The Paris Sisters – I Love How You Love Me

4th December 2022 · 1960s, 1961, Music

It’s hard not to shudder when you hear the words ‘girl group’ and ‘Phil Spector’ in the same sentence these days but The Paris Sisters seemed to survive the experience.

The three California girls had been going for some time when they had their only big hit with this song – their 12th single – in 1961. Aided by the up-and-coming Spector’s trademark production, it reached no.5 in the US charts and sold more than a million copes for Priscilla, Albeth and Sherrell.

I didn’t hear it then because I was still a baby. I first heard it when Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music covered it in his silky croon on his first solo album, These Foolish Things, in 1973. 

On the back of their own hit single, the girls were cast in Richard Lester’s 1962 film It’s Trad, Dad, in which they performed another Spector-produced song, What Am I To Do?

The Paris Sisters bridged the gap between the old-fashioned (mostly white) vocal groups of the post-war era, like The Andrews Sisters, and the new generation of sexy (mostly black) girl groups like The Ronettes and The Blossoms, The Shirelles and The Crystals, and The Shangri-Las.

In fact The Andrews Sisters played a major part in their rise to fame after the Paris girls’ mother, herself an opera singer, took them to see the wartime favourites in 1954 (when Priscilla, the youngest, was only 13).

The veteran singers were so impressed them with their impressions that they brought the teenagers onstage for the encore to sing Rum And Coca Cola and Beer Barrel Polka.

A record company exec in the crowd signed them up on the spot, their first major label single Ooh La La coming out on Decca before the end of the year.

By then The Paris Sisters were already seasoned performers, having made their debuts singing and dancing at air force showcases, releasing their first two singles – The Bully Bully Man and a charming seasonal effort called Christmas In My Home Town – as far back as 1953.

After signing to Decca they toured relentlessly, sticking to the Andrews Sisters template, and sang in Vegas casinos while still underage after being given falsified birth certificates, padded bras and make-up to disguise their youth.

By the late Fifties rock’n’roll had arrived and interest in the old style of vocal groups was waning. The Paris Sisters had their record deal terminated and disappeared for several years before re-emerging in the early Sixties when they were teamed up with an up-and-coming producer called Phil Spector.

He transformed their sound, promoting Priscilla to the lead, with her sisters serving more as back-up singers, and persuaded her to dial back her powerful voice to a dusky whisper.

After their solitary hit they were dogged by bad luck, with their debut album falling victim to behind-the-scenes feuding between label boss Lester Sill and his spendthrift young producer.

They later teamed up with Spector’s erstwhile arranger, Jack Nitszche, and their 1967 album Everything Under The Sun!!! (with some songs written by Priscilla) remains an unsung classic of the girl group era.

After it flopped – too little, too late – Priscilla went solo, recording a tribute to Billie Holiday, before an unsuccessful reunion of The Paris Sisters.

By the late Sixties, Albeth had moved into TV production, working on The Price Is Right, while Priscilla moved to London before settling in Paris, playing occasional club dates there.