- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- A long-running series, Girls in the Garage collects songs by completely or virtually unknown all-woman bands from obscure 45’s and other sources.
The Greatest Music
Ever Recorded!
Girls in the Garage (Various Artists) (1987): Women have been making popular music from time immemorial. The “girl group” scene was well established by the early 1960’s, and most female folksingers write their own songs and play their own instruments. By the time the Go-Go’s hit the top of the album charts with their debut album, Beauty and the Beat (1981), most people realized that the gals could rock just as hard as the guys. When one of the handful of earlier all-female rock bands comes up in conversation – the Pleasure Seekers, Fanny, the Runaways, Isis, the Bangles, etc. – they are often identified as being the “first” all-woman rock band. But there are a host of other all-female bands in earlier times. While I basically know nothing about them, many years ago I learned about an all-female band from Liverpool (home of the Beatles!) that came along during the British Invasion days, called the Liverbirds. They were active from 1963 to 1968 and have a Wikipedia article. An American all-woman rock band called Goldie and the Gingerbreads – Goldie Zelkowitz later took the name Genya Ravan – were around from 1962 to 1967 and toured widely with British Invasion bands in England. Their version of “Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat” (1965) reached #25 on the U.K. music charts but were out-competed in this country due to the heavy promotion of the version of “Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat” by Herman’s Hermits in the same time period. The Pebbles series of obscure 1960’s garage rock and psychedelic rock songs that was started by Greg Shaw in the late 1970’s also includes a few songs by all-female rock bands. Another long-running series, Girls in the Garage – a dozen LP’s, and a dozen CD’s, and a handful of EP’s – collects songs by completely or virtually unknown all-woman bands from obscure 45’s and other sources. Girls in the Garage is the first album in the series and is often identified as Girls in the Garage, Volume 1. Treats included are what appears to be the original version of “Bend Me, Shape Me”, the hit song by the American Breed, by a group called the Models; a song by the Chymes, who were discovered by Howard Kaylan of the Turtles; the second single by the Belles, whose first single transmogrified the definitive rock anthem “Gloria” (written by Van Morrison and originally performed by his band Them) into a song called “Melvin”. The last two songs on the album, by Cathy Rich (Buddy Rich’s daughter) and Althea & the Memories, were put together by Kim Fowley. It took some doing to find a readable copy of the liner notes on the back cover.