Good question, and better left unanswered. A.U. A long line of girl groups have found success on the Billboard charts, with Motowns brightest stars generating hits as a collective a half-century ago, and artists like TLC and Destinys Child making their mark in the 1990s and 2000s, respectively. The best girl groups of the 1990s to 2000s- where are they now At Billboard.com, were celebratingGirl Group Week by looking at the biggest songs, best music videos, current state of girl groups, drafting our dream girl groups, scoping out post-girl group solo songs and a whole lot more. Key members: Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, Danny Wood . An essential place to start is with The Ronettes. The V!) on the songs mini-breaks. A.U. This sparse, lubricious jam, with its oft-repeated proto-Janet come-on Do you think Im a nasty girl? was so unchaste that group leader Vanity ultimately became born-again (mind you, she probably wasnt baptized in Lake Minnetonka) and denounced it herself. 51. 38. Play, I Must Not Chase the Boys (2003). Play had brought that same kind of dont-need-you sass with Cinderella, but the rock edge of I Must Not Chase the Boys showed that the group had matured in the same way that the songs lyrics explained. Pretty well, turns out, as the stunning dont-do-me-like-that missive became a Hot 100 top 10 hit, helped make sophomore album Welcome to the Dollhouse the groups second straight number one, and reintroduced mentor Diddy to his early role of hype-whisperer, intoning with unusual gravity over the songs outro: This too shall pass. A.U. Tori Alamazes Cee-Lo Green-produced original solo Dont Cha exudes the sinewy sexual tension that the songs refrain Dont cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me deserves, but that single never made the Hot 100. A song that embodies why the K-pop scene is as creative as it is weird, experimental outfit f(x) blended samba-inspired production, alien-like harmonies and the melody of a famous Christmas carol for what turned out to be a huge hit. But all of its the best part, you know? The melody is more of a throwback than say, Max Martins style of dynamite, and more breathable for each individual Little Mix singers artificially sweetened soul turns. A legendary Motown group, Martha Reeves vocal group found success with the ballad Come and Get These Memories before striking gold with Heat Wave, Quicksand and Dancing in the Street., The title of En Vogues first two albums, 1990s Born to Sing and 1992s Funky Divas, fit perfectly: the members of producers Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroys R&B group flaunted their vocal gifts through soulful cuts like Hold On and Dont Let Go (Love).. Harnessing the strut of New Jack Swing with an emotive edge, Brownstones If You Love Me reigns as a sidepiece anthem delivered with a bruised ego, a la Changing Faces That Other Woman and Aaliyahs If Your Girl Only Knew. The R&B trio, at the time signed to Michael Jacksons MJJ Records, spend the first minute in a contemplative prison of their lovers making, edging closer to an explosive chorus that runs down a list of reasonable demands. J. Lipshutz, 17. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google, (Clockwise from top left) Spice Girls, Fifth Harmony, TLC & The Supremes, Visit Billboard Pro for music business news, From Adidas to Reebok, These Are the 6 Best Prime Day SneakerDeals, This Amazon Prime Day Deal Gets You (HBO) Max for Half-Price, Plus Starz, MGM+ & More for 99Cents, Fan Army Face-Off Round 2 Kicks Off: Vote for Your Favorite ArtistNow, Robert De Niros Waiting (Talking Italian). The Ikettes, Im Blue (The Gong-Gong Song) (1961). Since pop music emerged in the 1950s and 60s, girl groups have played an integral role in the expansion of the genre. The Supremes, You Cant Hurry Love (1966), The Motown songwriting-production team Holland-Dozier-Holland gave the label some of its best material, including this Hot 100 No. To honor that legacy, Billboard will be doing a weeks worth of girl group coverage, starting with our list of the 100 greatest girl group songs of all-time or at least of the rock era, with a quick shout-out to absent predecessors like the Andrews Sisters and The Chordettes as decided by Billboards editorial staff. Born on December 9, 1996, her full American name is actually Alexaundra Christine Schneiderman, and her Korean name is Kim Seri. Led by Diana Ross, The Supremes helped usher in the era of Motown soul, and their songs helped Berry Gordy build a musical empire. After Beyonce, Kelly and Michelle all became independent women, they reunited for a farewell album, Destiny Fulfilled, and farewell tour; in 2013, the ladies rejoined once together for a new track, Nuclear, and a surprise appearance during Beys Super Bowl halftime show. An African-American girl group made up of high school students from the Bronx, The Chantels werent given many avenues to succeed in the late 50s, but nevertheless scored a 1957 chart hit with Maybe, one of the girl group genres first classics. 