box set ever, ok I'm a little partial to the genre of music, but like all the reviewers say, nobody does things like Rhino (look a the lush reissues of Dionne Warwicks later Specter Albums or their "Dusty In Memphis" and "Brand New Me" reissues for reference, I wish...oh how I wish, Motown would get over it's self contained pride and let Rhino! do the reissuing for them, the reissues would have a lot less one sided focus and be more "Fair & Balanced").

But this is worth every cent of it's price, considering at my count I would have to hunt down a lot of the rare tracks off of at least 15 CD's and they would often be at far less superior sound quality (The prime example is The Cookies "Only to Other People" which I do have on some Marginal reissue for The Cookies, that hisses and pops, which might not be such a surprise since Maginal Bootlegs off of LPs and bootleg session tapes for the songs on their collections.

What I absolutely LOVE about this collection is the fact that not the obvious hits are featured here. I believe the biggest hit is Little Eva's "Keep Your Hands Off My Baby" (R&B#6 Pop#12, 1962). Ok Ok, I wish some minor hits or album tracks were included than the other (Like "Baby Toys" instead of "May My Heart Be Cast into Stone" by the Toys, albeit "Baby Toys" was the "bigger" hit at #76 or "Whisper You Love Me Boy, either Mary Wells' intended late 1964 version or The Supremes "Back In My Arms Again" b-side version) but really, otherwise, there is no reason to complain, you get all the subinterations of The Cookies doing "Please Don't Wake Me" "Baby Baby I Still Love You"(as The Cinderellas) "She Don't Deserve You" "Some Of Your Lovin"(as The Honey Bees) and my favorite make out song in all it's glory "Make The Night Just A Little Longer (As The Palisades) is worth the price alone, I don't think you could get all these "mystery" Cookies tracks together in one place before.

Trust me the joys are far too numerable for me to list here, I just wish I came out for the summer for a beach party. Well looks like It will be a merry merry Christmas with "The Girls" I just wish that Martha & The Vandellas were tucked in there somewhere...hehe it would have been cool to have the shoulda coulda wouldaness of "Spellbound" from their Lost & Found Collection in here...but that's it...This should be nominated for a reissue grammy for one of the most criminally neglected genres of popular music, many of these popular name have not been induced into the hall of fame for their contributions to popular music, for various reasons.This is a Marvelous (Marvelette..sorry ;) validation of beautiful music..I have the hots for Rhino right now.........