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thE LEAst yOu shOuLd kNOw
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wrIttEN by NAthAN sCOLL
and Britta Phillips work in that mold. Sylvia Love Me Tomorrow?” and “The Loco-Motion”
would go on to co-found Sugar Hill Records, have placed on the charts again and again. As
women who
the first rap/hip-hop label, which is responsible one of the few female staff songwriters at New
for the first rap hit, “Rapper’s Delight,” this York’s fabled Brill Building, King often co-wrote
giving her a substantial hand in creating an with husband Gerry Goffin and scored one of
rock
entire and incalculably influential genre. the best-selling albums of all time, her solo
album Tapestry, which was also a landmark
MILLIE sMALL Millie Small’s one hit was “My of the singer-songwriter genre. Though never
Boy Lollipop.” Aside from being a forerunner to a successful solo artist, fellow Brill Building
the bubblegum movement of the late 1960s, alum Ellie Greenwich wrote or co-wrote several
the quasi-ska song was the first hit of its kind hits for all of Phil Spector’s girl groups and
and the first release of Chris Blackwell’s Island the Shangri-Las, as well as such gems as “Do
Records. As such, its success enabled the label Wah Diddy Diddy.” She also discovered Neil
Let me start by saying that the whole “women to survive. That label would go on to introduce Diamond and produced his early hits.
in rock” thing, though well intended, often the world to reggae music via the soundtrack to
reinforces some false dichotomies. I still gag the film The Harder They Come and, moreover, MArthA rEEvEs, GLAdys kNIGht, &
recalling the first such article I read, a cover a little-known artist named Bob Marley. Island (sIGh) dIANA rOss These are so obvious I’m
story in Rolling Stone in 1994 where Liz Phair would also discover, sign, and release material reluctant to mention them. While the downside
was on the cover in a negligee and the author from U2, the B-52s, and a slew of other non- of these names is that their hits have been
made a point to note the specific perfume of reggae artists, some of whom aren’t even played ad nauseum, these female Motown
every musician profiled in the cover story. John named after war planes. So if you like any of hitmakers became identifiable personalities
Lennon, Prince, and Bono were never subjected those acts or genres, you owe Millie Small and individual talents in the largely faceless
to this (well, Prince may have in the early days, some thanks. girl-group genre. Also noteworthy is that, the
but he would have subjected himself to it). bulk of their work coming in the 1960s, they all
Risking a bad pun: on that note, here’s a CArOL kAyE Like the bass playing on faced the hurdle of color as well as gender, and
primer on some of the most important female the Beach Boys’ ’60s hits? How ’bout the they helped break barriers in both arenas.
contributors to the pop music of the rock Monkees’? Or Simon and Garfunkel’s? Or
and roll era. And, risking another pun, I wish that iconic bassline on Nancy Sinatra’s “These jONI MItChELL & LINdA thOMpsON
to draw special attention to some unsung Boots Are Made For Walkin’ ”? The guitar on These are two of the artists most responsible
heroines, and will inevitably have to exclude “La Bamba” or “. . . And Then He Kissed Me”? for late ’60s folk and, in Mitchell’s case, the
others for space. All feature Carol Kaye, session guitarist and 1970s singer-songwriter boom. Thompson and
bassist extraordinaire. Look up her Wikipedia husband Richard were the primary architects
syLvIA vANdErpOOL rObINsON Remember entry to see just a sampling of the hits she of British folk, which is currently enjoying a
the scene in Dirty Dancing where Baby and played on all through the sixties and seventies. resurgence in the “freak folk” revival of such
Johnny writhe around and flirt, lip-synching Kaye’s playing has indelibly shaped pop music, acts as Akron/Family and Devendra Banhart.
“How do you call your Loverboy?”/ “Oh, all the more impressive considering that female Previously, aside from major influences in the
Loverboy” / “And if he doesn’t answer?”, etc.? session players were rather rare at the time. largely acoustic genres just mentioned, both
That song is “Love Is Strange,” a 1957 hit by were (perhaps paradoxically) huge influences
Mickey and Sylvia. This lovers’ call-response CArOLE kING & ELLIE GrEENwICh on Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Page has often paid
template would go on to influence such iconic Likewise, on the other side of the continent tribute to each in interviews then and since.
songs as Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash’s Carole King was a prolific songwriter,
“Jackson,” Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe,” responsible for several hits of The Monkees, MAurEEN “MO” tuCkEr The drummer for
and Ike and Tina Turner’s “It’s Gonna Work Out Herman’s Hermits, The Shirelles, and Marvin seminal “proto-alternative” band The Velvet
Fine.” Currently indie darlings Dean Wareham Gaye. Such iconic titles of hers as “Will You Still Underground, Tucker was an anomaly both
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thE LEAst yOu shOuLd OwN
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’60s As the ’60s were more of a singles- ’70s Carole King’s Tapestry or Patti Smith’s Horses are the
oriented decade than an album one, girl-group or “oldies” most canonic, but few things epitomize the candied downer of the decade like
compilations are probably the best place to start. If money a Carpenters collection. I especially like the two-disc Yesterday Once More
and interest allow, Hitsville USA, the Motown box set, and collection, because it includes the oddity “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary
Back to Mono feature the hits of the era, male and female. Craft,” a cover of the obscure sci-fi ’60s band Klaatu’s most known single.
Though the original is plenty weird, filtering it through the Carpenters makes it
really, really weird.
ELIZA / 46 ELIZA / 47
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