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This episode is part one of a new theme where Tara and Natalie do deep dives on some girl groups in music that have long been forgotten or overlooked. In this episode, Tara and Natalie discuss the career and music of Fanny, a rock band from the early 70s, and The Blossoms, a soul group from the 60s.
Creators & Guests
What is Record Store Society?
It's time to visit your favorite local record store; a place where music fans spend countless hours flipping through records, discuss the minutia of favorite b-sides, best live albums, and anything else music-related. If you have any questions, you can always find Tara and Natalie behind the counter ready to give a recommendation or tell you about a recent discovery. Join Record Store Society, a music podcast, biweekly to see what’s new or just to hang around for some music talk.
0:00:18 - Natalie
Hey, tara
0:00:20 - Tara
Hi. Natalie
0:00:22 - Natalie
How's it going?
0:00:23 - Tara
Pretty good. How are you?
0:00:24 - Natalie
Pretty good. Have you fully recovered from the Halloween Bruhaha? You ready?
0:00:29 - Tara
I didn't do anything really from Halloween, so I'm fully recovered. Oh nice, me too I had one trick-or-treater and it was like right at 5pm and I was still working and I just stayed sitting at my desk and I was like go away, go away. I later then watched the video from my ring doorbell. The kid was not even in costume. Oh, come on that doesn't count.
And then I was like, okay, well, I'm gonna have more, because I did prepare a bowl of candy for the children. I had no more trick-or-treaters after that. I feel like the first one must have told the whole neighborhood don't go there. That's ridiculous.
0:01:10 - Natalie
That's terrible holiday etiquette. You have to have it on a costume, even if you just like have a sheet with some holes cut in it and you're a ghost. Yeah, effort, we need effort. Oh hey, welcome to the store. I'm Natalie, I'm Tara. Take a look around. Hope you find something you like. If you have any questions, come let us know. We'll just be over here chatting behind the counter. All right, so some pretty major music history was made. This week. The Beatles have a new song.
0:01:43 - Tara
Wait what.
0:01:44 - Natalie
Yeah yeah, the Beatles came out, released a new song. It's so cool, it's called Now and Then, and I think they were-. Oh wait, stop, I did hear this. Okay, good.
0:01:57 - Tara
I thought it was one that I have probably heard a million times before.
0:02:02 - Natalie
Yeah, well, it's actually new. I mean new, we'll put that in air quotes but they actually started the process. I think like in the mid-90s, yoko Ono shared some old demo tapes from the 70s that John had written with piano, gave it to the rest of the band and they tried to finish the song, but they didn't have the technology to separate John's vocals from the piano part and get a good, clean mix out of it until today, because, thanks to a software system developed by Peter Jackson and his team, they were able to finally separate the vocals and the piano part, finish up all the parts, get a good, clean mix, release the song and they put out a video this week and it's really, really cool.
0:02:47 - Tara
I wonder if it was played at all when I saw Paul McCartney, like not too long ago. Oh, that's interesting Because there was videos in between. Music, yeah, oh, but no, yeah, it's funny, tidal always serves up some pretty good recommendations in there, like for you it's not a for you page, but it's what I figured it's called, but it's the daily here listen to these songs playlist, and I'm pretty sure that's where I heard it. I just threw on that playlist when I was getting ready for work one morning and I heard it. But I thought it was interesting that the Beatles were on it, because I hadn't listened to anything like that recently, but also it could fit in with some things I listened to. So, yeah, but it's because it's a new release. Yeah, yeah.
0:03:36 - Natalie
Now it makes sense and the video is really beautiful too. I got a little, a little misty eyed for sure, because they have old clips and then they show, you know, paul and Ringo in the studio today recording and they've superimposed George and John on either side of them and it's just really sweet, it's really touching. I can't imagine what that must be like for people who actually, you know, lived through that time and must be really emotional for them. Yeah, when you have a band that was, you know, that important, and losing a talent like John Lennon so soon, like that, I think, being able to hear his voice again and hearing all the other band members together one more time, like that, I think that's pretty special, that's definitely a gift.
0:04:21 - Tara
Yeah.
