← Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Be My Baby-Baby-Baby Edition Part 1
01:00:26
What is a girl group? In the ’60s, harmonizing ladies saved rock & roll. In the ’90s, sisters with voices gave pop some TLC.
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You're listening ad free on Amazon Music. Hey there Hit Parade listeners. What you're about to hear is Part one of this episode. Part two will arrive in your podcast feed at the end of the month. Would you like to hear this episode all at once the day it drops? Sign up for Slate Plus. It supports not only this show, but all of Slate's acclaimed journalism and podcasts. Just go to slate.com hitparadeplus you'll get to hear every Hit Parade episode in full the day it arrives. Plus Hit Parade the Bridge, our bonus episodes with guest interviews, deeper dives on our episode topics, and pop chart trivia. Once again to join, that's slate.com hit parade plus thanks and now please enjoy part one of this hit Parade episode.
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Going to the chapel and we're gonna get ma Married Going to the chapel and we're gonna get married welcome to.
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Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate Magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanfi, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number One? Series on today's show. Sixty years ago in late May 1964, a black female trio from New Orleans who'd moved to New York City to make it big pulled off a coup. They knocked the Beatles out of number one on Billboard's Hot 100. They were called the Dixie Cups. They were the only American group to top the chart in the entire first half of the of 1964, and their hit, like so many recorded by female ensembles in this period, was written by professional New York songwriters who set to music the desires and dreams of other young women. This ditty was especially dreamy, a wish for a white wedding called Chapel of Love. Now let's flash ahead a few decades. 25 years ago this week in May of 1999, a different trio of young black women were finishing up their latest run ATOP the Hot 100. Their then current hit was also penned by a team of professional songwriters expressing modern women's needs, specifically a man with a job and some manners. This song by Atlanta trio TLC was much feistier and sharper tongued than anything from the Dixie Cups generation. It was called no Scrubs. The 35 years between these two number one hits trace how the pop troupe commonly known as the Girl Group evolved over time and also how it remained the same. Girl groups reflected, channeled and even shaped the mores of contemporary American women, particularly young women of multiple generations.
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Tonight, the light of love is in your eyes. When will you love me Tomorrow.
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In the early 60s, a wave of girl groups rebooted pop music. After the launch of rock and roll, these girl groups delivered heartache.
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Please let the Boseman look and see Is there a letter in your bed for me know it's been so long.
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Romantic delirium Yes, my heart stood still.
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Yes, his name was filled and when he walked me home and run run.
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Run, run run and so much drama.
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They told me he was bad but I knew he was dead that's why I fell.
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Even after their 60s heyday, girl groups never went away. Hits by harmonizing ladies would flare up on the charts through the disco and new wave eras. And then in the 90s, a renaissance, a flurry of girl groups, mostly women of color singing in the R and B and gospel traditions, flooded the charts all over again. By the time of the millennial teen pop era, when boy bands were seducing fans over hip be beats, The ladies were standing their ground and throwing it down in a brash display of girl power. Today on Hit Parade, we will shimmy through the long illustrious history of harmonizing ladies who join forces to command the zeitgeist and serve as avatars for generations of girls and boys from the short lived Bop Deliverers.
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My boyfriend's back and you're gonna be in trouble. Hey Layla. My boyfriend's back.
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To the chart conquering queens. And it all exploded more than six decades ago when some tough minded women broke through the wall of sound to deliver some of pop's most perfect sing. And that's where your Hit Parade marches today, the week ending October 12, 1963. When the Ronettes Be My Baby, one of the most influential records in rock and roll history, reached number two on Billboard's Hot 101 on the Cashbox Top 100 chart. It confirmed that America was at peak girl group. But it wouldn't be the last time we were under the spell of sisters with voices. What exactly qualifies a troupe of young ladies to be a girl group? And is it a compliment? And where are the boys in all this drama? We'll make you so proud of us as we honor these leaders of the pack. Say be there. And stick around. This Hit Parade episode on the History of the Girl Group is naturally a companion to last month's episode on Boy Bands. I led off that prior episode with an existential question about what you might call the uber boy band or even the Supra boy band, the Beatles. And to lead off this episode, I have another existential question about another rock and roll hall of Fame act that, while not quite as hit laden as the Beatles, does offer a similar musicological quandary that can help us define some parameters. Here's the Were the Go Go's a. The Los Angeles fivesome whom we discussed in depth in an early Hit Parade episode were of course all women players. The Go Go's music has the exuberance of girl group music. Hits like 1981's Our Lips Are Sealed call back to the sound of 60s pop. And on their 1982 top 10 hit Vacation, the Go Go's styled themselves with retro kitsch and harmonized girl group style. As women in rock. The Go Go's achieved a lot in 1982, their LP beauty and the Beat became the first album by an all woman band who played their own instruments and wrote their own songs to top Billboard's album chart. But music historians generally don't classify the go go's who emerged from the late 70s LA punk scene and fought to earn the respect of their male as a girl group of the likes of the Sherelles or the Shangri La's. Which prompts the what is a girl group anyway? Is the term derogatory? Can a girl group rock? Well, of course, many vintage 60s girl group hits like the Crystal's 1963 hit he's sure the boy I Love were rock and roll songs presented as pop thanks to their female vocals. And that's the key word vocals. Generally, a girl group is vocals. First one History of the category by the music magazine Pitchfork determined that to qualify as a girl group, quote, an act must have three or more members. All the members must be women and they must record pop music with clear harmonies, unquote.
