The Tammys
| The Tammys | |
|---|---|
| Genres | Pop |
| Years active | 1962–1965 |
| Labels | United Artists, Veep, Ascot, Co & Ce, Colpix |
| Associated acts | Lou Christie |
The Tammys were an American girl group made up of sisters Gretchen and Cathy Owens and their friend Linda Jones. They are best known for their song "Egyptian Shumba", with its faux Middle-Eastern instrumentals and sweet girlish vocals backed up by wild shrieks.
In high school Cathy and Gretchen participated in a group called the Impressions. Billed as The Charnelles, Cathy, Gretchen and Linda first publicly performed on March 31, 1962 at a school talent show. Early on, they were thrown out of a local restaurant for singing along to the jukebox. "We'll be on that jukebox someday", they vowed.
The girls first met Lou Christie in 1961 at a concert where he was performing in the band Lugee and The Lions. He took them for a ride in his Cadillac. He sang while they did back-up harmony. He told them "If I ever get discovered, I'll call you", and they said the same to him. A year later Christie hit it big with his single "The Gypsy Cried" and he brought the girls in to sing backup for him. He also signed them to a contract with United Artists and they recorded three singles. Despite local airplay, "Take Back Your Ring", "Gypsy", and "Egyptian Shumba" all failed to chart nationally throughout 1963-1964. By 1965, Christie was using another tough sounding girl group to back him, Jessica James and the Outlaws, which consisted of Bernadette Carroll, Denise Ferri, and Peggy Santiglia. Meanwhile, the Tammys continued to play local shows and sing background tracks until later in the decade; but with three no-hit singles to their credit, their waxings became impossibly rare and the group became a footnote in music history.
As Northern Soul hit Britain in the early 1970s and spurred a renewed interest in girl groups, collectors began searching for all sorts of rare records from the 1960s that should have been hits but weren’t. Looking especially for songs with a dance groove, "Egyptian Shumba" was unearthed and became a cult classic.
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