Customer Reviews

Girl Groups [VHS]

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am the credited director and co-producer of this documentary. I was surprised to see that Amazon actually has the video, I thought it was long gone. No DVD's, too bad. I drifted onto Amazon because a good buddy of mine loved this era and I wanted to get a copy for him. Glad to see that Girl Groups, The Story of a Sound still lives, such as it is.

This film took almost a year of my life, a very stressful year at that since it is always difficult to juggle the creative storytelling aspect of making a film with the realities of budget and music/clip clearance. We went to ABC for footage from the show, Hullabaloo that they did not even know they had. We dug up stuff in Detroit. I flew there for a blizzard that winter and found footage from a local afternoon program, Teen Town that was Detroit's local American Bandstand. That stuff was sitting in a damp basement at a TV station in Windsor, Canada on two-inch video, long extinct even then in 1982. This is the station where Soupy Sales got his start for you trivia fans out there.

I conducted all the interviews and must say I fell into major crush with Darlene Love. What a sweetie and I could listen to her sing all day long. As Darlene would say, "She had a voice on HER!" Mary Wilson was a most classy lady, and Arlene Smith was also such a beautiful person - she had voice on HER! Ronnie Spector was lots of fun.

Lieber and Stoller were such cool guys, sitting on top of the world, playing pool in an apartment on Park Avenue. They were such good friends and seemed to really have enjoyed themselves while making music history. Ellie Greenwich was a great story teller, especially about those bad girls from Queens, the Shangri-las.

When I look back to that one year making Girl Groups, despite the difficulties, I never once got tired of the music, and in the editing room in the Brill Building where all that stuff happened in the first place, we must have seen the show 100 times, maybe more. Grahame Weinbren and his team did an amazing job making it what it became, as all great editor/filmmakers do. Grahame had a thing for cheese sandwiches, something I never would ever think of eating before or since then, but every day we'd be chomping on these giant cheese sandwiches from Smilers. Swiss cheese on rye, mayo. How's your cholesterol, Grahame?

One reviewer mentioned that the Supremes sequence in the film was too long. I was always thought so, too, but we had to buy a minimum of ten songs from Motown. At that time, Motown had never licensed any
of their music to any entity outside of Motown. We were the first and it took forever to make the deal with them. Our attorneys closed the deal with Motown, we sent them what we agreed upon, and the masters didn't come. We kept on having to postpone the final mix until those masters showed up, which of course finally did, but not before we ate all the swiss cheese in Manhattan. There was major stress at every turn on this project, but nobody cares about that because the end result was good.

Stephanie Bennett's Delilah Films deserves all the credit for having the guts to begin a project way under budget, but to get what we needed when we needed to have it. Stephanie was always the warrior/producer, fearless, tough, a get-it-done-gal. A great co-producer to have. Cheers, Steph, wherever you are!!!

Steve Alpert

This is a documentary film about "girl groups," the style and trend of music that flourished in the early 60s. The film is very short (slightly over 60 minutes), but still is worth the money and time you spend, for the following two reasons.

One: its artists. Though the film reveals not particularly incisive view on the girl groups, it still has a lot of great footages about them. As this is not a music video solely devoted to songs, the film's songs are often cut and edited to suit the story the film is telling, but still the impact of watching the real artists are more than you can imagine. And some (6 or 7) songs are complete, many in live. One standout scenes are the Ronettes singing "Shout" and "Be My Baby," and their energetic act (and that's live!) is incredibly exciting. You also see the Supremes, Mary Wells, The Dixie Cups and The Shangri-Las.

The other good point about the film is that it includes the interviews of the people involved in this phonomenon -- Mary Wilson (The Supremes), Ronnie Spector (The Ronettes), Darlene Love (The Blossoms and is virtually the singer of The Crystals), and so on. You also hear some stories from the song writers like Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The fans might have already known what they say, but it is still good to hear their authentic comments, which includes Ronnie Spector recounting how she met Phil Spector, and how he treated her after their marriage.

Many live footages come from the ABC TV show "Shindig," but many of them are not available in Rhino's videos of the same title. So if you are collecting the songs of the era, you might have great fun watching this video.

I almost forgot to say one thing: one footage is in color (it's around 1964!) and that's The Exciters' hit number "Tell Him," which was shot in the most extraordinary place -- in the zoo! See this surreal images, in which the members lyp-sinc in front of a bear and a tiger ... so 60s.

I am not sure where to begin. I have watched this video so many times since it was released in the early 1980s.I never get tired of it. There are so many great groups and songs it is really difficult to pick a favorite.This video made me a big fan of Darlene Love, I never realized how talented and versatile she was until I watched this tape. I really enjoyed The Angels, Chantels, Ronettes, Exciters because you probably do not get the opportunity to see footage of these groups very often {except for the Ronettes}.My only negatives would be that a little too much time was devoted to The Supremes{ not that I did not enjoy watching them perform} and that a couple of the songs selected for a couple of the artists would not have been my choices.This is going to bring back so many memories. It almost makes you want to cry because that era has passed and very little has been preserved on video like garbage that is popular today.I buy this every year as Christmas gifts for my friends.They just love it. I am ordering another copy today. If you enjoyed the music of the early 60s don't pass this one up.I promise you will not be disappointed.PS I even found the commentary by the artists, songwriters, and producers to be very interesting. I just wish they would do a Volume 2.

