Good girls don't always want to go bad ... but sometimes, just once-in-a-while, a girl needs to put her high-heeled pump firmly down ... and tell it like it is. She may be threatening some vengeance on a hapless male, or even asking him to come on back, but while she does it she proves she can rock or sing the blues as well as he. GOOD GIRLS GONE BAD is a must have collection for fans of rockin' country music, bringing together a brew of the best of Ace Records previously released female rockers.
Sparkle Moore cut just five sides for Fraternity, and this compilation brings them all together in one place for the first time, albeit with a couple of wilder alternate takes, plus some outtakes from that crazy photo shoot. Once she is asked to 'scream' all the way through Killer, she throws herself into the task with abandon, and leaves us begging the question of why a 'tamer' take was used for the single. Jackie Shannon was another Fraternity gal, who went through various incarnations before she became singer-songwriter, Jackie de Shannon. She cut Just Another Lie at King Records Studio in 1959, using Rusty York's band. The vaults of Fraternity Records also reveal Bonnie Lou, who in 1958, at the comparatively ripe old age of 34, attempted an image make-over with Friction Heat, sounding a little sugary-sweet and tame, but scoring full marks for trying.
Margaret Lewis gets fair coverage here, with three tracks covering bluesy r&b, rockabilly and plaintive country. A star of the Louisiana Hayride, her recordings for Ram Records often featured her own compositions, and her talent for song-writing would eventually see her team up with Mira Smith, owner of the label, as co-writer. Mary Edwards was another singer who appeared on the Louisiana Hayride, and also a prolific songwriter. A friend of both Perkins and Presley from their Hayride days, her dinner was sent over on a plate by Elvis' mom, Gladys, the evening she was cutting the track featured here, Chilly Willy, for Meteor.
We take a listen to some of Sam Phillips' Sun Records rockabilly fillies here too. Barbara Pittman's Sun recordings were among the hottest on the label, with her first single being I Need A Man. We've included that and the follow-up, Everlasting Love. The Kirby Sisters, like Barbara, sang with the Snearly Ranch Boys, and recorded one session for Sun, which included Red Velvet, before they disappeared into the mists of time. Jean Chapel was another singer backed on record by The Snearly Ranch Boys. Her only release for Sun, in June 1956, Welcome To The Club echoed Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel. RCA leased Jean's two sides from Sun, and issued them in an attempt to grab up the first female version of La Pelvis. Jean, who played guitar and did a fair amount of moving while she sang, was, for a while, dubbed 'The Female Elvis'. On the subject of Female Elvii, Alis Lesley, too, was billed as the female Elvis Presley". However, unlike some of the more reluctant Felvii, Alis played the part with guitar slung around her neck, greased back hair and combed down sideburns! She cut just one record in 1957 for Era Records in Los Angeles. He Will Come Back was first re-issued on Chiswick Records' great Hollywood Rock'n'Roll album.
Amidst these good girls, we run a gamut of attitudes toward their male protagonists. Be it Sparkle Moore's celebration of the demon in her guy-.-her joy in simply rockin' sans l'homme in Rock-A-Bop-.-or her desire to name her man a blossom in her Flower Of My Heart. Be it the demanding needs of Barbara Pittman, or the Kirby Sisters, who, while searching for the man of their dreams, go as far as to stipulate sartorial demands in Red Velvet! And let's not dwell too long on the carry-ons of the cruisin' Starr gals! Some of the other girls have loved and lost, but when you hear Jackie Shannon, The Miller Sisters, Donna Dameron or Alis Lesley telling it, it sounds like they'll try again any moment. While Margaret Lewis is shakin' a shapely leg one minute, she's pleading with some no-good-nick to take her back the next, and finally, she's racked! with guilt over cheating on him, in Conscience I'm Guilty. While Jean Chapel is inviting other women with hearts broken to join her at her club on Lonely Street, Billy Jo Spears is threatening other contenders to leave off the guy she's already lost. Most eccentric Bonnie Lou is planning on taking her dude into outer space, whereas Linda Brannon has plain had enough.
And finally, on a lighter, but totally crazed, note, we end with a bonus track of total mayhem. From Sacramento, California, three beatnik chicks, playing guitars and bongos, calling themselves The Mystery Trio, recorded the amazing single, Willie Joe, at Charlie Brandt's studio in Sacramento and released on Brandt's custom label, Camelia, in December, 1959. Some copies of the record have the name 'Corydunes' stuck over the label, a new name dreamed up for the group after a local radio competition.
By Brian Nevill"