1 hit single, "My Boyfriend's Back". In between arguably inventing rock and roll and turning his wife into one of the great pop icons of the 20th century, Ike Turner found modest chart success fashioning The Ikettes, a girl group whose biggest hit came with this hypnotically melancholy mid-tempo number. Produced by Dallas Austin, the track, driven by a muted trumpet and T-Bozs husky come-on vocals, subverted what had become a traditional trope in R&B: women somberly crowing about their mans infidelity. 12. 1s through its unusually cautionary tone for a potential breakup song: Think it over, the ladies repeatedly insist over arresting chimes and horns, the collective cop trying to let their trifling man off with just a warning. This list of girl groups seeks to uncover which of these famous music groups can be rightfully considered among the best female pop artists of all time. As with Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley, Shirley Gunter and the Queens gave Oop Shoop a nonsense R&B number a hopping rockabilly energy that transformed it into something previously unheard. What could possibly be more fking pop than that? Bombs and Bottles. They got George Harrison and seeped right into My Sweet Lord. You could be next. The U.K. chart-topping smash quickly proved a perennial, as fellow European girl group Play covered it just a couple years later, even bringing out the tracks passion a little more. There are few institutions with a prouder legacy within pop music than the girl group. The Blossoms, Thats When the Tears Start (1965). Drenched in reverb and vocal anguish, Baby Thats Me creates the same feeling of getting caught in an emotional downpour as Walking in the Rain though unfortunately, by 67, pop audiences had raised their umbrella to such Wall of Sound storms, and The Cake never even grazed the Billboard charts. Ronnie Spectors voice obviously thin, but still undeniably towering, like Manute Bol was the sound of billions of young hopes and dreams, and her note-perfect reading of Greenwich and Barrys greatest composition (with Estelle Bennett and Nedra Talley serving as the perfect background subconscious) grows more epochal in every second. (For a list of the biggest girl group hits of all-time as determined by their Billboard Hot 100 chart success, click here.). One of the most important girl groups of the 1960s, the Shirelles formed as a quartet of high school friends and ended up becoming a gargantuan influence on the early female contributors to the American rock scene. 1 hits and ruling the Forbes Korea Power Celebrity list for three different years. 85. A.U. 1 ballad Seasons Change. But the best single of all mightve been the non-Hot-100-charting Exposed to Love, a euphoric freestyle banger with a less-is-more chorus (Exposed to love/ Never felt like this, love) whose fragmented phrasing gets most of the way to expressing young loves inherent inarticulateness and the flourescent synths fill in the gaps from there. The Emotions, Best of My Love (1977). Forget girl groups for a second. Born in Oklahoma, AleXa is actually part Russian and Korean! The Ronettes, Baby I Love You (1963). The Best Musicians Who Performed on SNL In The '80s. Leaders Of The Pack: A History Of Girl Groups Girl groups go all the way back to the birth of pop, and their long and honorable dedication to delighting the ears deserves far more recognition. The you cant stop me kind of lyrics being hollered over a vigorous violin and stomping beat create an ultimate declaration of ex independence. Shirley Gunter & the Queens, Oop Shoop (1954), Dating back to 1954, Oop Shoop not only laid groundwork for girl group but for rock n roll itself. A.U. A Family Affair: 20 Sibling Groups Who Rock | uDiscover 4 on the Hot 100, had a considerably larger impact overseas, becoming the second-best selling single by a girl group of all time in the U.K. to Spice Girls Wannabe. It makes sense why: singer Nicole Appleton deadpan chants the first verse before joining up with the rest of the quartet for a slinky, surprisingly anthemic breakup kiss-off. During the span of their career, these ladies enjoyed success in both Europe and North American, releasing two albums and eight singles, all earning a spot on the UK Top 20. 