VA - Dream Babes Volume Three - Backcomb 'N' Beat (2001)

The third installment of this series devoted to British '60s girl group-like sounds is, like the genre itself, not a match for the best American girl group music. But like its predecessors, it's a fairly good compilation, if more notable for inventive orchestral pop production than for the talents of the singers. Julie Driscoll, represented by the early single "I Know You Love Me Not" (which sounds a little like an experimental Dusty Springfield), is the only fairly well-known name on this 22-track disc, though Twinkle had some success in Britain, and Glenda Collins and Samantha Jones have their enthusiasts. There are some real solid, ingratiating pop/rock cuts here, though, like the McKinleys' quite gutsy "Sweet and Tender Romance"; Dany Chandelle & the Ladybirds' "Lying Awake," a pretty reasonable facsimile of Phil Spector's Ronettes/Crystals arrangements; the Chantelles' exuberant "Gonna Get Burned"; Sylvan's odd "We Don't Belong," with its clattering descending melody and suicide allusions; the breathy sides by Samantha Juste, the future wife of Mickey Dolenz; the swirling torch pop of Cloda Rogers' "Lonely Room"; and the Drifters-influenced arrangement of Jan Panter's "Yours Sincerely." A real surprise contributor, if an indirect one, is Donovan, who co-wrote and played guitar on the McKinleys' 1965 pop-folk outing "Give Him My Love," a number he never recorded himself. Overall it's an above-average comp with good variety, not just of interest to die-hard specialists.