Where The Girls Are, Volume 3 [Import]

Where the Girls Are (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 11, 2000)
• Original Release Date: July 11, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Ace Records UK
• ASIN: B000042O11
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #125,774 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Help Me - Mitty Collier

2. My Mama Told Me - Barbara Carr

3. Your Kind Of Lovin - Jan Bradley

4. (I've Decided On ) A Whole New Plan - Jo Ann Garrett

5. Pushover - Etta James

6. She's Got Everything - Sugar Pie De Santo

7. He's My Guy - Margaret & Carol

8. Just How Much (Can One Heart Take) - The Kolettes

9. This Time Tomorrow - Tammy Montgomery

10. As I Watch You Walk Away - Jean Dushon

11. How Long (Can I Go On) - The Kittens

12. He Makes Me Feel So Good - The Gems

13. You Gave Me Soul - Andrea Davis

14. Safe And Sound - Fontella Bass

15. You Really Know How To Hurt A Girl - Jackie Ross

16. I Let Myself Go - Geraldine Hunt

17. One Little Thing - Carol Vega

18. Is It A Sin? - Timiko

19. Pretty Little Words - Tawney Williams

20. A Love Of Mine - The Lovettes

See all 26 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Starting in the 1990s, a cluster of CD reissues have served to remind us that Chess was not just a blues label, in fact recording a great deal of worthwhile (and often successful) soul in the 1960s. Where the Girls Are, Vol. 3 is not the best of these, but it puts an interesting spin on the concept by focusing exclusively on women pop-soul-girl-group singers who recorded for Chess during the decade. There are a few name artists here -- Etta James, Sugar Pie de Santo, Tammy Montgomery (soon to be renamed Tammi Terrell), and (to a lesser degree) Jackie Ross, Mitty Collier, Jan Bradley, and a teenaged Minnie Riperton (as part of the Gems and under the pseudonym Andrea Davis) -- though most of these are only known to those fanatical, often British, soul collectors. The same comments that you could direct toward Chess' '60s soul in general apply to this anthology in particular: while well produced, it sometimes came off as derivative of both Motown and other Chicago soul competitors, without as much standout material as the best competition. That makes this 26-song CD second-division, but certainly not second-rate. For one thing, there is a certain consistency of sound that makes it more listenable than many other similar archive CDs are. There are also some pretty good songs amidst the so-so ones. Geraldine Hunt's 1962 single "I Let Myself Go" is an incredibly blatant yet enjoyable and accurate Mary Wells imitation; Timiko's "Is It a Sin?," which is just marginally less Wells-like, has some fetching hooks; while the Clickettes' "I Just Can't Help It" is cool and catchy soul-tinged girl-group pop. Everything else wilts, however, besides Etta James' compelling "Pushover," an actual 1963 Top 30 hit that was one of her poppiest, yet gutsiest, and best singles. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Girl-group sound rarities, March 12, 2004

By 

Zub "Zubenelgenubi" (Forks Twp., PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Where The Girls Are, Volume 3 (Audio CD)

Ace Records of the U.K. rolls out a third volume in their "Where The Girls Are" series with these mid- and late-60's tracks being taken from the Chess family of labels. As with the previous volumes, this is no ordinary girl-group major hits compilation. Most of these tunes are relatively obscure, although a number of the performers may be familiar by way of other, more well-known songs they had during their recording careers. Two of these soul sides did cross over onto the pop charts, Etta James' modest hit, "Pushover" and Fontella Bass' "Safe And Sound" which just scraped the bottom of the top-100. Represented here with lesser-known recordings are Jan Bradley who had a big hit with "Mama Didn't Lie", Tammy Montgomery a/k/a Tammi Terrell of Marvin and Tammi fame and, Yvonne Baker and the Sensations, purveyors of the top-five pop hit "Let Me In". Mixed in among these more familiar names are songs from a number of groups and girls whose recordings saw very little light of day.

