Daddy Sweet Girl

Rockin' Bones: 1950's Punk & Rockabilly is a 2006 4CD box set focusing on the roots of rock & roll through rockabilly and the attitude involved that helped to form what became punk rock. This was released by Rhino.

Hands up if you’re a sucker for music that rips your heart clean out of your chest, throws it to the ground and, without mercy, cha-chas all over it. Fans of said genre may already be familiar with the deep timbre of Brighton-based alt-country’s Holly Macve; new recruits are going to catch on quickly by way of cinematic new album ‘Not The Girl’.

Esther Phillips was perhaps too versatile for her own good, at least commercially speaking; while she was adept at singing blues, early R&B, gritty soul, jazz, straight-up pop, disco, and even country, her record companies often lacked a clear idea of how to market her, which prevented her from reaching as wide an audience as she otherwise might have.

This 95-song retrospective covers a period from 1955, when girl groups were just emerging, to 1963, by which time they were an established staple alongside their male counterparts. Certain groups dominate – the Shirelles appear 14 times, for example – but such success stories are the exception rather than the rule. Most of the groups here only managed one or two hits, then found themselves changing their names, personnel or style in an attempt to repeat that initial success before eventually calling it quits. Still, it's those one-hit wonders who are responsible for the really strange, aurally fascinating gems here. Miss Toni Fisher's The Big Hurt stands out, with its haunting arrangement and phasing effects, as do the Paris Sisters' Phil Spector-produced odes to heartbreak and the Bobbettes I Shot Mr Lee (a followup to their 1956 hit Mr Lee), which is a murder ballad masquerading as a pop smash. Bigger names including Little Eva, Etta James and the Supremes also appear, adding some recognisable bulk to a well-curated look at this important period in pop history.