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Oh no, oh no, oh no.
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This emphasis on vocal over instrumental prowess is not a value judgment. However, groups like the Shangri La's conveyed plenty of attitude with their voices. Sure, the Go Go's wanted to be known as a rock band that happened to be all women rather than a girl group. But from their earliest days the Go Go's were covering Shangri La's songs snarling punk rock style. In other words, the Go Go's were not too good for girl group pop. Like the Beatles and boy bands, they were of the genre and they transcended the genre, as did fellow all female 80s rock group the Bangles, the subject of another prior Hit Parade episode. My brief sidebar on all female rock bands, which we will not be covering in depth in this episode, provides a foundation for our discussion of what harmony vocal girl groups actually did achieve over decades of chart history. And what distinguished them from boy bands? I would sum it all up as follows. First, for women listeners, girl groups narrated profound emotions and expressed personal freedom even when the singers were not so free themselves. A song like the Crystal's 1963 hit then he Kissed Me is like eavesdropping on a private story shared between girlfriends friends about a young woman's romantic and sexual awakening. True, it was produced by the notoriously controlling Phil Spector, who gave the song his patented wall of sound, but the lyrics were penned by famed Brill Building songwriter Ellie Greenwich. It conveyed giddy intensity at the dawn of the sexual revolution. What boy bands did to channel young women's passions, girl groups did to narrate those feelings. And that held true through generations of girl groups, whether the message was sexual agency or, later, body positivity.
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But if you can look inside, you find out who am I to be in a position to make me feel so pretty?
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So that's what the girl groups did for girls. What did they do for boys? For male listeners, girl groups provided inspiration, a way to express matters of the heart.
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I'd like to love you, darling I'm in prison by these chains My baby got me locked up in chains Fun.
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Fact on the Beatles 1963 debut LP, Please Please Me. Of the handful of songs not written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, three of them were songs made famous by girl groups. The Fab Four worshiped girl group pop. On that album alone, they covered the cookies 1962 hit Chains, as well as two prior hits by the Shirells, their 1960 B side Boys. And the Shirell's 1962 hit Baby, it's.
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You what can I do? I can't help myself.
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When Baby, it's you. When the Beatles covered these songs, their tender side came across. Even sung by male voices, the girl group songs had feminine energy. What can I do.
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Myself?
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Cause baby, it's you again. This persisted through generations of pop. The punk rockers of the 70s often imitated or even directly covered girl groups. The Ramones frontman Joey Ramone, for example, was a huge fan of the Shangri Las and the Ronettes.
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Kiss me at the sky Kiss me at the sky Kiss me at the sky.
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And at the dawn of the 21st century, girl group Destiny's Child, as we discussed in a prior Hit Parade episode, were credited with hybridizing R B singing and rap vocal flow. This sassy approach informed a generation of millennial male rappers who sang their bars. So the girl group template, not just the female voice, but the sound of multiple women in dialogue while they harmonize is a sound that male artists keep borrowing and male music fans find alluring. It's not only enticing for the most obvious sexy reasons.
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Fire.
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For guys singing along with a girl group song is an act of camaraderie and even, I would argue, an act of implied feminism, no matter how dubious the results. Dancer Dancing in the street which brings me to one last achievement by girl groups across genders. Throughout rock and soul history, girl groups have pushed music forward as much as, and maybe more than boy bands.
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God, he's My Guy.
