Ronnie Spector of the Ronettes in close-up; circa 1970; New York. (Photo by Art Zelin/Getty Images)
Remember back in November of 2022? We were all excited about the holidays…people were making plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas, shopping and reserving flights on Southwest? All sorts of mindless activities! And we aired our sixth episode of “Stacks of Wax”. It was all about those awesome Girl Groups of the early 1960s. We asked Highland Park music teacher Abby Billington to co-host and, thankfully, she agreed! Here’s the Director’s Cut re-issue of that episode, as well as an updated version of the Spotify playlist that served as its companion!
The Episode:
Here it is! Episode 6 of our little rock ‘n’ roll podcast. Thanks for listening! This episode shines a much-deserved spotlight on those great Girl Groups of the late 50s and early 60s. Generally, the girl groups all had awesome names, like “The Shangri-Las,” “The Crystals,” “The Angels,” “The Ronettes,” “The Chiffons” and dozens more. And those giant, towering bouffant hairdos! Plus, they had ATTITUDE. These girls were tough and rebellious while still maintaining their tender, sensitive side.
Much of the music was produced by eccentric Svengali girl group producers like Shadow Morton and Phil Spector, and featured the infamous “Wall Of Sound” recording techniques. Hundreds of hit singles hit the dorms and bedrooms of young people all over the world from 1958 to 1967. Basically, many of the singles were written in New York’s “Brill Building” and were written by Gerry Goffin & Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Neil Diamond, and a handful of other Tin Pan Alley writers.So!
On Saturday night, we’re gonna roll out about 20 of the very best that the Girl Group wave had to offer! (that was back in November, not THIS week of July 21st 2023). This weekend’s Saturday Night Solid Gold just happened to be all about these songs and the groups that made them popular. Join us! And call-in your requests. Our special guest on this podcast episode is Abby Billington, music teacher at Highland Park Elementary school and local Music Nerd! Check out the podcast episode here, listen to the play-list, and tune in on Saturday Night 6 to 10!