0:04:21 - Natalie
And having lost. You know, george after they originally tried to record it in the 90s too that that was a pretty big blow too. So this was our last chance to hear the boys together one last time.
0:04:33 - Tara
Yeah, that's exciting. You know, I keep waiting for the next go-go's. You know, how they're like one of the first girl groups to ever have, or like one of the only to have, like a top 10 girl band. Wrote, sang, performed, hit in the billboards.
0:04:55 - Natalie
Is that happening? Have you heard something through the grapevine? No, we're just manifesting it.
0:05:00 - Tara
Like why hasn't this happened lately at all, since the 80s? Is that you never know? There are a lot of girl groups in the world that have just been forgotten about completely. The go-go's are definitely not one of them, sure, but I think there's so many underrated girl groups out there.
0:05:24 - Natalie
Absolutely. Let's talk about it. Shall we talk about it? I think we should.
0:05:28 - Tara
Okay.
0:05:31 - Natalie
Who should go first? You, okay, I will go first, cause actually I have a band here who was forgotten and I think without this band it would have been a lot more difficult for the go-go's to have the success that they had, and that band is Fanny, you can talk to me.
0:05:50 - Speaker 3
If you're lonely, you can talk to me.
0:06:00 - Natalie
Let's jump into it. They are the pioneering all women American rock band active in the early to mid-70s. As David Bowie famously said about them, quote one of the most important female bands in American rock has been buried without a trace, and that is Fanny. So a little backdrop about them. Fanny was founded by sisters, june and Jean Millington, on guitar and bass respectively, who are originally from the Philippines. They moved to Sacramento, california, in the early 60s and, being half Filipina and half white, they faced a lot of racism, a lot of difficulties fitting in, and music became an outlet for them. They're self-taught, started on ukuleles, playing pop music from the radio and one day they decided to play for a school variety show. I love stories that start like this. So many big stars get their big moment in like a school talent show. I think it's so wholesome. And suddenly people were paying attention. So that's how they got started playing around town putting on shows in their yard during summers, which is also a great idea. They had a high school friend named Bree Darling, also Filipina American, who joined the band as drummer and they called themselves the Svelts. So as time went on, bree actually decided to leave the band when she became a mother and Alice DeBur took over as drummer at just 17 years old. They added Addie Lee Clement on guitar and after some moving around they changed their name to Wild Honey.
So the whole gang decides to pack up, go to LA and try to secure a record deal. It was either. It was like make or break, do or die either get a record deal or go back to school. So their managers set them up with a show at the Troubadour in Hollywood, which is pretty huge, because you didn't see women bands on stages like that, or really at all, for that matter, during that time. And Work got back to renowned producer Richard Perry from Warner Brothers Records, who's worked with everyone from Fats Domino and Barbra Streisand to Ella Fitzgerald and the Pointer Sisters. He wanted to sign them right away. So it's now 1970, and they've added. Nikki Barclay came on board as keyboardist and vocalist, rounding out the official lineup, and they changed their name to Fanny. All right, so that's the origin story.
Let's jump into some music here. How about we hear the second single from their first studio album, fanny, and this is called Seven Roads. Seven Roads lie up the number, seven Roads lie up behind. This has gotta be one of my favorite songs from them. It's just so edgy, just pure 70s rock power. I love it All right.
So at the time they'd moved into a house that get this. This is cool. It happened to be legendary actress Hedy Lamar's old house and they dubbed it Fanny Hill. And let's just say that Fanny Hill was the place to be if you were young female and queer. June and Alice in the band were openly lesbian.
Fanny Hill turned into this utopia of girl power and it looked like a very good time and I love that for them. So yet another glass ceiling they were actively breaking, you know, on top of gender and race in rock and roll. So their friend Brie and her daughter moved in with them and rejoined the band. Huge stars would come through this house Bob Dylan, bonnie Raitt, the Stones, joe Cocker, little Feet. Lots of people would come by just to hang out and jam at the house and you know their musical talent and mastery on their instruments were just undeniable, so much music was happening and being created in that house. In an article from the Philippine star, scott Garceau writes, quote the thing about musicians is they respect musicianship. All these big stars who caught Fanny's live shows saw something extraordinary, something that overcame race, sex and gender identity.
