The Photos were another group in that vein, their album was a no.4 hit but I don’t recall hearing a single song by them. The Tourists, too, who I for one much prefer to Eurythmics.

In general tho’, the micro-generation of short-lived, female-fronted bands from around 1980 with rock and girl-group influences and without new wave pretentions just does seem to have been largely forgotten. Thus, e.g., there are nifty Holly and The Italians songs up on youtube where my praise is the only comment.

I guess it’s always the way – a lot of the fine detail of musical periods is of no interest to subsequent generations, who reasonably just stick to the peaks. If someone big *now* picks up on some earlier period’s lower tier stuff (e.g., Dave Grohl doing a cover of The Passions’ I’m in love with A German Film Star, LCD Soundsystem stripmining god-knows-what!) then it’ll be remembered but not otherwise.

It’s a shame in a way that His Latest Flame and Little Sister were used on the same 45 as they were equally popular (reached no.4 and no.5 respectively in the US) but, if separate A-sides, would have leavened the weight of Nashville slowies and lightweight film songs that made up his next few releases.

Both sides written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman at their peak. They had given him the rollicking A Mess Of Blues, a no.2 the year before, and would also punt the glowering Suspicion and Viva Las Vegas his way. But they stopped trying so hard when the films got sillier – the themes from Double Trouble and Girl Happy will make you squirm with their rote melodies; the latter is played incredibly fast, as if people couldn’t wait to get the thing over and done with.