The Vernons Girls
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The Vernons Girls were an English musical ensemble of female vocalists. They were formed at the football pools company in 1950s Liverpool, as a sixteen strong choir and cut an album of standards.
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[edit] Career
In 1958 and 1959 they appeared on the ITV show, Oh Boy!, with the house band, and made a series of singles for labels like Decca and Parlophone, in a more condensed group with between three and five members. These were mainly covers of American hits which would sell less than the originals.
As session singers for Decca they appeared on dozens of hits into the 1960s, and even had a couple of their own with what can be seen as the first ever raw Scouse accents in the top 30[citation needed]: 'You know what I mean'—a line remembered by John Lennon as the song "I Saw Her Standing There" was created, and which replaced the original line by Paul McCartney.[citation needed]
In the United States the group charted with the first Beatles tribute over there, We Love The Beatles. As the Carefrees they also charted with We love you Beatles and made an album only available in the States Before long there were solo singers like Lyn Cornell (married to session drummer Andy White, notable for replacing Ringo Starr on an early take of "Love Me Do") and splinter acts like The Breakaways, one of whom, Vicky Haseman, married Joe Brown. Another former Vernons Girl, Maggie Stredder, went on to form another session group with Gloria George, The Ladybirds, who are today most famous for their long association with The Benny Hill Show.For some reason the Ladybirds were known as the Sharades when they cut a single for Joe Meek in 1965. Its usually reckoned the Vernons Girls were the female backing voices on literally hundreds of hit singles during the 60s one of the first being Billy Fury's Maybe tomorrow
The Vernons Girls appear on film as a trio on "Around the Beatles" with The Beatles, Long John Baldry, P. J. Proby and Millie.
Three of them were in the Billy Fury movie, Play It Cool, while Lyn Cornell and the Breakaways were in Just For Fun. In the later 1990s they appeared in Cliff Richard's Oh Boy from Wembley this being an amended version with new editions to a few of the originals.
[edit] Afterwards
The original full troupe soon disbanded, but a smaller unit carried on headed up by Maureen Kennedy. Most of the girls seem to have continued, at least for a while, in show business ventures. Lynn Cornell became a successful soloist and managed a chart hit with "Never On Sunday" - she later became one of The Pearls. Vicky Haseman married Brown and brought up singing daughter Sam Brown. Joyce Baker married Marty Wilde - they formed a trio with Justin Hayward called the 'Wilde Three'. The others seem to have banded together as duets and singing trios; these include the 'Redmond Twins', 'The Breakaways', 'The Pearls', the 'Two Tones'; the 'DeLaine Sisters', and the longest surviving and best known, The Ladybirds. For the past ten years Maggie Stredder, Sheila Bruce, together with ex-Ladybird Penny Lister, have brought new life to the Vernons Girls and now regularly recapture some of the old magic on tour with their friends as part of the Solid Gold Rock 'n' Roll Show.
The Vernons Girls are really the world's longest running girl group and still exist today in one permutation or another.[citation needed]
[edit] Main personnel
- Maggie Stredder (born Margaret Elizabeth Stredder, 9 January 1936, Birkenhead) - later in The Ladybirds - married writer Roy Tuvey.
- Vicky Brown (born Victoria Mary Haseman, 23 August 1940, Liverpool - died 2004) - later in The Breakaways - married Joe Brown.
- Joyce Smith (born Joyce Baker, 1941) - married Marty Wilde
- Lynn Cornell - later in The Pearls - married Andy White.
- Maureen Kennedy - married comedian Mike Hope and died in a motorway accident in the early 1970s
- Jean Owens
- Francis Lea
[edit] Legacy
Some older British listeners retain a fondness for the group, however, and the best of their records remain listenable and enjoyable almost 50 years later.