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Girl group music has not only proved enduring, it has been oxygen for the music business. On more than one occasion in the early 60s, between the peak of Elvis Presley and the emergence of the Beatles, rock and roll was dominated and, many critics argue, saved by girl groups. From the Crystals to the Chiffons. And, as we'll discuss later, dance music of all varieties was developed and innovated through girl groups, from the Emotions to. Boy bands for all their charms, refined and supercharged styles that were already popular the Monkeys, building on the Beatles template, for example, or Backstreet Boys and NSYNC styling their vocal harmonies after Boyz II Men. Whereas girl groups were a foundation for sounds and styles that, when they emerged, sounded novel and fresh, in the words of no less an authority than veteran critic Griel Marcus, who chronicled girl groups for the Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll of all the genres of rock and roll, girl group rock is likely the warmest and the most effective. The records are, all in all, glorious. It was music of celebration, of simple joy, of innocence, of sex, of life itself. Girl groups gave you the genuine article. So let's step through girl group history, as we did in our boy band history, to chronicle the development of the girl group. We need to travel back a bit before rock and roll. Back then, harmonizing sisters had to be heard above the glorious cacophony of a big ban. The Andrews Sisters were actual siblings. Laverne, Maxine and Patty Andrews toured with jazz bands and by the early 1940s were one of America's top live acts. Though they weren't the first female vocal group group taking cues from earlier jazz trio the Boswell Sisters. The Andrews Sisters had the greatest impact in the years leading up to rock and roll. You may recall in last year's Pointer Sisters episode of Hit Parade, the Andrews gals were a primary influence on the Pointers. The close Andrews Sisters harmonies on Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy anticipated the masked voices of the Girl group group era, as did the Cordette's 1954 number one hit, Mr. Sandman. Once the rock era began, black vocal troops would provide a more familiar model for girl group pop generally. Two late 50s records are cited by music historians as immediate precursors to the 60s girl group wave. The Bobettes, a quintet from New York's Spanish Harlem, offered a banging doo wop style ode to a quirky high school teacher named Mr. Lee. This single, which had schoolyard energy because the teenaged Bobettes wrote it themselves, reached number six in 1957. And about six months later, the Chantelles, another New York quintet, added heartache to the mix with Maybe, a number two R&B number 15 pop hit in early 1958. Widely considered a slow dance classic, maybe showcases a yearning vocal from Bronx born singer Arlene Smith that future girl group singers aspired to emulate. But the record that officially kicked off the girl group era proved the ultimate archetype. It was written by young, married songwriters Carole King and Gerry Goffin, who were associated with the so called Brill Building wave of professional songwriters in midtown New York. Though they worked in a building across the street from the actual Brill Building, King and Goffin are considered avatars of that movement, which would figure heavily in many future girl group hits still in their early twenties. In 1960, King and Goffin wrote a song for Passaic, New Jersey quartet the Shirelles that channeled teen angst over a legitimate quandary from the dawn of the sexual revolution. Whether a young girl should sleep with her boyfriend? Would he be there for her in the morning? The song couched this dilemma in a plush orchestral arrangement and one of the best melodies Carole King ever wrote. Finally, and this is key, it wasn't just a hit, it was a number one hit, the first girl group number one in Hot 100 history. In January 1961, the Shirelles will you love me tomorrow? Will you love me Tomorrow? Was such a big hit, it not only kicked off a wave of female groups with vocal harmonies, it also, at a time before Motown turned black artists into consistent pop hitmakers, made the Shirelles crossover megastars. For the next three years, the Shirelles racked up a string of hits, many of them top 10 hits, many now considered pop classics, including the first hit version of Dedicated to the the one I Love, which reached number three in 1961. The Sassy Mama said, a number four hit also in mid 61.
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This my mama Said, Mama said There'll.
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Be days like this There'll be days and in 1962. After the Shirelles took the aforementioned Baby, it's you to number eight, they returned to the top of the Hot 100 in May with the sweetly smitten Soldier Boy.
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To any.
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By then, the Shirelles had company on the charts. In late 1961, Motown scored its first ever Hot 100 number one on Motown subsidiary label Tamla Records via the Marvellettes, a quartet from Michigan who benefited from Berry Gordy's soon to be legendary songwriting assembly line. Penned by a team of Motown craftsmen, including future Supremes songwriter Brian Holland, the Marvelettes breakthrough was like a combination of Mr. Lee and maybe a kitschy bop that conveyed genuine heartache. And it was addressed to a mail carrier. Please, Mr. Postman.
