CD - Shirley Gunter - Oop Shoop: The Flair And Modern Recordings 1953-1957

Shirley Gunter and the Queens are often cited as being the first fully-fledged female doo wop group. Even if that’s impossible to prove with 100% accuracy, they were certainly among the first in that field. What is beyond question, is the fact that their 1954 Flair recording of Oop Shoop was the first record of its kind to make a national impact, in the early days of rock‘n’roll. That’s to say that it was the first to be written and performed, with any degree of success, by a group of young black women.

Tracks:

01. Oop Shoop

02. Strange Romance

03. Found Some Good Lovin'

04. Send Him Back

05. It's You

06. In My Heart

07. Baby, I Love You So

08. What Difference Does It Make?

09. I Just Got Rid Of A Heartache

10. Ipsy Opsie Ooh

11. Since I Fell For You

12. I Want You

13. How Can I Tell You

14. The Way I Like It

15. I've Been Searching

16. Fortune In Love

17. I'm Sorry

18. Gimme, Gimme, Gimme

19. Headin' Home

20. Come On

21. Please Tell Me

22. You're Mine

23. Why

24. Let's Get Married

25. How Can I Tell You

26. Ipsy Opsie Ooh

Although we’ve featured several of Shirley’s recordings on numerous Ace CD and vinyl compilations down the years, it’s perhaps surprising to note that we’ve never actually given the lady her own full-length album. The news of her upcoming debut UK appearance in November, at this year’s Rhythm Riot, gave us the timely reminder that we had yet to do so. Thus it was that earlier this year I had the extreme pleasure of reviewing all of Ms Gunter’s 1950s Flair and Modern tapes, with a view to putting such a compilation together – a task that I found both enjoyable and easy! A CD entitled Oop Shoop is, perhaps inevitably, the result.