Like its predecessors, Bouffants, Beehives & Backcombing - Early Brit Girls Vol.1 (RHGB 25) and Helen, Dusty, Susan, Carol & More - Early Brit Girls Vol.2 (RHGB 31), this compilation chronicles the rise of UK gals from the R&R era to the early 60s, heralding the newly emergent Brit Girl sound at the dawn of the Beat era. As we have learned, although the 60s ‘dolly bird’ was still a couple of years away, shortly after the turn of that decade a whole ‘new look’ Brit Girl had begun to emerge… a slim, wide-eyed young gamine, pretty much the polar opposite of the fiercely glam, severely painted, carefully-coiffed songstress who’d graced the UK’s hit parades of the 50s. Indeed, during the 60s, many of the ‘old guard’ underwent makeovers, with the result that even deeply ensconced establishment figures like Alma Cogan, Petula Clark, Marion Ryan and Shirley Bassey began to look younger than their mothers for the first time since reaching puberty. And, of course, the newcomers to the scene continued to bring entirely fresh looks and sounds to the party…

Although fourteen-year old Helen Shapiro was by no means the first British girl singer to top the UK charts - there can be no real doubt that her explosive arrival on the Pop scene, in 1961, marked a major turning point. Whilst her predecessors had all made the No.1 spot with records that frankly sounded as though they might have been recorded back in the 40s (or even earlier!), Helen’s discs were entirely of their era. Her biggest hits can be found elsewhere in this series she is represented here by a couple of popular LP tracks and a pair of B-sides. Of that old guard, Petula Clark proved to be the most enduring, regularly reinventing herself over the decades - indeed, she still continues to cut albums and play concerts, although now in her eighties. Both ‘Where Do I Go From Here’ and ‘Cinderella Jones’ were significant European hits for Pet, the former an early Joe Meek production. Had Alma Cogan not died so tragically young (from cancer, in 1966, at the age of thirty-four), there seems no real doubt that she would have gone on to rival Petula in terms of success and career longevity. In 1960, Alma registered with covers of Herb & Betty Warner’s ‘Dream Talk’ (fighting off rival versions by Michael Holliday and Shirley Douglas) and Paul Anka’s much-travelled ‘Train Of Love’, an US hit for Annette, also covered in the UK by The Lindy’s.

Further notable competitors in the ‘Career Longevity Stakes’ were the incomparable Shirley Bassey, DBE - although ironically, she has made few concessions to changing musical styles over the past sixty years (‘Kiss Me, Honey Honey, Kiss Me’ was perhaps her most uptempo hit) - and the mighty Beverley Sisters, who predate even Pet Clark. Yet despite their enormous popularity, in a career which stretches way back to the early 1940s and saw them still performing in the 21st Century, The Bevs enjoyed surprisingly patchy record success. Their cover of The Brothers Four’s ‘Green Fields’ proved to be their last chart entry, in 1960. Elsewhere, old-timers like Anne Shelton (with Clyde McPhatter’s ‘Seven Days’), Marion Ryan (whose cover of The Four Esquires’ ‘Love Me Forever’ was her biggest hit), Stevie Marsh (who charted very briefly with her revival of ‘The Only Boy In The World’) and Lita Roza (with a surprisingly valid reading of Ruth Brown’s ‘Mama (He Treats Your Daughter Mean)’) also continued to weigh in with the occasional goodie. Anne’s younger sister, Jo Shelton, was extremely unfortunate not to enjoy much in the way of commercial solo success, as were a number other former danceband singers, including Billie Anthony, Rose Brennan, Joan Savage and particularly Yana, whose ‘Climb Up The Wall’ remains one of the great “lost” classics of the 50s