Album Reviews |

Glenda Collins



This Little Girl's Gone Rockin' 9 ( 1963-1966 )
Take a Chance / Crazy Guy / Oh How I Miss You Tonight / Age for Love / Head Over Heals in Love / Find Another Fool / I Lost My Heart at the Fairground / I Feel So Good / If You've Gotta Pick a Baby / In the First Place / Baby It Hurts / Nice Wasn't It / Lollipop / Everybody's Got to All in Love / Johnny Loves Me / Paradise for Two / Thou Shalt Not Steal / Been Invited to a Party / Something I Got to Tell You / My Heart Didn't Lie / It's Hard to Believe It / Don't Let It Rain on Sunday / C'est la Vie / This Little Girl's Gone Rockin' / Run to Me / You're Gonna Get Your Way / Yeah Yeah Yeah / Self Portrait

I like pretty melodies but I also like a blast of noise every now and again. Joe Meek was one of those rare people able to combine both. Some of these Glenda Collins tracks really take off and fly with superb bass-drum sounds, eerily effective piano sounds and brief blasts of wild and free rock guitar. Glenda Collins was a singer for the Joe Meek roster, arguably his best singer. The first few songs on this collection feature tunes Glenda recorded prior to hooking up with Meek. Once she did, the difference was immediate and is immediately noticeable. ‘I Lost My Heart In The Fairground’ contains Wurlitzer’s, dodgems, big wheels and ice cream stands. Joe Meek’s patented percussion sounds like a big dipper, the lyrics are effective and evocative. Glenda soars powerfully and handles the quick tempo of the tune admirably. Towards the other end of this compilation, Joe’s 1966 productions show exactly what was lost and how he was still creatively growing come the time of his death. ‘Something I’ve Got To Tell You Baby’ I’ve already discussed elsewhere on the site, several times in fact. It’s a glorious, life-affirming tune and one of my favourite 100 songs of all-time.

‘It’s Hard To Believe It’ was released backed with ‘Don’t Let It Rain On Sunday’ as a 7” in 1966 and it’s hard to believe a single this strong couldn’t even slightly trouble the hit parade. The former track is a much softer take on Phil Spector but retaining Joe’s trademark bells and whistles. The lyrics are apocalyptic yet also plugging back into the Joe Meek fascination with all things space and all things technology and alien. Towards the end of the track, Glenda soars away, fading out with echo whilst strings float around her vocals like wind against ship-sails. No, really! ‘Don’t Let It Rain On Sunday’ along with ‘Something I’ve Got To Tell You’ is a candidate for possible cover version by Morrissey. But ah, Joe does something very clever with the vocals towards the end and it’s a trick I love with vocals. He fades them out and places them in echo. ‘I don’t want it…. TO…. RAIN…. I don’t want it to rayaaain.’ Sends shivers all up and down my spine every time, it does. Other tunes here then? ‘Baby It Hurts’ rocks pretty hard, the title track is apeing ‘Wanda Jackson’ but doing it very well. The final few tracks on the compilation were rescued unissued masters and don’t rank with her best material, but still show interesting signs and aspects of recording. What else? Well, virtually every track ( The Joe Meek Material at least ) sounds like a potential hit. Every one. It’s a rare run of consistency for Joe with a single artist. Even kooky material such as ‘Lollipop’ is fun stuff, ‘lala lollipop’ followed by a big loud ‘pop’ sound, of course. The metallic fury of ‘Thou Shalt Not Steal’, ‘whoa ha uh ha oooh’ sings Glenda.

A superior compilation.

Add A Comment?

Readers Comments jack hi, jut found your exellent website,i worked with glenda as a volunteer in an oxfam shop in swansea where she lives (this was the mid 80s) she kept very quiet about her past but the south wales evening post did a feature on her a few years later and published some great pictures of her sitting on a stool, short dress and high high heels! very nice woman but i believe at the time i was working with her that she had some mental health difficulties. great to see her getting some recognition, regards jeack.br> redmanthinks Northants Have just been listening to some Joe Meek stuff, and Glenda`s tracks immediately pricked up my ears. Some really good material, and what a great voice. It`s a shame life did n`t deal her a great hand of cards, but at least she is now being appreciated as a very good vocalist.