So their manager, roy Silver, and producer Richard Perry, wanted to make them the female Beatles, speaking of the Beatles, and so Brie was forcibly removed from the band, which was quite difficult for all of them. Brie was playing tambourine and providing supplemental vocals, but Manage perceived her as being like the extra person. So the label and management said they would not move forward with an album unless Brie left, which was a total dick move. Right, but that's the music industry for you, you know, a bunch of dicks making dick moves. So Brie had to leave and then, in December 1970, they released their debut album, fanny, and Fanny became the first all-women rock group to release an LP with a major label, that being Warner Reprise. So here's a track from that album called Shade Me Ever needed saving, don't you know?
0:10:40 - Speaker 3
I need it now, don't you, man, shade me from the hurt dead.
0:10:46 - Natalie
pain of love, oh come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. So they really exposed, challenged the sexism in rock and roll, proving that women could do exactly what the boys were doing, just as well. And then some and what's crazy is like the fact that they were women seemed to even overtake the racism around them, being Filipino-American. But they soldered on at a truly breakneck speed. In 71, they released their second album, called Charity Ball, and here's a clip of the track Place in the Country and I need it, sometimes to myself, and a price in the country I need the country.
0:11:26 - Speaker 3
Now, that's what I got to find.
0:11:28 - Natalie
I need the country. So now they're just all over the place. They hit all the big US variety shows. They toured the UK and were embraced. They even recorded their third album, fanny Hill, in the UK at the iconic Apple Studios with Jeff Emrick, the Beatles engineer, and that was released in 72. Let's hear a track from that. This one is called Ain't that Peculiar? But how can?
0:11:52 - Speaker 4
love go with the pain. Ain't that peculiar, ain't that?
0:12:01 - Natalie
peculiar, ain't that peculiar? So in 1973, they recorded and released their fourth album, mothers Pride, which was produced by Todd Rungren at Secret Sound Studio in New York City. Let's check out the fourth single from that album, which is a cover of Randy Newman's Last Night I had a Dream. In the dream I had last night In the dream.
0:12:22 - Speaker 3
I had last night In that dream. I had last night In that dream.
0:12:31 - Natalie
Yeah, so just that many years in a row they're just cranking out music, they're on tour, very, very busy, but unfortunately they never got the big breakout hit that the label wanted and they were just exhausted, constantly touring, recording. I mean, all of the moving around it was taking a toll and Warner Brothers' Genius Solution was to put them in skimpy, sparkly clothes. So right, exactly. So the pressure was really mounting. They weren't really getting paid the way they deserved and then June decided to leave the band, which led to Alice leaving the band. However, jean on bass, she didn't want to let Fanny go, so she invited Brie back to the band and they added Patty Quattro on guitar, sister of Suzie Quattro, and this is in 1974. They adopted a new glamorous rock look with leather and feathers, very sexy, and they recorded their fifth studio album called Rock and Roll Survivors. They released a rather risqué track called Butter Boy.
0:13:49 - Tara
Butter Boy. What's that about? I'd like to read the lyrics on that one.
0:13:56 - Natalie
Yeah, this was the fanny track that charted the highest. It reached number 29 on the Billboard Top 100, and the song is based on Jean's relationship with David Bowie.
0:14:05 - Tara
He thought I'd be impressed by his rotating bed. Such a woman, suppressed, surely needs to be led to complete elation, and I've had my share of conversation, wow.
0:14:19 - Natalie
What's the first line? I remember the first line being he was hard as a rock, but I was ready to roll. Yeah, there you go. Wow, just lead with that. Yeah. So this was their hit.
But by that time the band had basically disintegrated. There was no one there to promote it. Nikki got pulled away. She wanted to do a solo album and Brie left as well. They weren't on board with the direction the band had taken and things just fizzled out right when it seemed as if they were finally on the cusp of that next level. People just moved on. Brie went on to marry and start a family with Bowie's guitarist, earl Slick, had a couple of kids. Brie went on to work with lots of other artists, including Robert Palmer, durand Durand, robert Daltry and others.
