When I first bought the Dixie Cups CD back in Feburary 2003. I knew that I would keep it for good. The songs "Chapel of Love", "People Say" and "Iko Iko" are very beautiful. It's the complete collection of the group. What's even better is that these girls are from New Orleans. I would love to see them in a show in their hometown someday. I remember hearing them on the radio back in the late 1980's. I would have the Dixie Cups in the archives. It's worthkeeping.

In early 1964, this adorable Louisiana trio hooked up with Brill Building songwriters Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich shortly before heading North to work in the big New York City studios... The result of this brief alliance was a series of nice, lowkey sessions that mixed girl group pop with the slinkier, strolling sounds of New Orleans R&B; Allan Toussaint's shadow is cast as large here as Phil Spector's. The group's big hits were "Chapel Of Love" and "Iko Iko," adapted from an old Mardi Gras theme... Both songs are included here (along with a nice alternate version of "Iko Iko"), and the disc is packed with other fun teen tunes from the amazing Barry-Greenwich team. These recordings creak a little at the edge -- the girls had trouble with their harmonies, and the underfunded Red Bird engineers were clearly attempting but not quite able to conjure the bombastic sound of Spector's famed "Wall Of Sound..." But these shortcomings are actually part of the charm, particularly now, listening back decades later in an era when everything we here is so processed and perfected that there is little humanity to be heard in pop music anymore. At least back in '64 some aspiring teens could sing their little hearts out and still hit the national stage, sounding every bit as vulnerable and coy as the very songs they sang. Fun stuff, definitely worth checking out!

The unique sound of this mid-60s girl group has been collected in fine fashion on a Collectables release from a few years earlier. Here, Varese Vintage takes it one step further to completion by adding two tracks that did not appear on the Collectables piece, the domestically previously unreleased "Wrong Direction" and the single version of "Gee The Moon Is Shining Bright". "Chapel of Love", a tune written by Phil Spector along with Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich that was recorded by Spector's groups with his trademark wall of sound approach, was reworked into the simplified, sweetened, yet elegant tune that went on to become the Red Bird label's first hit and catapulted the Dixie Cups into the pop music limelight. Though not charting as high, the Barry and Greenwich-penned "People Say" was their superbly crafted follow-up. Subsequent singles, also written by Barry and Greenwich, did not exhibit the same hook for the buying public and made less impact on the pop charts until the quirky "Iko Iko", an almost accidental recording, became their final top-100 appearance just touching the bottom of the top-20. Their final Red Bird single, "Gee The Moon Is Shining Bright" was given a more Spectorian arrangement for its single release but failed to make the top 100. Its stereo version included here is more in the vein of the "sound" of the Dixie Cups and in this reviewer's opinion is the superior arrangement and may have had better charting success than the single version actually released. This collection presents the Dixie Cups' recordings in superb sound with most tracks (1-7,9,10,12,17) in brilliant stereo and is accompanied by an eight-page liner notes booklet detailing the group's history. While this piece may be only marginally superior to the Collectables CD, it does represent the definitive collection of this quintessential 60s girl group's music. For the casual listener who does not own the Collectables CD, this would be the one Dixie Cups CD to buy, bar none, while the completist collector would be well served to buy this CD even if already in possession of the Collectables disc.

The Dixie Cups, despite their fairly standard 3-girl line-up, hold a number of distinctions in the girl-group era. Their Southern, New Orleans, origin gave their musical style a jazzy edge (magnified by the horn charts often included in their backing arrangements) not heard in the New York bred groups. Further, their timing gave them access to the songs of Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich precisely at the time they'd broken free of Phil Spector's production (though they continued to write with him) to work for Leiber & Stoller's Red Bird Records. The confluence of talent created some of the most unique sides in girl-group history.

Leading off this package is the group's debut, Red Bird's debut, and the first #1 hit for both, "Chapel of Love." Having penned this song with Spector, Barry & Greenwich were eager to give it another try. Unissued takes by The Ronettes and Darlene Love had found the song unsuccessfully matched up to Spector's Wall of Sound. Red Bird peeled away the layered backing to focus on the innocent harmonies of the Dixie Cups. Though probably lost on AM listeners of the era, this was a beautifully produced stereo recording that reveals terrific subtleties on CD.

The group's New Orleans roots show up with a vengeance on "All Grown Up." Previously waxed by The Crystals, The Dixie Cups version has a rhythm and piano line reminiscent of Fats Domino, and a horn chart that has the Crescent City written all over it. Similarly, "Iko Iko," with its rhythm-and-bass backing is perhaps one of the era's most unusual top-20 singles. An alternate "a capella" version of "Iko Iko" closes the disc, featuring only the Dixie Cups and the rhythm track. What's really surprising is how little this latter version misses the bass accompaniment of the hit single.

Other treats on this collection include "Gee the Moon is Shining Bright" with its soulful horns and touches of celeste, "Another Boy Like Mine," originally recorded by Barry & Greenwich as The Raindrops, and two versions of the summertime romance, "People Say." The innocence of the latter -- both song and singers -- is incredible.

Varese's collection gathers all of the group's official sides for Red Bird, adding a pair of alternate versions, a mono single mix of "Gee the Moon is Shining Bright," and the rare, "Wrong Direction," previously available only on an import collection. The latter two tracks, plus newly penned liner notes, make this the best Dixie Cups compilation available, besting Collectables' 1999 issue. The remastered sound is tremendous, with surprisingly rich true stereo on most tracks.

After recording these sides, the Dixie Cups' manager abruptly moved them to ABC, where their New Orleans edge was quickly dropped in favor of straight-ahead pop. Their collaboration with Barry & Greenwich ended at the same time, and their recording career folded shortly thereafter. Luckily these superb sides were captured at the group's prime.