https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hooked-More-Marylebone-Beat-Girls/dp/B0DPJ3KH8B?crid=JMHDCI7FNS41&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Sxu5huREz5Oes3wxzOqYTkMWNwNjwF1pzaHi6Wo-zcRRvP5YnwdxiHLh6BdQXV4jK9QiJLYNMBiVPDNQitr7f4bnzdKivjQZfLFn---jxS7o_i2PtlzR1zsyYrHfam4IUDcX1eJvTZjwAysvvhS1l2FYSolZ3dogaOy_FAhB1BIOCHRG7_r7cpa26Bvod7h4TrPm6R_idWajRdAiE-oFiIMAciNDlAIvIsARNyyR9UE.8xvwaIMSfVe1Hd30ZTLBzoydcYBe3kzas2lBbq0Kxmo&dib_tag=se&keywords=you+got+me+hooked%21&nsdOptOutParam=true&qid=1736176964&sprefix=you+got+me+hooked+%2Caps%2C90&sr=8-1&linkCode=ll1&tag=mabasreofcdbl-21&linkId=3758590ce6579492a52f80e6728aa9cb&language=en_GB&ref_=as_li_ss_tl
To look at this January 2025 UK CD smooching your New Year retinas with knowing saucy winks – you would not credit it with being release number eleven in Ace's ongoing series for 60t's trailblazing women - Beat Girls.
In fact - "You Got Me Hooked! More Marylebone Beat Girls" is a second-volume follow-up to its well-reviewed predecessor "Marylebone Beat Girls 1964-1967" from June 2017 – a whopping seven years after that quietly joyful event (see full list of Beat Girls releases below). Of course, with a compilation listen like this - you do have to love Sixties Mono Singles (only three are in Stereo) and the constant angst/purring of beehive babes who may or may not know how to woo innocent Mutts and Jeffs.
Many of the 60ts lady heroes (sung and unsung) are here – the ground-breakers like in-demand session Vocalist Liza Strike, eventual Tyne Tees TV Presenter Friday Browne whose 45 is sought-after and not just for John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page on the B-side, chanteuse Elkie Brooks before her teaming up with Robert Palmer in Vinegar Joe and then a huge solo career to this day, Just Another Diamond Day folk darling Vashti Bunyan, sexpot sister Valerie Mitchell (her sibling was Janie Jones of The Clash fame – check out their ample-assets photo on Page 14), Irish Blues nut Ottilie Patterson teaming up with visiting Chess Records legend Sonny Boy Williamson in 1964 to do a Big Joe Williams cover and of course that genre ground-breaker from up North - Cilla Black (gorgeous colour snap of Lorra-Lorra on the rear page of the chock-a-block booklet – Vashti Bunyan graces the front sleeve colour shot – new from her archive). The Black and White photos that follow each entry too are enough to make you teary-eyed – doing it back in the day when talent plus cahonies was genuinely out there for any young woman.
Marylebone was/is an area in London within earshot of Abbey Road Studios where many of these young EMI hopefuls were recorded – Columbia, Parlophone and HMV Records being the bulk of these UK 45-single releases. Amassing the Discography however for these 26 sides (14 new to CD) - it is noticeable that many entries are rated at 5 or 6 good - rather than 7, 8, 9 or 10 great – so some caution is advised for newcomers (hence the 4-star rating despite exceptional presentation).
UK released Friday, 31 January 2025 - "You Got Me Hooked! More Marylebone Beat Girls" by VARIOUS ARTISTS on Ace/Kent Soul CDTOP 1652 (Barcode 029667112222) is a 26-Track CD-only Compilation of Remasters from 1963 to 1969 including 14 Tracks New to CD. It is the eleventh release in their Beat Girls Series (see full list below) and plays out as follows (65:35 minutes):
1.Snakes And Snails – ALMA COGAN (July 1965, UK 45-single on Columbia DB 7652, A-side – written by Chris Curtis of The Searchers – features John Paul Jones on Bass and Jimmy Page on Guitar)
2. I'm Going Out (The Same Way I Came In) – HELEN SHAPIRO (1967 recording first issued on the February 1998 UK CD compilation "At Abbey Road 1961 to 1967" on EMI 493 4522 (Barcode 724349345225) – a Lesley Gore cover version)
3. Don't Let It Rain – KATHY KISSOON [aka Peanut] (January 1969, UK 45-single on Columbia DB 8525 in STEREO, A-side – written by John Peel and S. Roberton – became the Charting Duo Mac And Katie Kissoon in the Seventies – thereafter Katie Kissoon became a hugely popular Backing Vocalist for big names like Van Morrison, Roger Waters, Robbie Williams, George Harrison and many more) – see also Track 20 – the B-side
A definite move forward in sound and feel and back when she was called Kathy – Katie Kissoon gets all melodrama Soulful with her fab 1969 B-side "Will I Never See The Sun" – great stuff and one Mods and Northern Soul fans will dig. Speaking of Soulful girlies – Barbara Ruskin belts out her own "Come In To My Arms Again" in a very Phil Spector Ronettes fashion – all Wall of Sound melodrama over-produced (on purpose) by Jack MacLeod. The sheet music to the Lesley Duncan song "You Kissed Me Boy" appears on Page 3 – a pretty song at best - but LD would go on to write so much better stuff in the Seventies – see my review for the 2CD anthology "Sing Lesley Sing: The RCA and CBS Recordings 1968-1972" on RMP Records from June 2017. Fantastic is the only way to describe the slink of Liza Strike as she vocally elevates the title track "You Got Me Hooked". Soft and mellow and pretty does it as all five foot eight and half-inches tall (her EMI bio) Vashti Bunyan (then trading as Vashti) travels North for her "Train Song" – longing for her man on a British Rail rustbucket in that ever-so-slightly fay whispered vocal of hers - the equally lovely blue-eyed B-side "Love Song" (Track 26) ends the compilation in a perhaps too mellow manner (but collectors will love their inclusion).
