Girl Groups

The motorcycle revving, the startled "lookout-lookout-lookout-lookout" cry of the protagonist, the sombre bass drum beat following the inevitable accident — all of these contribute to one of pop's mini-masterpieces, the Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack." And who could've guessed Carole King's babysitter, Little Eva, would start a dance craze with "The Loco-Motion"? Girls plus vocal harmony equals heaven . . . and there's more celestial pop brilliance in Next Steps.

Motown stars, such as Mary Wells ("You Beat Me to the Punch") and Martha Reeves (with the Vandellas on the classic "Jimmy Mack," released on the label's Gordy imprint), are well represented here, alongside gutsy Brits like Cilla Black — who belts out "Anyone Who Had a Heart" with storm-force intensity — and Sandie Shaw, known for singing hits like "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" barefoot. Girl group connoisseurs will enjoy the criminally overlooked singers we've scattered among our Deep Cuts.

There are some real gems down here, like the debut single from the short-lived Jelly Beans, "I Wanna Love Him So Bad," which scored big with love-struck teens in 1964, and "That's When the Tears Start" by the Blossoms, Phil Spector's backing singers of choice for a while. By the mid-'60s the girl-group phenomenon had faded, but it was a fun ride while it lasted.

Right about the beginning of the sexual revolution (noted by British poet Philip Larkin as arriving "Between the end of the Chatterley ban/And the Beatles' first LP"), the American girl group sprang up as a pop force. Although they sometimes portrayed women as dewy-eyed and subservient (as in songs like "Don't Ever Leave Me" and "Johnny Angel"), many of their songs (such as "Ain't Gonna Kiss Ya") presaged the burgeoning feminist movement, while others were rooted in the middle ground between devotion and despair ("Breakaway" by Irma Thomas).