If you enjoyed the girl groups of the early 1960's this video is a must for you. Chances are very good the songs you enjoyed girl groups sing are included here. Ronnie Spector and The Ronettes singing Be My Baby is worth the price in itself. The 1960's was a time of great music, and a large number of those memorable songs came from the girl groups. I'm planning on using this video in my after school class of 5th-7th graders after we sing a number of the songs. I know they will enjoy it.

I have had 2 copies of this video. It is that good! I first bought this video only because it contained The Ronettes of whom I am a great fan. But this video contains so much more. Not only great and rare performances, but also insightful interviews and documentary. That is what sets this video apart from others. It is extremely well edited and perfectly balanced. Just the right amount of documentary that is paired with the performances. Often I've seen other videos with too much of one or the other. But this video strives for an even balance of the two.
Often you listen to a video solely for the music. But this video tells you why you listen. Why the sound is the way it is. How it all came about. By knowing all this gives you a better understanding of the music and/or the group. It's like having a recipe to your favorite food. By knowing the ingredients you can appreciate your food more. By knowing what went into the sound or the song or the group you can appreciate the music even more.
This video is excellent for being just 65 minues long. It could have been even better if it were longer. However, someone chose to include just brief snippets of certain songs instead of using the full songs. But there are plenty of full songs to please. This video is excellent just the way it is. It just could have been better if it were longer.
The best way to descibe this video is to say it's like a music appreciation course. Excellently edited and balanced between music and documentary. I wish all videos were this way. You just know you like the music. With the documentary of this video, you now know why. The documentary being from those that were there. From the group members themselves. From the producers. I now know why I liked the music. I now know what went into the making of the song. I now know what went into the making of the group. I now can appreciate it even better now that I know.
How they got that much information and entertainment (music) into a 65 minute video is nothing but incredible. No fluff will be found here. Just a rock solid video that will stand on it's own merits and should shine as an example for other videos that follow. The line between documentary and entertainment (music) is expertly balanced here. To define it as one or the other would be unfair. It properly belongs in both categories.
Finally, to watch this video will give you the knowledge to appreciate it. To understand why and how it was so successful. From those who created it and lived it and were there. Just like a music appreciation course taught by those who created it. Not only will you get rare video of rare groups but you should also gain an appreciation of it as well.

This is the ultimate 60s girl group documentary. Excellent commentary by Ellie Greenwich, Ronnie Spector, Darlene Love.
And those TV performances-mostly done LIVE (none of that
cheap lip-synced garbage)were to die for-especially by
the Shangri-Las. But the total absence of the Chiffons
("I Have A Boyfriend")-promised on the VHS artwork-was a
big disappointment. The VHS Hi-Fi sound was very good
to excellent. For this reason alone, it's a shame that no major
re-issuing studio (Image, Anchor Bay, Kino, Criterion
Collection-let alone Sony, who just bought the entire MGM
film library)has released this on DVD.

If your teenage years were in late fifties to mid sixties---This is a fantastic way to re-live those years. Love the video. It's a sleeper

If you have something that can still pay VHS and are into the oldies Girl Groups, BUY THIS NOW. Listen. I have hundreds of dollars of these kinds of videos and DVD's. I am an oldies fanatic! And I love the old footage! This video has a bunch of super stuff!! It is totally WORTH THE MONEY.

What can I say about this video...well its my favorite. Having watched this video over a few dozen times from a copy of an orignal rental, I finally transferred it to dvd. The quality leaves alot to be desired, as the original copy was, by far not the greatest, but now I can view it without worrying about causing more damage to my original copy, if that makes any sense.
What really doesn't make any sense is that it has not been released as an official dvd release by MGM.
The musical presentations by the groups, whether in short clip form or in complete songs is just chilling. I get goosebumps when I hear and see the Ronettes perform "Be my baby", as the song begins you see Ronnie up front belting the song, then you see the other two girls, high above Ronnie come down the ramp. Both performing a highly sensual hip swinging walk and arm snap.
As mentioned previously, the Supremes portion was a little over done, but understandable, as per the review provided by the director and producer of the documentary.
If you grew up during this period and were a music listener as I was, with a soft touch for the girl groups, you will absolutely love this video.
As a final note, It is unfortunate that as I write this, one of the pioneers of the girl group sound, Phil Spector is as far away from the sound that he helped to create as any one of us.

Why hasn't this been issued on dvd yet? This is one of the most informative documents of music history! Release it on DVD already!