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VIP 25003 (A), February 1964
b/w Don’t Be A Cry Baby
(Written by Guy Hemric and Jerry Styner)
Back to the West Coast for VIP Records’ third release, as we meet Joanne and the Triangles for the first and only time.
This was a Californian family group, headed up by songwriting mum Rickie Page and her three daughters, Joanna, Sheilah (some sources say Susie) and Becky; the girls recorded for a slew of labels in the early Sixties, both all together and individually, under a bevy of different names (the Majorettes, Becky and the Lollipops, the Bermudas, the Georgettes, Beverly and the Motorscooters). This was their sole Motown foray.
This is very pretty, innocent girl group fare, inoffensive and almost preposterously wet. The girls’ voices are only adequate, the band drop jarringly out of both time and key at least twice, but the whole thing is so twee it somehow carries itself over the obstacles through sheer force of cuteness. A sickly-sweet musical confection that’s so sugary it all but hurts your teeth, it nonetheless has a certain precocious charm that stops it tipping over into the ranks of the truly awful.
Plus, it’s actually a good, solid tune, Motown’s answer to the Murmaids’ recent hit Popsicles and Icicles, and done in very much the same vein in concept, tune and execution – but all sung in high and astonishingly cutesy sing-song voices. When I’m about to describe a record as “lacking the harder edge of the Murmaids”, you know what sort of territory we’re in here. I half expected it to start floating cartoon hearts and lovebirds out of the speakers.
Much too rich a dessert for my tastes, but I find it difficult to dislike; it’s just so very, very nice, so determined for you to love it, like a puppy that won’t stop following you around until you pet it.
MOTOWN JUNKIES VERDICT
(I’ve had MY say, now it’s your turn. Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment, or click the thumbs at the bottom there. Dissent is encouraged!)
You’re reading Motown Junkies, an attempt to review every Motown A- and B-side ever released. Click on the “previous” and “next” buttons below to go back and forth through the catalogue, or visit the Master Index for a full list of reviews so far.
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Joanne & the Triangles “Don’t Be A Cry Baby” |
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It sounds like the kind of song, that abetted rock critics -who should know better- to dismiss all girl-group work between Holly’s plane crash and the arrival of the Beatles, as rock and roll’s Dark Ages. That’s not true now, and it wasn’t then.
They probably spurred too many Shirelles fans to summarily trash their records and eventually to their regret. And I’m gonna admit right here, there’s a Connie Francis side or two I like myself.
It wasn’t all awful. While Motown was getting its shoes and things were coming together in Liverpool, there was Roy Orbison, Rick Nelson, Gary U.S. Bonds, all of the Cameo-Parkway artists, and though the movies quickly became junk, Presley’s earliest post-Army sides could still rock pretty good too.
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As a Philadelphian, you must surely remember the Orlons – not just ‘Don’t Hang Up’ (and its ineffable flip side, ‘The Conservative’), but their paean to South Street (‘Where do all the hippies meet? South Street, South Street)- my first encounter with that word, though I don’t think they had any sort of proto-Woodstock vision in mind. And – perhaps not specific to Philadelphia, – the glorious Jerk of the Larks, and (getting back to girl groups) the hauntingly lovely ‘Sally Go Round the Roses’ by the Jaynettes! I second your praise of the Shirelles, whose ‘Big John’ I’ve just discovered…
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“When I’m about to describe a record as “lacking the harder edge of the Murmaids”, you know what sort of territory we’re in here. I half expected it to start floating cartoon hearts and lovebirds out of the speakers.”
Mr Nixon, you made me laugh sir!!!!!!!!
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Wow! This thing makes Popsicles/Icicles sound like Heart’s Magic Man in comparison! Okay that might be pushing it a bit, but its the best I can do! LOL
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On further investigation, writers Guy Hemric and Jerry Styner were also responsible for Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Street” and the Supremes’, er, classic “Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine”, as well as soundtrack filler for about three hundred Sixties beach movies. The more you know, etc.
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These guys wrote “Happy Street”? They are geniuses. That is one of the only memorable songs from any Beach Party movie, except for that weird “Do the Muscle” or whatever it was called (just kidding on that one!) Speaking of Soul artists appearing in Beach Party movies, did you ever see the one the Toys appeared in? It was one of the knock off movies (no Frankie & Annette). They performed their big hit “Attack”. Of course, there was “Beach Ball” where the Supremes sang of their “Surfer Boy” (oops just lost my lunch!) Come on, how many Surfer Boys were there in the projects of Detroit? Oh yeah, Hemric/Styner lose major points on my coolness scale for writing “Dr Goldfoot”! (oops here comes breakfast!)
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That instance of “Off-key/off-beat” you mention is actually a pitch problem with the master tape or disc: for some reason, it starts slower than normal, like a turntable that hasn’t reached full speed. That has been a recurring problem with Motown reissues for many years.
Doesn’t alter the general suckiness of the song, though.
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Hrmmm, I don’t know about that – the start sounds weird (when I was first learning to DJ, one of the first things I picked up (other than to always use direct drive turntables rather than belt drive whenever possible!) was to set a record going before mixing to it, otherwise you get that same weird tempo-pitch-yaw effect you identified at the beginning of this), and the bum notes could be explained by that, but there’re at least two instances of the band seemingly dropping out of time with the rhythm of the vocal melody, which I think are just mistakes. If I’m doing anyone a disservice, I apologise unreservedly!
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I think it’s a nice tune. Reminds me of The Dixie Cups (they sang their songs in harmonious unison, too). It’s just missing a little edge. I wonder how it would sound if The Andantes sang along with them. Even better, if they sang it instead.
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I’ll second THAT! The Andantes would have sounded better than MANY groups that were signed to recording contracts by Motown Records.
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Ain’t that the truth? The Page family is good, but not Motown material. Their voices are too soft. Ya gotta know how to shout like Levi!
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Wait a minute. You’re drifting away from the concept here. You know that Gordy was constantly seeking new markets and audiences for his ever-expanding enterprise. Of course the Andantes could have sung Mum and the Triangles right out the door, but what would that have accomplished? Same old Motown R&B. That’s not what Berry looking for. He wanted his very own Murmaids. Retrospectively, that’s not what he got, but the Andantes needed to take a coffee break to help satisfy Gordy’s reveries. Remember, this is the guy who allegedly went gaga over “Tammy’s In Love.”
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I think that giving this a “4” is far too generous.
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