So yeah, after five critically acclaimed albums in a span of five years, fanny never penetrated the general public. Meanwhile, like the runaways, the gogos, the bangles, they got the glitz and the attention and the platinum records. But honestly, fanny paved the way for all that Big journalist James Lichtenberg says, quote the fact that they didn't break through wasn't so much a function of their music or their talent. It was the social moment which was unable to hear what they had to offer. Well, a lot of time has passed since then. Well, actually, in 1983, june and her partner, ann Hackler founded the Institute for the Musical Arts, which is an internationally recognized nonprofit supporting women in music and music business. They also run rock and roll girls camps during the summers, which is really cool, and I wish I had something like that when I was young. Did you do like music camp stuff?
0:15:54 - Tara
growing up?
0:15:54 - Natalie
Not really, no, I took lessons and I was in band, but never did anything like that I think like going away for a summer to just like do music sounds so much fun with June you know, june Millington, of all people, would have been incredible. That'd be crazy. So I want to return to David Boy's comments about Fanny in Rolling Stone magazine in 1999. He also said they were extraordinary. They wrote everything. They played like motherfuckers. They were just colossal and wonderful and nobody's ever mentioned them. They're as important as anybody else who's ever been ever. It just wasn't their time Revivify Fanny and I will feel that my work is done and so I think that's what's happening now.
You know, in the last few years, fanny, the original members they're all in their 60s Jean, june, brie, alice and Patty they reunited and recorded a new album in 2018 called Fanny Walked the Earth, and the reference to dinosaurs was intentional and I think it's. I think it's really cute and it just shows what a great sense of humor they've had through it all, through all the tough times. I mean, everything has clearly emerged from such such the strong bond that they've always had and their friendship, like they really come off like family and it's. It's cute and sweet to watch them in interviews and they're always laughing, which I really appreciate. Just listen to a track from that new album. Here's a bit of the opening track called Lord Away. Now I feel like singing I've been ruled, yeah. So I think they still sound fantastic. You know, they're just the consummate rock and roll performers and they've helped bust up misogyny and rock, and now they're doing the same to ageism. I think that's pretty kickass. I don't want to spoil what has happened since that album release. You should definitely check out their documentary which recently came out. It's called Fanny the Right to Rock, because the story has a significant twist towards the end and it's quite shocking and it's very touching. The documentary as a whole is just really an interesting watch.
But I'm glad they're back in the spotlight and people are discovering or rediscovering these rock and roll pioneers. And I just want to make clear yes, they were groundbreaking in multiple ways in a social sense. But let's be real, even if you put all that aside, just on the music alone, they are elite, just so raw, still so polished. There were no weak links in that band. Everybody served musicianship, everyone served crazy vocals. They had it all. We just weren't ready. We weren't ready for them. So this year, 2023, marks their 50th anniversary. They were celebrated with a concert at the Whiskey of Go-Go in May, and now I think it's just time to induct them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They absolutely deserve it, right yeah?
0:18:46 - Tara
First, all female rock band to release an album on a major label yeah, that should be recognized Absolutely and influenced bands like the Go-Go's and the Runaways and the Bangles and especially if the Go-Go's cited them as an influence. And they are also still one of the rare and few only groups oh yeah, rock groups, girl rock groups to release a top 10 billboard hit and gosh. That breaks my heart, but yeah they deserve some some recognition.
0:19:19 - Natalie
And all those really big names like they. They knew who Fanny was, you know. Even if the public didn't, they absolutely knew. Yeah, I think they absolutely deserve it. If fucking Jessica Simpson and Brad Paisley are eligible for the Hall of Fame this year, damn it, I better see Fanny on that stage or I'm gonna Right Raise hell. Right, I'm sorry, I didn't you know what. Jessica Simpson doesn't deserve that. Stray my bad. Brad Paisley, however, can kiss my ass, but no, fanny needs to be in the Rock, and Hall of Fame is the bottom line and we need it for 2024.
0:19:50 - Tara
I mean no, I think you have a point though but like, what has Jessica Simpson done for rock music?
0:19:57 - Natalie
She didn't know what Chicken of the Sea was. Yeah, I think that was her biggest contribution to rock music.
