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¡Chicas! Spanish Female Singers 1962-1974 Vampi Soul

Article written by Ged M - Sep 5, 2011

¡Chicas! Spanish Female Singers 1962-1974

Spain might have still been under the boot of a Fascist government and oppressive church but the cultural revolution still found a way in and caused longer hair and shorter skirts just like in the rest of the civilised world. This cabinet of curiosities from the tail end of the Franco era combines all sorts of styles, from pop to soul, psych to yé-yé, with some classics, some oddities (Marisel’s ‘Mi Baby’ is like a Fast Show parody!) and plenty of memorable artists.

The strange thing about Spain is the way their pop absorbed influences – the artists here include Venezuelans, Yugoslavs and “the Chilean Brenda Lee”, while there are loads of cover versions, from Sonia’s ‘Aqua En Mi Nube’ (‘Get Off My Cloud’) to Lia Uya’s superior treatment of Three Dog Night’s ‘Liar’ (here ‘Mientes’) and the insane Spanish language cover of Georgie Fame's ‘Yeh Yeh’ by Los 3 Sudamericanos. Then there are the unacknowledged steals; the modern boy sought by Pili y Mili in ‘Un Chico Moderno’ must be a looter judging by the shameless rip off from ‘Money’ for the introduction.

One admirable Spanish characteristic was to back girl singers with garage bands so Marisol’s ‘Johnny’ has a feverish garage-pop sound while the brilliant ‘Sola Estoy’ by Lorella con Los Shakers sounds exactly like the kind of great garage-soul that Greg Cartwright started producing two decades later in Memphis. There’s plenty of pop you’d call quirky too, like Margarita Sierra’s US single ‘Cha Cha Twist’ with its Annette Funicello-like charm while Encarnita Polo began her post yé-yé career in 1971 with a flamenco-ed up ‘Hava Naguila’! The singers are uniformly great (it’s just coincidence that the Catalan label releasing many of these tracks was called Belter) and the collection takes in everything from soul dancers to groovy pop, with the pick perhaps being Marta Baizan’s ‘Te Veré En Septiembre’ (a version of the Tempos’ ‘See You In September’), described in the notes as “an enduring hymn to yé-yé”. It’s a strange but wonderful compilation, and congratulations to Vampi Soul for shining a light into an obscure (to these eyes at least) corner of 60s music.

Links:
http:www.vampisoul.com