Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

10. VariousWonder Women: The History Of The Girl Group Sound

My mom used to play this and it’s funny because recently she told me that she didn’t even like it very much. But I liked it a lot. It’s not like this is the definitive girl group compilation, it’s just that I grew up with it. And it means something to me, I guess, because I’ve covered two of the songs [Dionne Warwick’s ‘Don’t Make Me Over’ and Barbara Lewis’ ‘Hello Stranger’]. I probably didn’t realise just how important it was to me back then, but the songs have stuck to me over time and so I’ve come to understand its importance. All these playful and soulful performances, they’re still very inspiring to me even though I was five or six when I was listening to it a lot. There wasn’t a lot of music my parents played that I enjoyed at that age, so it’s in there pretty deep. It’s very 1950s, very glittery, very Phil Spector-y. It was pretty formative.

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