Search - Chordettes :: Fabulous Chordettes

Seminal fifties girl group

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 03/29/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Chordettes originally came together in 1946 but by the time they began their run of hits in 1954, two of the original four members had been replaced. When they recorded Mr Sandman (their debut hit), the line-up was Lynn Evans, Margie Needham, Janet Ertel and Carol Buschman.



The Chordettes spent seven weeks at the top of the American charts in 1954 but just failed to make the British top ten although three cover versions all did so, with Dickie Valentine doing best of them.



The Chordettes had three other American top ten hits. The first (Born to be with you) faced no competition from covers in the UK at the time and made the UK top ten. Dave Edmunds covered it in the seventies and had a UK top five hit with it. The second (Just between you and me) didn't chart in Britain for anybody. The third (Lollipop) gave the Chordettes their second and last UK top ten hit despite competition from the Mudlarks, whose version made number two in the UK.



Among their American hits that didn't make the top ten, the most surprising is Lay down your arms. In those days, Americans rarely covered British songs (the reverse was very common, of course) but this was an exception - it had provided Anne Shelton with her only number one hit. Other hits included A girl's work is never done (not included here), Eddie my love and Never on Sunday.



This somewhat short compilation contains all the famous tracks and provides a good overview of their music. A more comprehensive collection (Mainly rock'n'roll) is available, which includes all the tracks here and many more including A girl's work is never done."