British Girl Groups

I've always had a inordinate fondness for British women, I suppose it's due to watching and crushing on Diana Rigg in The Avengers so much when I was a young lad, and I extend that fondness to British girl groups. I'll admit it here and now, I'm a sucker for them, always have been, always will be. So here's a list of British girl groups that I love the most:

1) Stiff Records recording artists The Belle Stars. I loved these gals the second I saw them on MTV waaaaaaay back when. I dug their sound and their look. The Go Go's may have been bigger then the Belle Stars, but to me these British babes were the best. It's too bad that they only got really famous due to their version of Iko Iko being in that shitty Tom Cruise bartender flick. And to top it off they had already broken up when they used their song in that film. RIP Belle Stars.

2) On the heels of the Belle Stars came, at least to my attention anyway, Bananarama.

These chicks had hit after hit and you can find a bunch of them on You Tube. I'm pretty sure they still tour today in some incarnation or another but for me their hey day was in the early and mid 1980's.

3) I'm gonna take a lot of heat for this one but screw it, for a few months in the '90's I dug the Spice Girls like crazy, not enough to buy any of their CD's or see their movie but yeah, I liked their first CD.

It was fun, flirty, and infectious. I know I wasn't their target demographic but what straight guy did not appreciate the charms of five British gals who sang and danced and shook their groove thangs at the drop of a hat? It was too bad they started taking themselves too seriously because when they did all the fun got drained out and the whole thing went south. And then Posh got all heroin chic on our asses and we found out she had the IQ of a raisin.

And finally we come to my new favorites.

4) The Pipettes!

These three gals consciously try to sound like a 60's girl group and yet they also strive for their own distinct sound. They succeed on both counts. They make fun pop music that's light, airy, and perfect for the long hot days of summer. Leave the mournful ballads behind, turn off the goth bullshit, put the jazzy song stylings on hold for a while and jump into the pool and cool off with the retro sound of The Pipettes.

Ahhhh, there's nothing like the sound of British girl groups, is there?