In the mid-nineties, London’s Sunday Times ran an excellent CD club with the most eclectic offerings imaginable. One of them was Girlie Pop, which presented hits by a larval-stage Madonna, P.P. Arnold, Marilyn Monroe, The Shangri-Las, The Dixie Cups, Betty Everett, Maria Muldaur, Lesley Gorre, Fontella Bass, The Shirelles, and Lulu.
Good grief, how they suffer, either by the traumas they chronicle in music (‘The first cut is the deepest’, ‘Leader of the pack’, ‘It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to’) or by the way they find it necessary to do so (Madonna’s, um, ‘Wild Dancing’).
Still there are some revelations. Not only is P.P. Arnold’s rendition of ‘First cut’ poignant, it also emerges that Cat Stevens (!) wrote the piece. Betty Everett’s ‘It’s in His Kiss’ and Lulu’s ‘Shout’ are memorable. So is Maria Muldaur’s ‘Midnight at the Oasis’, for different reasons.
You won’t play this CD over and over. But it’s worth a smile and even a memory.
Canter Bridge 
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