3rd Faze 702 (group) A Aly & AJ The Angels (American group) Avenue Beat B The Beu Sisters Big Trouble (band) BlackGirl Blaque Boys World Brit & Alex C The Cheetah Girls (group) Las Cheris Chloe x Halle Citizen Queen Clique Girlz D Danity Kane Daphne and Celeste Destiny's Child Dream (American group) E Eden's Crush Electric Barbarellas En Vogue The song still captivates another 20 years later, proving a highlight of Xscapes much-anticipated reunion medley at the 2017 BET Awards. 2023 ESSENCE Film Festival. Co-produced by Missy Elliott, Where My Girls At? catapulted R&B trio 702 onto Top 40 at the early height of the solo-female era, with a hook that refuses to wane or leave the listeners head. and "who is the greatest girl group musician ever? Edens Crush, Get Over Yourself (2001). Top 10 Girl Groups of All Time Top 40 Girl Group Songs of All Time Are You a Harmonizer or a Mixer? The British trio brought a Spice Girls-gone-disco vibe with their four initial singles, and after slowing things down a notch with Follow Me, Atomic Kitten introduced their first quasi-ballad with the captivating Whole Again showing a different side of the usually-upbeat group. A prime example is 1964 Hot 100-topper Leader of the Pack, where a teen girl explains to her classmates that she watched her crying boyfriend die in a motorcycle crash after her parents forced her to dump him. J. Lynch, No, theyre not a one-hit wonder 808 was also a top 10 hit on its own but Blaques defining moment will forever be the delectably dated Bring It All To Me, a silky R&B sing-along which included a hit remix featuring JC Chasez (but credited to all of *NSYNC). If that doesnt render her the Linda Lovelace of pop, who is? Compounding the melodrama are sound effects, dead-serious spoken word segments and backup vocals that echo the lead. A.U. 3. 1 on the weekly Hot 100 chart earning the greatest value and weeks at No. AleXa. That would require Aphex Twin-level programming, caffeinated delivery that makes the term rapid-fire feel quaint, and mastery of proto-Timbaland pop gymnastics that have calmed down more than a bit in pop catalogs since 1999 including in Beyoncs own. A.U. Constantly building and re-shifting until Nadine Coyle emphatically declares You cant mistake my biology!, the single singlehandedly justifies the years of should-be-bigger lamentations from American Girls Aloud diehards. Bananarama, Robert De Niros Waiting (Talking Italian) (1984). Never let anyone tell you this isnt a great song, even as you nod through the plaintiffs incredulous recitation of the verses rhyming pain, chains and sustain (with pain again!). For as long as the Billboard Hot 100 has existed, there have been all-female vocal groups gracing its ranks, from the early days of The Chantels and The Bobbettes in the late 50s all the way up to Fifth Harmony and Little Mix in 2017. The lyrics contain some of the finest couplets in all of pop (Is this a lasting treasure / or just a moments pleasure? and Can I believe the magic of your sigh / Will you still love me tomorrow?), and the superb languor in Owens voice deftly conveys the sense shes been burned before. The songs gentle, heavenly guitar picking is augmented by restrained backing harmonies and austere strings, and the whole composition could seem oppressively wholesome if not for the aching sexual longing Priscilla Paris injects into the words squeeze me, tease me, please me just before the song fades out. A.U. If not the greatest girl group song of all-time and boy, theres an argument to be made then certainly the song that may forever be most associated with the archetype. They were among the first all-female bands to both write their own songs and play their own instruments, and are still to this day considered to be the most successful all-female rock band of all time. Apollonia 6s Sex Shooter, performed by the trio in the film, was a frothy jam of lust and abandon worthy of The Purple One, Apollonia declaring, I need you to get me off/ Im your bomb getting ready to explode, but saying far more with each ecstatic woah-oh-woahhhh! A.U. List of all-female bands - Wikipedia Thats the type of persistence that Im So Excited still packs, 35 years later whenever its pristinely contained craziness is heard, its hard to shake the giddiness even as the music fades out. (2001-2003) Papaya (2000-2001) Shinvi (2002-2003) Sugar (2001-2006) T.T.Ma (1999-2002) Generation 2 (2003-2011) Other girl groups Prejudice: Wrote a song about it. In The Name Of Love, Come See About Me, You Keep Me Hangin On, Where Did Our Love Go the list of Motown classics goes on and on, and although there have been many girl group smashes in the decades since the Supremes ruled the Billboard charts, no collective has yet to challenge their, for lack of a better word, supremacy. J. Lipshutz, 45. 