When I think of Sunday morning music, I think mainly of insane (in a good or bad way) religious music. But I also think back to those halcyon days of childhood when a Sunday morning wasn't a Sunday morning unless it was spent sitting in the back seat of a car on the way to church with butterflies in my stomach (I always--ALWAYS-- got nervous going to church)and the sweet sounds of the '60s on the car stereo.
Any discussion of '60s music, I think, has to start with the girl groups that started appearing in the late '50s--groups like The Shirelles, The Ronettes, The Dixie Cups, The Adorable Pumps, The Femmettes, the Chinets, and The Amazing Excitable Woman Band. Every other important type of top 40 music in the '60s grew out of or was a cousin to the girl group sound: Soul music (at the very least the girl groups helped legitimize other soulful sounds), the British invasion (the Beatles covered "Chains" and adopted the girl group dynamic--everyone else copied the Beatles), sunshine pop (inspired by the sonic experiments of Phil Spector as well as the naive, innocent charm of the girls themselves), even American psychedelia (just look at this clip of Vanilla Fudge covering "You Keep Me Hanging On"). But this isn't a discussion of '60s music. This is Sunday morning music, and all this is just an excuse to share with you three songs from modern musicians making music inspired by the girl group sound that are perfect for listening to on a Sunday morning. So here they are.
She and Him - "I Was Made for You"
Zoey Deschanel and M Ward's She and Him project throws back to a lot of wonderful things in several wonderful ways but I think the two lesser-known girl group inspired tracks are great fun all by themselves.
From the opening drums, to the piano flourishes, to the spot-fucking-on guitar tone and background vocals, this could have been produced by Phil Spector. Such slavish adherence to an earlier form usually turns me off, but this--this--it's just so damn adorable it makes me want to give a homeless man a kitten.
She and Him - "Sweet Darlin'"
Like "I Was Made for You," but like 5 years more mature with a more advanced echo chamber and a steel guitar. Ain't nothing wrong with that.
The Pipettes - "Pull Shapes"
The Pipettes are the closest thing we have to an actual honest-to-God '60s type girl group in 2009. "Pull Shapes" has more of a '70s flavor (it mentions disco), but it's still several miles of fun in one compact, adorable, 3-minute ditty. If you can imagine The Spice Girls populated with three Lily Allens singing music inspired by the Shirelles, then you have The Pipettes. Or you could watch the video. Hopefully you already have.
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