COMPLETE RED BIRD RE

The Dixie Cups: Rosa Lee Hawkins, Barbara Ann Hawkins, Joan Marie Johnson. Producers: Jerry Lieber, Mike Stoller. Compilation producers: Cary E. Mansfield, Bill Dahl. Recorded in 1964-65. Includes liner notes by Bill Dahl. All tracks have been digitally remastered. Liner Note Author: Bill Dahl. Arrangers: Joe Craig Jones; Mike Stoller; Artie Butler; Wardell Quezergue. Only three years before the release of this CD, another comprehensive Dixie Cups anthology, Chapel of Love: The Very Best of the Dixie Cups, had appeared on the Collectables label. This has a very slight edge, however, as in addition to including everything from that prior compilation, it adds two more tracks: the fair mid-tempo pop/rocker "Wrong Direction," previously only available on the 1979 import compilation Teen Anguish, Vol. 1, and a less notable mono single version of "Gee the Moon Is Shining Bright." In any case, it's a very good collection, containing the A-sides and B-sides of half a dozen 1964-1965 singles they did for Red Bird, rounded off with less essential odds and ends (including an alternate version of "People Say" and an a cappella alternate version of "Iko Iko"). The Dixie Cups are usually remembered only for "Chapel of Love" and perhaps "Iko Iko," but as this disc demonstrates, there were a good number of solid girl group sides on their other Red Bird recordings. Many of them were written by the estimable Brill Building hitmaking team of Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, and some are quite good despite almost total obscurity (such as "Little Bell" and "Another Boy Like Mine"); a few other tracks have a strong New Orleans R&B influence. It's one of the better single-artist girl group anthologies, and makes one regret that such a likable, melodic act was unable to record longer for Red Bird, where the group teamed with such a suitable production and songwriting supporting cast. ~ Richie Unterberger