Girl Groups - Story Of A Sound (1983)

Background: This is a documentary about girl groups in the '60s, a small genre that I'm extremely fond of. I'm gonna be perfectly honest here, I can't find a lot of evidence that this even exists. The only written history I can find is actually a review on Amazon that the director, Steve Alpert wrote. He tells tales of trying to get clearances for clips from ABC that they didn't know they even had and going to Detroit in a blizzard to find clips from their local version of American Bandstand, called "Teen Town". The movie was made over the course of a long, stressful year for Alpert. Like all documentaries, he found himself struggling to find the narrative in all the elements that he shot.

One of the more interesting stories Alpert gets into in the Amazon review is where he responds to another user's review. That previous reviewer said that the part of the film that covers The Supremes went on too long, and surprisingly Alpert agrees. Turns out that had to do with how Motown licensed their songs back when this movie was made (1982). That is to say Motown didn't license their songs back then. The only way they could work it is if they licensed a package of 10 songs.

Oddly Netflix has no box art for this, which is a shame, because the box art is awesome.

Plot: The doc starts with the writing of the classic "My Boyfriend's Back", a hit for The Angels back in 1963. We learn the story through writer/producers Bob Feldmen and Richard Gottehrer, the latter of whom also wrote "I Want Candy". From here we're taken on a whirlwind tour of 60's girl group pop. The singers point to one particular inspiration, Frankie Lymon's Why Do Fools Fall In Love. They looked at Frankie, only 13 at the time, and said they can do that too, and thus many girl groups were born. 

It's pretty much straight history lesson for a while, playing hits from The Shirelles , The Dixie Cups and more. The songs, like the voices of the singers are big and catchy. Mostly, this portion of the movie is devoted to the singers saying how much they love the other singers. There are a few more interesting moments with the songwriters too, including the brief mention of George Morton, nicknamed "Shadow". He was known for writing the darker songs of the era. It's sort of refreshing to hear a more moody song in the midst of the bubblegum pop that fills the rest of the movie.

The hit parade then marches straight into the reign of Phil Spector. That name rings with an infamous tone these days, only a few years ago he was convicted of 2nd degree murder. Even back then he was described in one sentence as "Strange, lovable [and] frightening". Ronnie Spector, at one time his wife, has some crazy stories to tell about her time with him. There's no denying his talents for production though.

The movie certainly does spend a lot of time on The Supremes, and though there is some very interesting drama in that group, I frankly just don't care for them. The dynamics of the group are pretty well known at this point, first being The Supremes, then Donna Summer and The Supremes and then Donna Summer springing out on her own, it doesn't seem too necessary to spend a lot of time on them. The movie closes out with them and the beginning of the british invasion, which changed the music industry away from the genre of girl groups.

Why Was It Forgotten? As a documentary, it functions more as a hit parade than an actual story. The hits are infections and instantly recognizable, sure, but the film lacks a certain depth. There is nothing on the deeper cuts of the girl groups, only the most popular songs are featured. It's these for unknown tracks that formed the Northern Soul movement in Britain, which may not be terribly well known, but it would be interesting to see more of what happened because of the girl groups and not just what people know already.

Also, the racial nature of the music is only barely touched upon in one sentence at the very end of the movie. The '60s were a very tumultuous time for the civil rights movement for African Americans and the fact that all these hits were being churned out by black singers at a time of extreme racial tension in the country would have made for an interesting plot line.  Even more interesting is that most of the songs mentioned in this movie were written by white males, but sung black women, again, this point is never even mentioned.

What Went Right? The movie hits every mark that it aims for. The music is fun and still holds up to this day. Anyone with even a remote interest in this kind of music will know the words to every song, many of them have become iconic to anyone that know music at all. It gives a great, varied history about the makings of girl groups and gives backgrounds on the people that wrote the songs. You rarely hear about the people behind the scenes so it's always fun to find out more about those guys. The only real downside of the movie is that only does what it aims for, and doesn't let the plot of the documentary grow and breathe and change as a good doc will.

Verdict: A fun, infectious look back at a time in music I (and Martin Scorsese) will always hold dear

Score: 80%