Good Girls Gone Bad: Wild, Weird & Wanted

Performers include: Jeani Mack, Billie Jo Spears, Janice Morgan, Jackie Shannon, Helen Bozeman, Barbara Pittman, Margaret Lewis, Kirby Sisters, Starr Sisters, Bonnie Lou.
The title of this 27-track collection might have you expecting something a little nastier and raunchier than this anthology of women-sung rock & roll from the mid-'50s through the early '60s, much (though not all) of it rockabilly-based. It does rock along respectably enough, and opens a window into the more obscure early women rockers, though the absence of any sides by Wanda Jackson, the Collins Kids, Brenda Lee, and Janis Martin means that it's far from a "best-of" for this sort of thing. None of these cuts were hits, and just a few of the artists' names will mean anything to most collectors, those being Jackie DeShannon (represented by a 1959 single she cut under the name Jackie Shannon), Sparkle Moore, Sun artists Barbara Pittman and the Miller Sisters, and future country star Billie Jo Spears. Certainly the hottest numbers are those by Nebraska wild woman Moore, whose yelping "Skull & Crossbones" (which leads off the CD) is an acknowledged rockabilly classic, and is also heard on previously unissued alternate takes of "Killer" and "Tiger." Much of the rest, in common with many genre rarity comps, is more acceptably accomplished than exciting, the rockabilly material tending toward the spirited but generic. As archeological evidence that more women were rocking during the time than has been generally acknowledged, it certainly has interest, with some of the more satisfying entries coming from detours from the rockabilly format. The Mystery Trio's "Willie Joe," for instance, sounds a little like a female counterpart to the Fendermen's "Mule Skinner Blues" with its speedy folk-bluegrass-influenced guitar and vocal lines; DeShannon sounds like a slightly smokier, bluesier Brenda Lee on "Just Another Lie"; the Miller Sisters' "Someday You Will Pay" is more harmonized Western swing than rockabilly; Donna Dameron's "Bopper 486609" is an "answer" record to the Big Bopper's "Chantilly Lace"; and Spears' previously unissued "Get Behind Me Satan and Push" is quite good twangy country-pop that's closer to country than rock & roll. ~ Richie Unterberger