0:20:04 - Tara
I mean, I'm not, I don't want to put down. Oh, she's cool.
0:20:07 - Natalie
I like her in it, but but like rock and rock and roll. Rock and roll, but truly.
0:20:11 - Tara
Right, exactly, yeah. What yeah doesn't make any sense to me.
0:20:15 - Natalie
All right, so make it right. Make it right. Rock and roll institution people, whoever makes these decisions, we want to see Fanny in the Hall of Fame, where they belong. And, yeah, check out that documentary. It was really, really fascinating. And listen to Fanny.
0:20:31 - Tara
I'm going to watch that documentary. It sounds really cool. Yeah, so I haven't heard much of Fanny, but I apparently have because I have liked one of their tracks on Spotify. Have you heard of the blossoms?
0:20:45 - Natalie
The blossoms? I've heard of the gin blossoms, but I know that's not who you're talking about. That's cute.
0:20:51 - Tara
I love that you said that the blossoms are probably one of the first girl groups to ever form.
They came together in 1950s, before the whole girl group sound happened, exploded later in the 60s with bands or groups like the chiffons, the Dixie Cups, ronettes, cherelles, etc. The blossoms American Girl group came from California notable, but not notable in some interesting ways. This is a tricky story to tell in some cases. So the lineup most famously consisted of Darlene Love, fanny James and Jean King, and even though they had they had a recording career in their own right, they were most famous for being the group to actually record the number one hit, he's a Rebel, which was produced by Phil Spector. Unfortunately they were not credited as such, even though that's them. When you listen to the music that is the blossoms. But when you are listening to it you will see it says on Spotify, the radio, whatever, that it's the crystals. They got the credit, but it's not them actually singing it. And, yeah, pretty interesting huh. More on that later. I will tell more on how that went down a little bit later, but for now let's start the very beginning.
Originally it was a group of six girls. They called themselves the Dreamers and they originally sang spiritual songs. Two of the members had parents who were against their daughters singing secular rhythm and blues music which was popular on the radio in the 1950s and at the time, at the time, that they were called the Dreamers. Their original group of six was made up of Fanita Barrett, gloria Jones Not to be Confused with Gloria R Jones Obtained in Love fame Jewel Cobbs, pat Howard and the twin sisters Annette and Nanette Williams. The Dreamers were introduced to local musicians through Dexter Tisby, who then at that point had his own music group called the Penguins. That had success with the song Earth Angel.
0:23:38 - Speaker 3
Earth Angel.
0:23:39 - Tara
Earth Angel, will you be mine, do we all also know. Then they were joined by Richard Berry. I thought this was a really interesting tie-in here. Your gals were found by Richard Perry, my girls were found by Richard Berry Already a connection, right yeah, what is that? That is bizarre right. That's weird right.
0:24:06 - Speaker 3
I love it I found your girls.
0:24:09 - Tara
Richard Berry worked with my girls. That's weird. The Dreamers joined Richard Berry in the studio during 1955 and 1956, and they made several recordings for Flare and RPM Records. Among them was a version of Harry Warren and Mack Gordon's At Last and several of Richard Berry's compositions Together Wait for Me and Daddy Daddy. So let's listen to a little clip of Richard Berry featuring the Dreamers on the song Together. The Dreamers, while they're in the studio working with Richard Berry, also got to record a few of their own singles as the Dreamers. So let's listen to, since You've Been Gone by the Dreamers.
It was through their vocal coach, eddie Beale, that the Dreamers were brought to their first major label, which was Capital Records, and one of the stipulations by one of the executives at Capital Records was that they needed to rename their group. And this is so silly. I'm sorry, but I have to laugh, but it's just, I don't know, it's just. Maybe it's not silly, but it's just. It's kind of interesting. Then it probably was a white man that made this decision, but Tom Frans and the executive at Capital Records. He took a look at them and thought they looked like a bouquet of flowers because of their different shades of skin color. So he decided to call them the Blossoms, because they looked like blossoming flowers. It's not bad, it's just kind of silly. The Dreamers was a good name.