Ace does a respectable job here of bringing these rarely, if ever, seen tracks to CD. Sound quality is solid with many tracks (1-4,8,10,12-15,18,19,26) in stereo. The twenty-page liner notes booklet provides an astounding amount of info on the included tracks and artists. If a criticism is to be leveled here, it would be that there are a number of singles issued by some of these artists that did have more chart impact and have yet to appear on legitimate CD. Including more of these sides would have made this even more desireable. That being said, this new volume in the series is yet another addition to Ace's outstanding library of CD reissue products.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Obscure sixties pop for sixties fans only, August 31, 2003

By 

Peter Durward Harris "Pete the music fan" (Leicester England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Where The Girls Are, Volume 3 (Audio CD)

In common with the other volumes in this series, this collection consists of rare tracks that didn't make any significant impression when they were released and have largely been forgotten. If you are a casual fan of sixties music just looking for hits, you should look elsewhere. You won't find them here. There are a few familiar names here, but their famous songs are not included.

This compilation focuses on the Chess family of labels. The first lady of Chess was Etta James, represented here by Pushover. Tammy Montgomery may not seem familiar, but she eventually achieved fame as Tammi Terrell. On this collection, she sings This time tomorrow. Fontella Bass, famous for Rescue me, is represented here by the markedly less successful, but still wonderful, Safe and sound.

Although not obvious from the credits, Minnie Riperton makes two appearances here - one as a member of the Gems and another as a solo singer under the pseudonym Andrea Davis. The Gems began as the Lovettes and ended as the Starlets, with line-up changes along the way. All three are represented here, though Minnie was only in the Gems.

The overall sound of this collection is early sixties girl-group. If you are already familiar with this type of music and you have a significant collection of such music, you may find this fascinating. If not, you are probably not ready for this.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Girl group goodies in a Chess context, December 5, 2005

By 

Laurence Upton (Wilts, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Where The Girls Are, Volume 3 (Audio CD)

This is a thorough trawl through the singles archive between 1962 and 1969 for the Chess group of labels, with particular reference to Billy Davis, who guided many of the acts successfully through the changing marketplace, and also had a close relationship with Motown.
Most of the records were homegrown but some were bought in from small labels such as Barbara, Tuff, Katron and North Bay. Many of the tracks have never been available on CD and have sometimes been chosen in preference to better known examples. Jo Ann Garrett's A Whole New Plan, produced by husband Andre Williams, was chosen over the A-side Stay By My Side, and the Kolettes (thought to be the Soul Sisters moonlighting) are also represented by a B-side. Sugar Pie De Santo wrote She's Got Everything but the intended single release was pulled to give a clear run to the version by the Essex. It was unreleased until the 1989 out of print Down In The Basement compilation, but is here in an alternative double-tracked vocal version. She also wrote You Gave Me Soul, the first solo single by Minnie Riperton (under the name Andrea Davis), who also appears here singing lead on the Gems' He Makes Me Feel So Good; as a backing singer on Jackie Ross's You Really Know How To Hurt A Girl and probably also in the Starlets on My Baby's Real from 1967.
Of course Chess did not operate in vacuum and there are nods both to Spector and, especially, to Motown. The Lockets' Don't 'Cha know is so Spectorized I'm surprised it hasn't surfaced on one of Ace's Phil's Spectre compilations, while the Honey and the Bees with all the jingling bells and Christmas references sound as if they were auditioning for A Christmas Gift For You. Jean DuShon had previously been produced by a young Phil Spector but here covers a British single (on Pye) by Martha Smith. Tammy Montgomery, as we know, went on to be Tammi Terrell at Motown. Timiko (later better known as Tamiko Jones) was based in Detroit and Is It A Sin? was produced by the BrianBert team of Brian Holland and Robert Bateman, who of course did a lot of work at Motown. Tawney Williams' Pretty Little Words gives more than a passing nod to Please Mr Postman by the Marvelettes, who also seem to be the inspiration behind the Lovettes' A Love Of Mine. Geraldine Hunt had Motown's Dave Hamilton involved in her chosen single and both she and Jan Bradley owed more than a little to Mary Wells. Mary Dixon from Mary and the Desirables could probably be done for stalking, so closely does she sound like Diana Ross.
The Clickettes' resemblance to the Jaynetts, of Sally Go Round The Roses fame, could be explained by their being the same line-up, though this likelihood has not been confirmed.
Fontella Bass's highly successful tenure at Chess is well documented on the compilation Rescued but that omitted just one of her singles, perhaps because it was too reminiscent of Rescue Me, but that track, Safe And Sound, is included here.
From the opening track by Mitty Collier to the closer by the Starlets, every track has a very good reason to be included, and the expansive notes by Malcolm Baumgart and Mick Patrick make their case very comprehensively. A recommended purchase for R'n'B and girl group afficianados.