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Please, Mr. Postman.
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The 12 punch of the Shirelles and the Marvelettes seemed to open the floodgates for a parade of female harmony vocalists. Some were more consistent hitmakers than others. For example, the Exciters, a black quartet from Jamaica, New York, led by three female vocalists, only hit the top 10 once, but it was with a classic, 1962's number four hit, Tell him, tell.
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Him that you're never gonna leave him Tell him that you're always gonna love him Tell him, tell him, tell him, tell him right now.
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Similarly, the Angels, a white Trio from Orange, New Jersey, only cracked the top 10 one time, but it was a number one hit and a girl group archetype. 1963's My Boyfriend's Back.
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And you're gonna be in trouble.
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Other acts built more enduring careers. Bronx quartet the Chiffons not only hit number one in 1963 with the du Lang Du Langing classic He's so Fine a melody so indelible, by the way, that as we have noted in several prior Hit Parade episodes, George Harrison accidentally ripped it off when he wrote his own number one hit, My Sweet Lord, in 1970. The Chiffons followed it up with another classic, the number five hit One Fine Day. For the next three years, the Chiffons were in and out of the top 40. The Blossoms, however, were not so lucky. This LA trio, who sang backup on dozens of hit records, not only never broke into the top 40, at least under their own name, they suffered under the whims of the renowned genius and infamously irascible producer Phil Spector. Spectre was mainly impressed with the Blossom's lead singer, the legendary Darlene Love. But he seemed to regard the other Blossoms, and even Darlene, to an extent, as. As essentially interchangeable performers. This was proven by what he did with the biggest song the Blossoms ever recorded, which was not credited to the Blossoms. He's a Rebel was credited to the Cross Crystals, a pre existing, totally separate girl group in Spectre's stable of acts. The Crystals just couldn't make it into the studio in time for the session. Desperate to get a version of this surefire hit into stores before a competing version by singer Vicky Carr, Phil Spector recorded the Blossoms, singing it featuring Darling Eileen Loves powerhouse vocals, and he simply printed the crystal's name on the single. He's a rebel spent two weeks on top of the Hot 100 in November 1962. As for the actual Crystals, a trio from Brooklyn, they did record their share of girl group classics with Spectre, including Dudu Ron ron, a number three hit in 1963, And the aforementioned Then He Kissed Me, a number six hit. They also with Spectre recorded the notorious non hit He Hit Me and It Felt Like a Kiss, a song that co writer Carole King intended as an expose of domestic violence that she came to regret when it sounded like an endorsement of violence. Given the climate in Phil Spector's studio, a song like this was not beyond the pale.
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Yes, he hit me up and it felt like.
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It must be said, however, that Phil Spector produced wonders with his stable of girl groups. Most especially the song we highlighted at the top of our show that many scholars regard as a before and after moment in pop history. And its lead vocal was by a woman who would one day marry Phil Spector. More in a moment. Quote it's the greatest record ever produced, said no less an authority than Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys of Be My Baby by the Ronettes, co written by Brill Building songwriters Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry. Produced by Phil Spector with instrumental backing by the legendary LA studio musicians known as the Wrecking Crew, with backing vocals by a teenage Cher and lead vocals by the woman then known as Ronnie Bennett. Be My Baby is not only considered the apex of the girl group era, it's a landmark for rock and roll in general. Hit songwriter Rick Knowles later called it, quote, ground zero for the modern pop era, a line in the sand that left everything that came before in the rear view mirror. It was the beginning of pop music being a serious American art form. The song was also lyrically deceptively advanced. Even among girl group songs. Be My Baby is as much about power and control as it is about romance. Music journalist Mark Spitz wrote a woman makes a play for a man while infantilizing him. Usually the reverse was the norm, given the song's importance it is frankly a crime that Be My baby peaked on Billboard's Hot 100 at number two, behind the mostly forgotten number one hit Sugar Shack by Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs. For my fellow chart nerds out there and in podcast land, Billboard competitor Cashbox magazine ranked Be My Baby one on its top 100 chart, which used a different formula from the Hot 100. So advantage Cashbox on the Ronettes. But I digress. Though Be My Baby is credited to the New York City trio, the only Ronette who sings on it is the woman born Veronica Bennett in Brooklyn, New York. The future Ronnie Spector In a record with so much going on, Ronnie's unique, trilling vocals are its signature element, most especially her iconic phrasing of Whoa. Even more definitive is the opening of the recording, led off by a thump, thump, thump beat by Wrecking Crew drummer Hal Blaine, Which is quite possibly the most imitated 5, 7 seconds in all of pop. Brian Wilson imitated Be My Baby almost immediately on the 1964 Beach Boys hit Don't Worry Baby. That same year, the Four Seasons paid homage to Be My Baby on their number one hit Ragdoll. Decades later, artists across rock sub genres were still imitating Be My Baby. As I've noted several times on Hit Parade, Billy Joel openly emulated the song on his throwback hit say Goodbye to Hollywood. Joel imitates both the Hal Blaine beat and Ronnie Spector's wo o o. Meat Loaf and his songwriter Jim Steinman echoed Be my baby on Meat's 1978 hit you took the words right out of my mouth mouth and then it.