0:26:13 - Natalie
What the heck Right? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
0:26:17 - Tara
Between 1957 and 1958, the group had three singles that didn't really do much, but they did have another hit as a backup group to this time Ed Townsend, on the song For your Love in April 1958. So by 1958, nanette Williams got married, pregnant and she was planning to leave the group. So Darlene Wright, later known as Darlene Love, replaced Nanette and was selected to be the lead singer. So now they have a lead singer, which they didn't really have before. They were doing more like group type vocals and it changed the sound of the group. But they still didn't really have much success.
As, like the Blossoms, let's hear a song that features Darlene Wright, aka Darlene Love, as lead with the Blossoms in the song no Other Love in 1958. No Other Love can take your place. They still weren't getting much success in the charts but then they kept having some really good success as backup vocals. They did the backup vocals for Sam Cook's 1959 hit Everybody Loves to Cha Cha, and let's go back to that story of the crystals. So again, even though they had their own recording career, they recorded this song he's a Rebel and it became a number one hit, but they weren't credited as doing this song. That was the crystals that got the credit there. The crystals were. They recorded the song he Hit Me. He hit me and it felt like a kiss.
I actually really love that song but it kind of flopped and it was like we never really made it too high in the charts. But Phil Spector began recording Darlene Love and the Blossoms and so the crystals. They weren't able to travel quickly from New York to Los Angeles and he was trying to beat Vicky Carr at recording this song because he heard that Vicky Carr was going to cover Gene Pitney's he's a Rebel and so he was trying to catch. He was trying to beat that from happening. So since he knew he couldn't get the crystals in time from New York to Los Angeles to record this song, he decided he was going to have the Blossoms to sing it. Spector record and released their version under the crystals banner. But it's not the first time. Phil Spector promised a Blossoms a single and then released it under the crystals name. He did it a couple times.
Intentionally. So, yeah, intentionally, and it's like still credited to this day as the crystals, even on Spotify and things like that. But it's not them. It's Darlene Love singing and the Blossoms and the song was actually originally offered to the charelles, who turned it down because of anti-establishment lyrics, which I think is kind of funny. He's a rebel. It marked a shift in girl group thematic material where the singer loves a bad boy, which is, yeah, so funny and amplified later by groups like the Shangri-La's Leader of the Pack. But anyways, yeah, he's a rebel. Was the crystals only US number one hit and made the UK top 20 and wasn't even there? Imagine if the blossoms got their one number one hit.
0:29:55 - Speaker 4
That's crazy.
0:29:56 - Tara
That would be a different time. Their follow-up single, he's Sure the Boy I Love was also recorded by Love and the Blossoms. So there's another, and it reached number 11 on the Billboard chart and it featured spoken word intro by Darlene Love. A few weeks after the release of he's a Rebel, darlene was signed by Spectre, but she never knew whose name would be used on these records. She was recording with Phil Spectre. For example, on another occasion, on August 24th, they recorded a wall of sound version of the Disney classic Zippity Doodaw, with Bobby Sheen singing lead and the blossoms during the backup. When it was released in November, the label read Bob B Sox with two X's and the blue jeans, bobby Sox and the blue jeans. Though the blossoms continued backing artists as diverse as Doris Day, dwayne Eddy, their main claim to fame was from Phil Spectre's recordings from 1962 to 1964. In February they were on the charts again as Bobby Sox and the blue jeans with why Do Lovers Break Each Other's Heart? Let's listen to that.
0:31:05 - Speaker 4
Then in April later that year, in 1963, today I met the boy I'm Going to.
0:31:18 - Tara
Mary was released and credited to the new names Spectre had given right Darlene Love. She's finally getting her comeuppance.
0:31:26 - Natalie
Okay, you know what? I do know this band because I'm recognizing a few of these songs.
0:31:30 - Speaker 4
Definitely he's a rebel.
0:31:31 - Natalie
Yeah, and definitely Darlene Love. She's very popular and prolific. I remember her from, like her, a lot of her solo stuff, which I'm sure you're going to get into a bit, and her acting career, yes, especially where I remember her from.
0:31:44 - Tara
Yes.
