The Paris Sisters were a look and a sound. Slightly different but still peas in a pod, Albeth, Priscilla and Sherrell Paris united to make often moodily minor-key music always suggestive of angels stamping their feet. Otherwordly. Yet hard-edged. The defining vocalist was Priscilla, whose slightly husky, ever-intimate mid-tone evoked the wind whispering its secrets. No one had sounded like her before and, at her best, only Saint Etienne’s Sarah Cracknell has come close to Priscilla’s vivid union of the languorous and yearning.
Albeth (1935-2014), Priscilla (1945-2004) and Sherrell had been performing as an all-singing, all-dancing trio since the early Fifties. Their last record as The Paris Sisters was issued in November 1968, and it was August 1961’s second 45 “I Love How You Love Me” which became the hit establishing them as pop singers. Always Heavenly – The Paris Sisters Anthology picks up the story with “Be My Boy”, their Top 60 debut single, and takes it through to 1968.
Always Heavenly is the first-ever career-spanning Paris Sisters collection and it reveals there was much more to the story. They recorded for the Spector-related independent Gregmark (co-owned by Lee Hazlewood), Columbia, MGM, Mercury, Reprise, Sidewalk, Capitol and GNP Crescendo – eight labels in as many years: no wonder it’s taken almost 50 to bring the best of their music together. Fittingly, they are treated properly with the booklet’s good, detailed liner notes and fine mastering. Four previously unreleased tracks have even been found.
The trio ought to have at least one dedicated stitch in rock’s rich tapestry – probably more. They recorded with renowned producers Terry Melcher, Jack Nitzsche, Phil Spector and Nick Venet. Distinctive in-house songwriter Priscilla was augmented by a knack of complementing her compositions with choice works by Goffin & King and Mann & Weil. Yet they are, if ever mentioned, typically thought of as a passing client in the early career of Spector, who produced “I Love How You Love Me”, their only US Top Ten single. Always Heavenly plugs a major gap in the story of American pop.
With that roll call of labels and producers, and the mix of the Priscilla-penned and songs from outside writers, The Paris Sisters might be expected to have a scattershot sound. They did not. Times and musical fashions changed, but the trademark style was always identifiable and always shone bright. Whether it’s 1966’s upbeat, skip-along “My Good Friend” or 1964’s Spector-imbued but Venet-produced “Once Upon a Time”, their finest records enfold like warm mist. Proof of Priscilla’s mastery as a songwriter comes with the 1965 single “Why Do I Take It From You”, a magisterial and spectral reflection as powerful as Brian Wilson’s 1966 instrumental "Let's Go Away for Awhile".
While those with an interest in the studio-crafted pop coming from the Los Angeles of the Sixties will need Always Heavenly, this new collection has a wider appeal as it includes so many songs which now feel like lost classics. Take the chance – this won’t fail to delight.
