The Six Teens featuring Trudy Williams: The Flip Recordings (2002) ... plus

Barely a teenager when the song was recorded, Trudy Williams' plaintive lead on the Six Teens' 'A Casual Look' is one of the haunting memories of the classic age of the doo wop sound. Written by group founder Ed Wells, 'A Casual Look' made it to #7 on the R&B lists and #25 in the pop chart and started a career for the group on Los Angeles' Flip label, for which they recorded no less than a dozen singles, all included on this 26-track collection. Label billing was something that changed quite a bit for the group. Starting with the vanilla Six Teens name, there were several records that carried the group name featuring 14 year old Trudy Williams or just plain Trudy Williams. Despite the changes of billing, the group members were fairly much the same throughout their recording career. As well as Trudy, her sister Louise and the group's founder Ed Wells, the Six Teens comprised Kenny Sinclair, Darryl Lewis and Beverly Pecot. Louise and Beverly also 'moonlighted' for the label behind lead Richard Owens as the Ivy Leaguers and can be heard on 'Deposit Your Love (In the Bank of My Heart)', another Ed Wells-penned ballad, which I added here as a bonus track. In 1957, Kenny Sinclair left the group and was replaced by Richard Owens who, in turn, was replaced by Jimmie Smith. One of the keys to the the success of the group lies with the nature of the songs that Ed Wells put together for them. Many of these were "story" songs whose lyrics progressed throughout the number as opposed to the more repetitive and more ephemeral lyrics which were quite common in the second half of the '50s. Good examples are 'Afar into the Night', 'Was It a Dream of Mine', 'Only Jim', and 'My Surprise'. As the group grew up together, their material grew more mature in tone. This is reflected in selections like 'Love's a Funny That Way', 'Heaven Knows I Love You', 'That Wonderful Secret of Love' and one of the few songs not written by Ed Wells, the Richard Berry-penned 'A Foolish Little Girl'. However the group called the changes, they unfortunately never repeated their initial success of 'A Casual Look' and with the end of the Flip label, they went their separate ways. http://www.acerecords.co.uk

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