0:31:45 - Natalie
I'll let you get to that.
0:31:46 - Tara
More on that later. Yeah, darlene said when we went to record with Phil, we never knew which record was going to be and who's it going to be by After he's a rebel. The next thing he wanted was another record by the crystal. As I said, this time you're going to have to pay me a royalty, not just no one or $1,500. And she said but I didn't get it, so that's a bummer. But the next round she was like I made sure to get my money.
Phil Spectre also used the blossoms as a prime backing group for the righteous brothers and you've lost that love and feeling which was a number one hit in 1964 in the US and the UK, and also helping out with Cher, who previously sung for Spectre on recordings by their on nets and Be my Baby, which also featured the blossoms, which is crazy.
All right, well, so yeah, although the blossoms were trying to establish themselves as primary artists, they still were like crushing it behind the scenes of all these other groups and acts as backup singers, including songs like Johnny Angel by Shelley Fabares, tom Jones. They had a lot of success as a backup group, even though they really were striving to have their own primary career. But I would say unintentionally probably became the most successful unknown group of the 60s because they sang backup for people like Paul Anka to Elvis Presley. They were super versatile. They could be like a choral group one minute and then they could do like a surf sound or a doo-wop sound the next. So they used that vocal versatility to their advantage and, yeah, they even sang backup for Jackie Wilson, aretha Franklin, marvin Gaye they had they provided background vocals for I Can Tina on River Deep, mountain High. They appeared on Elvis Presley's TV special, the 1968 comeback, which we've talked about before, and they also-.
0:33:48 - Natalie
They were everywhere. Yeah, I know right, that's crazy, it's crazy. They sang backup for Patty Duke. Yeah, how random is that? What did Patty Duke have a singing career? That's so bizarre.
0:33:59 - Tara
They even provided backups for Doris Day's Move Over Darling from the film. And, yeah, they resumed recording under their own name any other time and recorded many songs for a reprise and Ode and MGM. But things just weren't really kicking off for them. And I would love to play a quote. This is from an interview with Tom Cridland and it's it's Darlene talking about just kind of the struggles that she and the blossoms had when they were trying to do their thing.
0:34:30 - Speaker 3
Those records sounds yeah to my untrained ear, as catchy and as pop and as markedable as anything by like, let's say, the Supremes or whatever. I mean. I guess that was later on, wasn't it Right? Good, 10 years later on.
0:34:43 - Speaker 4
Right, and you figure, our music in the in the 50s was totally different from Motown. You knew Motown artists were black. You did not know the blossoms were black until you saw us in person, because we didn't sound black. Supposedly we're supposed to sound black because we are black, but our voices are pop you know what I'm saying yeah. So and that that made the difference, and back then it was very white, but it was all right because they finally did find us a spot.
0:35:11 - Tara
Isn't that crazy, just like they were kind of ahead of the whole Motown thing. They had a pop sound, but they're also very versatile. So they're putting them with all these other people, but they didn't quite know how to market them as a group, and it's unfortunate. They were a little bit ahead of their time in a sense. I mean, they were still very successful, but you just didn't know who they were because they weren't the ones in the front. So it's kind of sad.
0:35:36 - Natalie
Yeah, it's kind of a blessing and a curse right. To be so versatile? Yeah, Anything, but if you don't find niche, you kind of just get a bit lost in the sauce and that has to suck.
0:35:46 - Tara
Totally yeah.
A little bit later on in their careers, the blossoms toured with Tom Jones in the early 70s through the mid-80s. Darling Love left the group in the 80s and performing first in Las Vegas, then singing with Jip Berry's soundtrack for the film the Idol Maker, while doing backup work for Dionne Warwick in 1982. She also did the Darling Love music special on TV performing old crystals, bobby Sox and Darling Love songs, and then in 1985, she appeared in Ellie Green, which is musical the Leader of the Pack, for which a cast album was released. So there was another release album and then, as the 80s ended, she had a budding film career, which you've mentioned earlier. She was in hairspray lethal weapon, and she also released another album in 1988. In 2013, the blossoms namely Love, james Wright and Jones were highlighted in the Oscar-winning documentary 20 Feet from Stardom, in which it was revealed that they had also sung backing vocals for Bobby, boris Pickett's Monster Mash, frank Sinatra's version of that's Life and Betty Everett's the Shoop Shoop Song and His Kiss. Like these are just other songs in St Bacchopolis.
