GIRL IN A MILLION (The Complete Recordings) Twinkle
Housed in a deluxe digipack, as the title suggests, this release brings together all of Twinkle’s output for the first time, from the hit Decca period through to later releases on Instant. President and Bradleys. Twinkle (real name Lynn Ripley) is of course remembered for ‘Terry’ a so called (by the press) ‘death disc’ coming on the heels of others like ‘Tell Laura I Love Her’ and the Shangri-La’s ‘Leader of The Pack’ released a couple of months before ‘Terry’ became a no.4 hit in December 1964. ‘Terry’ might have been a simplistic teenage angst song, however it should be noted that she was a mere 14 when she wrote it, and having racked my brain I can’t think of another female singer/songwriter who had been in the charts before. Twinkle’s background couldn’t have been any further from the world she was writing about. Growing up in a mansion in Surrey hers was a world of priviledge and wealth, she attended school with the likes of Camilla Parker-Bowles, frequented Royal Ascot and went to the South of France with Dame Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nureyev. She was however a rebel and from a tender age hung out at London clubs Esmeralda’s Barn (notoriously owned by the Krays at one time) and The Cromwellian. Her boyfriend was Dec Cluskey (the Batchelors) and it was Dec that arranged the demo of ‘Terry’ to be heard by Decca, who immediately signed her. Although she’ll always be remembered for ‘Terry’ there was so much more to Twinkle. Her follow up single ‘Golden Lights’ is a glorious slice of pop and one of my own personal favourite female vocal songs of the 60’s, a view shared by Morrisey in the 80’s when he covered it in The Smiths, he simply loved her.
Her vocal on Golden Lights is far more representative of her work, highlights of Disc 1 include ‘Aint Nobody Home By Me, ‘Tommy’, a great cover of Skeeter Davis’s ‘The End Of The World’ , ‘Micky’ an insanely catchy earworm of a song (not the Toni Basil song!) and topped off with the previously unissued live ‘Sha-La-La-La-Lee’ (Small Faces), which could have come from the NME Poll Winners show? Disc 2 mainly comprises of the ‘Michael Hannah’ LP.
Michael was the great love of Twinkle’s life who died at an early age in a plane crash, the songs are poignant ‘Caroline’ ‘Joanna’ and ‘Soldier’ in particular and shows the fragile state of Twinkles mind at the time. Concluding the set under ‘Later Recordings’ is a take on Neil Diamonds ‘I’m A Believer’ and her self penned ‘Holiday Romance’ another glorious and mature track. Twinkle was never concerned with the money and adulation of the music business, in her won words she ‘just wanted to be famous’. Well she certainly achieved her goal. Sadly after a five year battle with cancer she passed away on the 21st May 2015 after a happy life. RIP Twinks and thanks for the music. The 2cd set is released this Friday 19th on RPM Records,
Alan Esdaile… According to Keith Tooke, Twinkle spent here honeymoon in Hastings 72/73 staying at the Queens Hotel.
Tony Court-holmes… poor girl
Sue James… I have Terry the single
Josie Lawson… I loved this song. I had the 45 record. Must have worn it out. Played and played it cos my first boyfriend had a motorbike..no he didn’t crash but he broke my heart. Anyway, listening today and seeing Twinkle singing it, in my opinion didn’t give the same impact. I find this with many songs. Listening to them either from record, tape, radio gives them more of an impact than seeing the singers sing them. There has only being two singers in my opinion who are great at both and that are Gerry from Gerry and the Pacemakers and Gene Pitney…
Pete Brazier… Can’t wait! Sounds like A Good Album to get!
