A Better Bet Than Their "25 All-Time Greatest Hits"
09/06/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Unlike the CD titled "25 All-Time Greatest Hits" from Varese-Sarabande, this one gives you all fourteen of their charted singles from 1954 to 1961, plus the B-sides to Born To Be With You [Love Never Changes] and Lollipop [Baby Come-A Back-A]. It would have been nice had they excluded The Exodus Song and Lonely Lips, which were not hits for The Chordettes, and instead included a couple of the other missing B-sides such as I Don't Wanna See You Cryin' [b/o Mr. Sandman] and I Don't Know - I Don't Care [b/o The Wedding], but that's a minor quibble.
This foursome from Sheboygan, Wisconsin [bass Janet Ertel, her baritone sister-in-law Carol Buschman, lead Dorothy Schwartz, and tenor Jinny Osborne], who began their career on the Arthur Godfrey Show in 1949, was one of several early "girl groups" to be influenced by the immortal Andrews Sisters.
As their popularity grew on Godfrey's show, that egomaniac became less and less enchanted, and in 1953 he fired them [as he did with Julius LaRosa and band leader Archie Bleyer]. With new members Lynn Evans [replacing Schwartz] and Margie Needham [replacing Osborne], the group moved to Bleyer's new Cadence label where, in 1954, and with Bleyer's backing, they took Mr. Sandman to the # 1 position where it remained for seven weeks, extending into 1955. In 1956 Ertel married Bleyer.
While nothing worked for them throughout the remainder of 1955, and although their next hit, The Wedding, only reached # 91 Bilboard Pop Top 100 in January 1956, from that point on they were seldom off the charts throughout the rest of the decade. Eddie My Love, their cover of the Teen Queens 1956 hit (# 2 R&B/#14 Top 100 on the small RPM label) matched that Pop performance and was outpaced only by the rival Fontane Sisters (# 11 Top 100) for Dot. The flip of that was Whistlin' Willie (Our Melody).
Early that summer the hauntingly-beautiful Born To Be With You surged to # 5 Top 100 b/w Love Never Changes, and in the fall they closed out a successful year with the double-sided hit Lay Down Your Arms (14 Top 100) b/w Teen Age Goodnight (# 45 Top 100). It then took almost a full year before they scored again with another two-sided hit, seeing Just Between You And Me rise to # 8 Top 100 in the fall of 1957 b/w one of my favourites, Soft Sands (# 73 Top 100).
The spring of 1958 saw their best since Mr. Sandman when their cover of the Ronald & Ruby # 20 hit for RCA Victor, Lollipop, made it to # 2 Top 100 AND # 3 R&B. A couple of months later their rendition of Zorro, the theme from the popular TV series, hit the # 17 Top 100 spot b/w Love Is A Two-Way Street. Another long absence from the charts then ensued before No Other Arms, No Other Lips outdistanced a rival cut by The Four Aces (# 74 Billboard Pop Hot 100), by reaching # 27 b/w We Should Be Together.
A dramatic drop-off then took place when A Girl's Work Is Never Done only managed a # 89 Hot 100 b/w No Wheels and when there were no hits for the rest of that year, or all of 1960 and well into 1961, it seemed like they had run their course after having given a good account of themselves during the height of the birth of R&R.
But then, in the late summer of 1961 they finished off their hit career with the title tune from the film Never On Sunday which made it to # 4 on the new Adult Contemporary (AC) charts and # 13 Hot 100, b/w Faraway Star, which also charted at # 90 Hot 100.
Like their contemporaries The McGuire Sisters [who replaced them on the Godfrey show in 1953] and The Fontane Sisters, The Chordettes smoothly bridged the gap between early Fifties pop and the R&R era with their tight harmonies. In terms of their commercial success, they also owed a great deal to Bleyer who sought out their songs, wrote the arrangements, and produced many of their hits, while backing ALL with his fine orchestra.
Sadly, Janet Ertel passed away after a bout with cancer on November 22, 1988.
One of the very best of the early "girl groups" and not to be missed."
Track Listings (18) - Disc #1
