Marcy Gray

WAHOO! celebrates a wide range of music on the ukulele by two-time GRAMMY Award winners Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer. Songs and tunes traverse multiple styles: western swing, calypso, jazz standard, Appalachian, Celtic and Tango. The duo's vocals are dreamy, their arrangements are masterful, and their playing shows a deep love of the ukulele and its vast possibilities.

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.

Will You Still Love Them Tomorrow: Courtships and Confessions of the Early Girl Groups and Pop Divas, a Various Artists Compilation Album. Released in 2014 on Fidelity Masters.

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