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Took the words right out of my mouth.
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Hair metal band Poison invoked the ronettes on their 1986 debut single Cry Tough. Even British indie noise rockers the Jesus and Mary Chain imitated Be My Baby on their most famous single, Just Like Honey.
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Just like honey, Just like Honey.
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And finally, though it did not borrow The Drumbeat, Eddie Money's 1986 top five hit Take Me Home Tonight was the most overt and affectionate homage to Be My Baby. Eddie Money not only copied the chorus lyric be my little baby, he got Ronnie Spector herself to sing it. The appearance revived Ronnie's career more than a decade after her acrimonious divorce from Phil Spector. As for the Ronettes, Be My Baby by itself made them legends, but it didn't guarantee them further hits. In late 63, they were a star attraction on Phil Spector's holiday album a Christmas Gift for you, but their now much streamed version of Sleigh Ride wasn't issued as a single. In fact, the Ronettes never returned returned to the Hot 100's top 10 when they were an active group. Although Sleigh Ride does now routinely make the top 10 every Christmas in the streaming era, the Raw Nets did manage a number 24 hit with their Be My Baby follow up Baby I Love you. And their classic Walking in the Rain, which often joins Be My Baby on greatest songs lists, made it to number 23 in 1964. In short, the Ronettes were girl group icons, but also a cautionary tale. They represented the artistic heights of the girl group model, but also exemplified how reliant these groups could be on other songwriters, players and most especially a tyrannical producer. By 1964, the girl group sound seemed to be waning, especially after the launch of Beatlemania. As I noted at the top of our show, one group that broke the Beatles stranglehold of the Hot 100's number one spot in 1H14 was the Dixie Cups. The Dixies managed a couple of mid charting follow ups, including the first ever hit version of the New Orleans standard Iko iko. A number 20 hit, it recalled the energy of the Bobettes. Mr. Lee, Arguably the last major girl group to break before the mid-60s were New York's Shangri Las, a quartet of tough talking, gum cracking, street gossiping Queens girls led by the tough but yearning Mary Weiss. Their special sauce was turning on the teen girl drama, complete with spoken word interludes. The Shangri Las broke in the summer of 64 with the kiss and Tell single Remember Walkin in the Sand, a number five hit. Then the Shangri Las followed it up with an even more theatrical, indelible record, A Wrong side of the Tracks romance complete with motorcycle revving and a fatal crash called Leader of the Pack.
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Folks were always putting him down.
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Leader of the Pack topped the Hot 100 in the fall of 64 and spurred a small flurry of hits for the Shangri La including the stomping Give Him a Great Big kiss, a number 18 hit, And the ultra melodramatic number six hit I Can Never Go Home Anymore, which decades later would inspire the career of girl group aficionado Amy Winehouse.
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You Can Never Go Home Anymore.
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Meanwhile, as these girl groups were plying their trade, Motown was refining its pop attack. After the Marvelettes, one of Motown's greatest success stories was Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. A girl group with grown woman energy, the Vandellas scored hot and bothered hits like their 1963 breakthrough heat wave, As well as the Fire Starting party classics Dancing in the street and Nowhere to Run, which both made the top 10 in 1964 and 65 and double as civil rights anthems. But Motown had its greatest success with a girl group that you might call a category killer. When they finally broke after half a decade of failed attempts, first as a group called the Primetz. And then under a new name, Berry Gordy picked out for them. The trio of Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson and Ms. Diana Ross became, in essence, the only girl group the main pop girls for the second half of the 60s. Motown dubbed them, appropriately enough, the Supremes. Between 1964 and 1969, the Supremes scored more number ones than any Motown act and any girl group ever. Their chart toppers included their 1964 breakthroughs where did Our Love Go and Baby love. A stunning four number ones in 1965, including stop in the Name of Love. In 1966, the hits included you Can't Hurry Love, And in 67, a couple more number ones including Love is Here and now you're Gone. For better and for worse, the Supremes also set the template for girl groups, showcasing one member for eventual solo success. In late 1967, at Berry Gordy's insistence, the number two hit, Reflections was the first under the moniker Diana Ross and the Supremes. By the time Ross bid her farewells with the Supreme's final chart topper in 1969.
