Rating: 
Summary: The Book Still Remains To Be Written
Review: Yes, this was a welcomed book, with the rare photos of obscure and not-so-obscure groups, the interviews with the players, the histories of the groups, and the discographies.But. I want more. I want better. I want authoritative. And this just ain't that. Unfortunately, given the subject matter, there aren't going to be all that many chances to get what I want unless and until I write it myself. (The last, and first, book to cover this subject matter was "Girl Groups: The Story Of A Sound" back in the mid-1980s.) Since the publication of Clemente's book, the online girl-group community has lifted him to near-godhead status, and I've heard not a peep of criticism: when you're starving, anything's better than nothing. But I think the book has obvious problems and these should be pointed out. Despite Clemente's good intentions and obvious love for his subject matter, his writing is mundane, repetitive and often irritating. (Is there an editor in the house??) Worse is his lack of perspective/criticism: every girl group or female singer is just fa-a-abulous, so we don't get much insight into musical quality -- just a not very well-written cheerleader's surface story of when, who and how. Very little about the output --the "what", except, of course, that it's fa-a-abulous. Later I found, through a chat-list Clemente was on, that this may have been a quid pro quo for the interviews: he revealed in one post that he wasn't really much of a fan of, or that knowledgeable about, at least one of the groups' music, that of Reparata & the Delrons, but you wouldn't know it from their section in the book. For me, this cast doubt on the honesty of the whole project. I've found several omissions in his discographies which could easily have been rectified with a quick check of other, reliable sources. Some of the histories are incomplete: While his piece on the Angels is in-depth and informative as far as it goes, their later-60's, early-70's story is truncated (and there is a story there still waiting to be told). ...And WHO designed that ugly cover?! It's frustrating that books on this topic are so rare that an inferior book such as this one becomes a Bible.
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