2 on the Hot 100 in June 1979 and became the theme of the 1979 World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates. A stunningly gorgeous mix of country chords, R&B shuffle and orchestral pop flourishes, the ballad finds Shirelles leader Shirley Owens forcing her paramour to declare if hes in love for real, or just until he gets what he wants. Those damn sideline haters, always providing their unsolicited sniping as to why girl group romances wont last The Dixie Cups dont wanna hear it, and on People Say, they shake em off in exhilarating fashion over a snapping beat, declaring I dont really care what the people say. Despite these assertions, the groups own intro gives away their lingering insecurity: Dont you ever hurt me, if you do/ Everything theyre saying will be true. A.U. D.W. A song that will live as long as people are getting ma-a-a-ried (in indoor Christian buildings of worship, anyway), Chapel of Love thrives with a sing-song chorus that turns a vow of eternity into a veritable day at the beach. Princes mid-80s genius was so far too prolific to be contained to his own catalog, as he spun off classic hits for nearly all his Purple Rain cast mates. 37 Best Girl Bands & Groups Of All Time - Music Grotto To ensure equitable representation of the biggest hits from each era, certain time frames were weighted to account for the difference between turnover rates from those years. Listen closely to the lyrics, though, and theyre about date rape, as the members explained in later years: Dont come any closer/ I dont wanna feel, ooh!/ Your breathing, your touching. De Niro, who in 1984 was still at the peak of his acting powers, figures as a cinematic escape from the trauma. The hot Indian girl Onlyfans can't get enough of is the one and only Skylarr. 19. A.U. Vote for the ladies you think should be at the top of the list and make your vote count. The Shangri-Las, Remember (Walking in the Sand) (1964). Who Is The Most Famous Rock Band In The World Right Now? A.U. Lee is so enamored with its subject that The Bobbettes repeat the title ten times per chorus and another 20 times in the verse, a fair approximation of love so overpowering all trains of thought lead back to one name. In the Name of Love (1964). It took the star power of the Dolls, a singing group that started as a burlesque act, to get it all the way to No. The Greatest Musical Artists of All Time. At the very least, its the best song by the best group, the single that first introduced The Supremes to the top of the Hot 100 and set the standard for an impossible number of girl-group song conventions to come: The handclaps, the baby, baby backing vocals, the sax solo, and most importantly, the pinched, heart-piercing, scarily vulnerable delivery of one Diana Ross, forever bitten but never shy. They had 12 singles to hit number one on the Billboard top 100 throughout the 60s. Remember (Walkin in the Sand) was a spooky lament that went Top 5 in 1964, though, so brooding it attracted the decadent likes of Aerosmith to exorcise its demons again in 1979. The Deals: Miles Davis & Meat Loaf Estates Go Downtown f Fall Out Boy's Update of Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start the F Music Genre Market Share Midyear 2023: Catalog Drives Rock S What Does the No. Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. And after scraping new heights with their star-cementing CrazySexyCool two years later, they returned from bankruptcy more triumphant than ever in 1999 with No Scrubs, a term coined to denote a deadbeat who couldnt even provide for himself, let alone for a woman. 86. Vaudeville and close harmonies One of the first major all-female groups was the Hamilton Sisters and Fordyce, an American trio who successfully toured England and parts of Europe in 1927, recorded and appeared on BBC radio - they toured the US variety and big-time theaters extensively, and later changed their stage name to the Three X Sisters.