Shirley Gunter recorded with several groups on the Modern label and its Flair affiliate. This 26-track CD rounds up all of the singles she cut with the Queens, Maxwell Davis & His Orchestra, Monroe Tucker & His Orchestra, and the Flairs between 1953 and 1957, adding four previously unreleased demos. Gunter has undoubted importance as one of the first solo female rock & roll vocalists, and the first one to sing lead on a hit R&B doo wop single by a female group. However, neither that nor her strong voice disguise the average ...
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Shirley Gunter recorded with several groups on the Modern label and its Flair affiliate. This 26-track CD rounds up all of the singles she cut with the Queens, Maxwell Davis & His Orchestra, Monroe Tucker & His Orchestra, and the Flairs between 1953 and 1957, adding four previously unreleased demos. Gunter has undoubted importance as one of the first solo female rock & roll vocalists, and the first one to sing lead on a hit R&B doo wop single by a female group. However, neither that nor her strong voice disguise the average nature of most of this material, which is fairly standard mid-'50s Los Angeles R&B vocal group fare. That 1954 hit single, "Oop Shoop" (with the Queens), is the most memorable cut, with its shuffle beat and full group backup vocals. Its B-side, "It's You," sounds like it could have made it under its own steam, with its playful weave of lead and background voices and jazzy arrangement. "Baby, I Love You So" (also with the Queens) is in a similar vein, but for the most part, this falls into the category so many such singers do with their discs: a good voice, but a shortage of the first-rate material needed to make distinctive records. Not even a couple of songs written or co-written by Platters mastermind Buck Ram could help, though they're here for the curious. It's interesting to hear an R&B version of "Since I Fell for You," though, a decade before Lenny Welch made it into a pop hit. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi
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Add this copy of Oop Shoop: the Flair & Modern Recordings 1953-1957 to cart. $8.79, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Diamond rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Ace Records UK.
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