So there’s been this thing going around social media where DJs post 10 records from their collection over 10 days. Krister was recently asked to do it, but we hate social media and what’s the point if you can’t tell a story.
Day 9
The Debutantes – A New Love Today
The Debutantes were from motor city Detroit, just like the all-female The Pleasure Seekers. While the Seekers had Suzie Quatro, The Debutantes had singer Jan McClellan, who formed the group at age 14 and remained the centre of a revolving line-up. She was also a songwriter and wrote this b-side to their second single “Love Is Strange”. Such a unique and amazing track with 12-string guitar and organ. It was released in 1967 on Lucky Eleven, the label mostly associated with Terry Knight & the Pack.
The group’s first single “Strong Foundation” was co-written by Albert Hamilton, a Detroit songwriter who wrote songs for many of the releases on soul label Ric-Tic. The b-side however, is a rocking version of “Shake a Tail Feather” that has been compiled on Destroy That Boy! More Girls With Guitars from Ace. The single came out as the only release on Standout, which was probably affiliated with Ric-Tic.
Their final single, from 1967, contained two more covers – The Drifters’ “On Broadway” and Righteous Brothers’ “Little Latin Lupe Lu”. It was perhaps unremarkable, but was interestingly once more the only release on its imprint (Gail & Rice). The band continued to tour all over the US and Canada, even going to Asia for a four month stint after which they broke up in 1969. In 2018 the Sundazed subsidiary Beat Rocket issued a retrospective compilation of their three singles along with nine other studio cuts.