I often find the idea of these compilations better than the actual listen – but "You Got Me Hooked! More Marylebone Beat Girls" achieves that double-whammy that Ace Records does so well – a surprising and uplifting tinkle on the memory glands whilst at the same time satisfying the lust of collectors for rarities on Remastered Digital.
Well done to the good chaps praising ground-breaking ladies – admirable and fun. And as I eye the black and white promo photos of a Five Point Cut Helen Shapiro on Page 5 or the gorgeous Updo Styled Katie Kissoon on Page 6 or even a brooding Bob Bouffant Millicent Martin on Page 18 – I think of their classiness and the sheer hutzpah they had to take on such a male dominated world.
I'm Going Out (The Same Way I Came In) - Helen Shapiro and her fellow goers sang in the Sixties – yes you are and yes you did…recommended…
CD (24 Tracks):
Released 25 March 2016 on Ace Records CDCHD 1456 (Barcode 029667074629)
VINYL LP as "Love Hit Me! Decca Beat Girls 1963-1970" (12 Tracks, 180 Grams, Sunshine Yellow Coloured Vinyl)
Released 25 March 2016 on Ace Records XXQLP 041 (Barcode 029667004312)
2. "Scratch My Back! Pye Beat Girls 1963-1968" (24 Tracks, CD-only)
Released 29 April 2016 on Ace Records CDCHD 1472 (Barcode 029667075923)
3. "The Girls Want The Boys! Sweden's Beat Girls 1964-1970"
CD (24 Tracks):
Released 28 October 2016 on Ace Records CDTOP 1482 (Barcode 029667077224)
VINYL LP (12 Tracks, 180 Grams, White Coloured Vinyl LP)
Released 28 October 2016 on Ace Records XXQLP 048 (Barcode 029667005319)
4. "Marylebone Beat Girls 1964-1967"
CD (25 Tracks):
Released 30 June 2017 on Ace Records CDTOP 1492 (Barcode 029667078726)
VINYL LP (12 Tracks, 180 Grams Weight, Orange Coloured Vinyl):
Released 30 June 2017 on Ace Records XXQLP 050 (Barcode 029667005715)
5. "Beat Girls Español! 1960s She-Pop From Spain" (Torrelaguna Sound and Yé-Yé)
CD (25 Tracks):
Released 26 January 2018 on Ace Records CDTOP 1512 (Barcode 029667086325)
VINYL LP (14 Tracks, 180 Grams, White Coloured Vinyl LP)
Released 26 January 2018 on Ace Records XXQLP 053 (Barcode 029667007115)
6. "She Came From Hungary! 1960s Beat Girls From The Eastern Bloc"
CD (24 Tracks):
Released 25 September 2018 on Ace International CDTOP 1519 (Barcode 029667088329)
VINYL LP (14-Tracks, 180 Grams, Translucent Red Coloured Vinyl LP)
Released 25 September 2018 on Ace International XXQLP 054 (Barcode 029667007917)
7. "Live It Up! Bayswater Beat Girls 1964-1967" (25 Tracks, CD-only)
Released 30 August 2019 on Ace Records CDTOP 1550 (Barcode 029667095327)
8. "She Came From Liverpool! Merseybeat Girl-Pop 1962-1968" (24 Tracks, CD-only)
Released 29 November 2019 on Ace Records CDTOP 1561 (Barcode 029667096829)
9. "Don't Blow Your Cool! More 60s Girls From UK Decca" (24 Tracks, CD-only)
Released 29 May 2020 on Ace Records CDTOP 1568 (Barcode 029667097826)
10. "She Wants You! Pye Records' Feminine Side 1964-1970" (25 Tracks, CD-only)
Released 26 February 2021 on Ace Records CDTOP 1596 (Barcode 029667101028)
11. "You Got Me Hooked! More Marylebone Beat Girls" (25 Tracks, CD-only)
Released 31 January 2025 on Ace Records CDTOP 1652 (Barcode 029667112222)