Sixties Euro Beat Girls

December 01, 2016

Sixties Euro Beat Girls

In 1961, when the girl-group era ramped up in the U.S. with the Marvelettes' Please Mister Postman, Europe and Scandinavia began producing their own female pop-rock groups and solo artists. Many were quite good, but few ever made it to the charts in the States. Instead, they developed hits and a following in their home countries. Today, most Americans are still largely unaware of the sizable foreign female pop movement in the '60s and the depth of the output. Enter Ace Records, a British re-issue label in London.

Over the past six years, Ace has released a wave of artfully packaged and relentlessly satisfying "beat girl" CDs with liner notes that feature detail-rich essays, photos and recording dates. The label's releases include eclectic compilations of singles by female pop singers from Sweden, Britain and France—the recording centers of Euro-pop in the 1960s. While most of the beat-girl singles were less soulful than those released by Motown and Stax, the quality of the pop songs, singing and orchestrations is quite good—particularly the material from Sweden and the U.K.

Two worthy CDs released by Ace this year are The Girls Want the Boys! Sweden's Beat Girls 1964-1970 and Love Hit Me! Decca Beat Girls 1962-1970. Both are superb. The Swedish collection features a fascinating mix of pop singles sung in Swedish and broken English. Some of the songs are cool covers of American hits, such as Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) and Music to Watch Girls By—both sung in Swedish. Most are home-grown. All of the sides from Sweden have a strong beat, strong hooks and female singers with hip husky voices.

Interesting Swedish singers here include Anni-Frid Lyngstad (who would become a member of ABBA), Britt Bergström, Bella And Me, and Lill Lindfors.

Love Hit Me! features British beat girls who recorded for Decca between 1962 and 1970. On these sides, you hear an even stronger beat than the Swedish approach. Decca was in a hurry to make up for lost ground. The label had two costly misfires at the dawn of the 1960s. It had refused to release Ray Peterson's cover of Tell Laura I Love Her—a song by Jeff Barry and Ben Raleigh about the dying wish of a lovelorn drag-race crash victim that went to #1 in the U.K. when recorded by Ricky Valance at EMI. Decca also passed on signing the Beatles. The hits by non-invasionistas are superb and make you realize how many junior Petula Clarks and Dusty Springfields there were left behind in Swinging London.

Included on this album are Twinkle, Barry St. John (her Hey Boy is a killer), Marianne Faithful, the Exceptions, Lulu, Beverley, and Babbity Blue.

Ace also has released several French pop beat-girl collections. The best of the bunch is C'est Chic! French Girl Singers Of The 1960's. Many French pop-rock producers seemed satisfied to ape what was going on in Britain rather than develop a singular sound of their own. In some cases, the singers were a tad off key or worked overtime to sound 12 years old. Sometimes the yapping could be grating. Fortunately, the collection above does a good job of featuring the shrewdest material, such as Les Filles C'est Fait Pour Faire L'amour by Charlotte Leslie, A La Fin Tu Gagneras by Jocelyne, and Roller Girl by Anna Karina. Even Petula Clark turns up here on Donne Moi. Many American pop fans may be unaware that the singer of Downtown in 1965 spoke and sang in fluent French, making her a star there in the 1950s. The French material has a moody Serge Gainsbourg feel and is lush with intrigue.

If you dig '60s pop or are curious about what was going on across the Atlantic, you'll find much of this material addictive, whether you understand the language or not. And listening to the cultural contrasts in the hooks, beats and instrumentation is fascinating fun. Kudos to Ace for taking this material seriously and preserving the sound of adolescent effervescence. [Photo above of vinyl release]