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Yes, We Will, yes We Will.
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Not only had the group racked up a staggering 12 number one hits, the Supremes had been literally the only girl group to top the Hot 100 in the entire second half of the 60s. Ross and her bandmates had cleared the field entering the 70s. It took a while for the girl group to recover from Hurricane Supremes. During the decade's first half, only one trio not on Motown, but very much in the Supremes mold managed a Hot 100 number one, the Honeycomb, who topped the chart in 1971 with the strutdy want ads. Even more strutty was the song that in early 1975 broke the dry spell again. Lady Marmalade by the great LaBelle, who, as we discussed in our R and B Queens episode of Hit Parade, originally started in the early 60s girl group era, Marmalade doubled as a dance floor anthem. And as the 70s progressed, the disco era proved felicitous to girl groups. Chart topping highlights included the Silver Convention's Fly Robin Fly, A Taste of Honey's Boogie, Oogie Oogie and the emotions. 1977 number one best of my Love. At the end of the decade, chic masterminds Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards trans transformed the pre existing girl group Sister Sledge into disco queens with the top 10 hits he's the Greatest Dancer and We Are Family. Speaking of pop masterminds in the early 80s 80s, Prince briefly tried his hand at inventing a girl group with Vanity 6 who scored with the dance floor banger Nasty Girl. Though the ribald single was Too Lewd for Top 40 radio in 1982 and missed the Hot 100, Nasty Girl was a Top 10 R B hit and topped Billboard's Club Play chart. As we discussed in our Pointer Sisters episode of Hit Parade, the veteran family group were at the apex of their hit making powers in the early 80s with dance classics like I'm so Excited.
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I'm so Excited and I Just Can't Hide It, I'm About To Lose Control and I Think I Like It.
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British new wave pop produced its great contribution to the girl group category with Banana Rama, one of the few 80s girl groups to score multiple major hits, including the 1984 number nine Cruel Summer. And in 1986, Banana Rama's number one cover of the shocking Blues Venus. But the only 80s category that produced multiple hit making girl groups was freestyle. As we discussed in our prior episode on this Latin flavored dance subgenre, female vocalists were the lifeblood of freestyle. The queens of the category were Expose, who scored four top 10 hits from their debut album including Point of no Return and Come Go With Me. Although no freestyle act could compete with Expose, the genre produced an array of second tier girl groups like Company B and Seduction. The COVID girls scored multiple hits including because of youf and Show Me.
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Show Me you Really love Me.
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And because the freestyle groups were equally comfortable with dance bangers and torch songs, they came the closest in the 80s to to replicating the aesthetic of the early 60s girl group model. Both Expose and Sweet sensation topped the hot 100 with ballads. Still, as a genre, freestyle proved relatively short lived and transitional. By the end of the 80s, girl groups needed a true reboot conversant with the hip hop era. That reboot would kick off in 1990 as a new R B quartet scored their first hits. Little did we know that the girl group was about to undergo a massive chart renaissance salts. When we come back, girl groups get back in vogue. Thanks to more than a little TLC and a generous sprinkling of spice. Will the girl group turn out to be the child of destiny and survive into the 21st century, you won't want to be missing it. Part two is available to Slate + members right now. Subscribe now by clicking Try Free at the top of the Hit Parade show page on Apple podcasts or visit slate.com hitparadeplus to get access wherever you listen. Non Slate+ listeners will hear the rest of this episode in two weeks. For now, I hope you've been enjoying this episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited and narrated by Chris Melanfy. That's me. My producer is Kevin Bendis. Derek John is Executive Producer of Narrative Podcasts and we had help from Joel Meyer. Alicia Montgomery is VP of Audio for Slate Podcasts. Check out their roster of shows@slate.com podcasts. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the show. Thanks for listening and I like look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way. We'll see you for Part two in a couple of weeks. Until then, keep on marching on the one. I'm Chris Melanfi.