#421

Impressions: This somewhat difficult-to-find collection of the best tunes of’60s girl groups finishes off a run of three similar collections in a row on this list. Let’s put it on… The familar motorcycle themed “Leader of The Pack” by the Shangri-Las starts off with cooing voices, screeching tires, revving motorcycle engines and high drama. I enjoy The Dixie Cups” snappier version of “Chapel of Love” more than than the Ronettes slower version. The swooning “He’s So Fine” by The Chiffons and funky “The Boy From New York City” From The Ad Libs still sound great though they’ve been played so often on oldies stations I can practically hear Dick Biondi shouting out their name at the end of each song.  Lots of familiar stuff by the Shangri-Las including their moody “Remember (Walking In The Sand)” (Goodfellas alert!), The Chiffons swinging “One Fine Day” and the The Dixie Cups, but they dig and find some fun deeper cuts like the  the Jaynetts’ “Sally, Go Round the Roses,” Claudette Clark’s “Party Lights,” and The Jelly Beans’ “I Wanna Love Him So Bad.” Part 2 is loaded with hits too like the jittery “Tell Him” by the Exciters. Even though the template is fairly uniform: short R&B bubblegum singles with females singing (mostly-doomed) doowop love songs (mostly Brill Building tunes written by Carole King), each group still finds lots of neat wrinkles, like the Shangri-La’s fatalist drama mixed with sound effects, the kazoo solo in Joanie Sommers’ “Johnny Get Angry”,” the sneaky interpolation of JS Bach’s Minuet into the simply outstanding “A Lover’s Concerto” by the Toys. A few songs didn’t register, either becuase I’ve heard them so much (“My Boyfriend’s Back”) or they were kind of weak ( “Wonderful Summer,”) but overall an enjoyable collection.