7/17 - Introducing Flashback Fridays

I've decided starting this week that rather than intermittently filtering in some of my classic favorites, I'm going to do it each Friday, focusing especially on some classic clips culled from Youtube and elsewhere.

Today's flashback I'll dedicate to a couple of underrated 1960s girl groups - The Flirtations and The Exciters (a girl group with one boy), and a couple of terrific videos made for a couple of truly thumping songs.

The Exciters come to us by way of Jamaica, NY circa early '60s when their first hit "Tell Him" topped the Billboard chart. Lead vocalist Brenda Reid was backed by Lillian Walker, Sylvia Wilbur and Herb Rooney (later to be Reid's husband). "Tell Him" was not only a monster hit at the time, but it was also an important (if overlooked at the time) milestone for female vocals. Where women in music tended to sing demure, romantic odes to love, Reid's powerhouse voice urged a more active, forceful feminine role. The pattern set forth in "Tell Him" was taken on ten-fold with their second, sadly less successful, single "He's Got the Power." Even though Reid sings of being under her man's sexy love spell, she does so in a marked bellow of defiance that lets you know she might just be enjoying the fight. Doubtlessly, The Exciters' muscular female vocals and subject matter were precursors for the tough sounds of The Shangri-Las and The Ronettes later.

The Flirtations were a trio (and occasional quartet) from the UK that found some success in the later 60s both in England and in the US with their hit "Nothing But a Heartache." If there is such a thing as girl-soul-metal, this song is it. If you listen to the levels in this urgent floor burner, you can't help but imagine that every dial was fiery red in the recording booth. The song was released on the Deram label in 1968, and featured the vocals of sisters Shirley & Ernestine Pearce and Viola Billups. The video for the song is a real head-scratcher, and though I don't believe that it was a Scopitone video it does resemble one in its esoteric location and theme.

Both of these songs can be found in the absolutely kickass box set - One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found by Rhino, which is easily the greatest Christmas presents I ever received in my life (thanks mom). And if you are interested in more strange and wonderful videos such as these, and you are in Los Angeles, there is an event at the Egyptian Theater this Sunday discussing the history and technical development of Scopitones (which were "video jukeboxes" that predated MTV by a couple of decades), and showing some choice clips. Read more about that here.