I know it's crazy. So anyways, long story short, the blossoms are great. They deserved a lot more shine. They were the most successful unknown group of the 60s and I feel like if you said anything about the blossoms, people don't know who you're talking about. But if you said he's a rebel, you know, or just darling love or anything like hairspray, the movie then you know, you know.
0:37:26 - Natalie
Not really the blossoms. 20 Feet from Stardom was such a great documentary too. I need to watch it. I haven't seen it before. Yeah, you should check it out. It's really, really fascinating.
I think about that sometimes too, like it's a shame that the blossoms didn't receive their flowers pun intended, I guess you know in their career.
But sometimes I think about the sweet spot of having a successful recording career, because you know who's to say if they had been super, super popular. You see how it goes for people sometimes when they're under a lot of public scrutiny and then it kind of like I don't know, get overworked or just other stuff happens and it doesn't really pan out the way you think mega fame does. If you can kind of like stay out of the spotlight and just be working consistently for your entire life and like making that money and having a good reputation and not having to deal with the BS of actual fame, that seems like the best case scenario. You know what I mean Totally. Yeah, I mean this is not that because they're you know, other people are being credited for their work and that's awful. But I do think there's this sweet spot where you can kind of like stay out of the spotlight and just enjoy making music in a different way. Yeah, darlene Love. Though I don't know if you mentioned this, she's in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
0:38:39 - Tara
Is she? Oh, that's good.
0:38:41 - Natalie
Yeah, I think so.
0:38:42 - Tara
I think because I was so focused on the blossoms I didn't really like add all of her stuff. But that would track.
0:38:50 - Natalie
I want to confirm that though. Yeah, yeah, in 2011,. Inducted by that middler no less.
0:38:55 - Tara
Who is a good friend of hers? She mentioned in that interview as well.
0:38:59 - Natalie
Yeah, that's cool. I just get a Grammy for 20 feet from stardom, so I'm glad that's good.
0:39:04 - Tara
But middler says on Darlene Love, she changed my view of the world. Listening to those songs you had to dance, you had to move, you had to keep looking for the rebel boy.
0:39:15 - Natalie
Yeah, that's great, but no, I think I do think there's a little bit of a connection, because both of our groups have been in the music biz for over 50 years and they were like firsts, Right pioneers true pioneers, pioneers, and that's crazy.
0:39:30 - Tara
I've forgotten, sadly. I mean, it does seem like Darlene was awarded for her accomplishments, but not really the blossoms, right.
0:39:39 - Natalie
Yeah, wow, but what a career, what a resume to be able to whip out. Yeah, seriously, as a musician.
0:39:45 - Tara
And actress and everything else. Yeah, for sure. And I'm going to listen to more of Fanny. I need to. That seems right at my alley.
0:39:54 - Natalie
I'm going to go back and revisit these songs with the knowledge, now, that the blossoms were the ones actually singing. No right, it's crazy.
0:40:02 - Tara
I didn't even know until recently that Cher was on. Be my Baby. They're on it. Really, that's just nuts, wow. Well, this is cool. Maybe we should make a little series out of this.
0:40:13 - Natalie
Oh, there's so many of them, there's so many that need to be spoken about. That's true, and given their respect, given the respect they deserve for sure. Well, I think we definitely started. If this is going to be a recurring topic, we started off with some big ins, you know.
0:40:29 - Tara
Yeah, I agree, I agree.
0:40:31 - Natalie
Some real trailblazers. Trailblazers totally yeah, super cool, Cool.
0:40:36 - Tara
Well, I don't know about you, but it's been a long day. I think I'm going to go and go unknown myself. The darkness in the background.
0:40:43 - Natalie
Yeah, crawl back into the shadows, where I belong, have some peace and quiet. Yeah, I'm with you there. Let's do it. Let's close up. Okay, awesome, bye, see you later.
Transcribed by https://podium.page