The conventional wisdom is that rock and roll "died" between 1959 and 1964 - roughly the period between Buddy Holly's plane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa and the Beatles' more upbeat arrival at JFK airport. In this scenario, The Day The Music Died is only the beginning, as Elvis enters the Army, Chuck Berry goes to jail, Jerry Lee Lewis is ruined, and Little Richard leaves the stage for the church.

Heavy blows, to be sure. But rock didn't die in that time period, obviously, it just recharged its creative batteries. Consider the Girl Group phenomenon of the early Sixties; it's thought of as a novelty or a time capsule of kitsch today, but these perfect pop symphonies mixed standard pop conventions with rock and roll sass, laying down the groundwork for rock's final acceptance into the mainstream. Where it has been ever since.

Of course, it also served as an important rite of passage for the American female, articulating their romantic angst while proving that rock, despite the 50s, was no boys club. It served other less-celebrated purposes, as well, launching the careers of songwriters like Carole King and producers like Phil Spector, helping fire up the Motown hit machine, and acting as a not-inconsiderable influence on four young lads from Liverpool.

Here's a collection of links to the best Girl Group sites on the web. This will be an ongoing and permanent resource on this site; if you have or know of a site like this that isn't listed here, e-mail me!

Girl-Groups.com
The ultimate Girl Group site, with information on over 350 (!) famous, not-so-famous, and downright obscure girl groups (solo female singers from that era are also included). Pictures, history, articles, trivia, product reviews and more!

HistoryOfRock.com: The Girl Groups
A typically insightful and revelatory section of the History Of Rock site, focusing on dozens of the most popular girl groups, tracking their chart successes meticulously, and including info on them before and after stardom.

Spectropop: Girl Groups
Girl Group history from an obsessive collectors' point of view. Some of these bios are direct links to other pages, but the groups in bold type have Spectropop's own excellent histories attached to them, which include recollections in the girls' own words!

The Girl Groups Fan Club
This is indeed a real fan club (with newsletter) that appears to still be in existence. The real story on this site, however, are the large scans of girl-group album covers, single covers, and publicity stills, listed by artist. There's also a little bit of biographical info here, but beware of the pop-up windows.

The Girl Group Chronicles
Excellent site which features a huge list of girl group biographies, product reviews, and a Live365.com radio station!

SlipCue.com: Girl Groups and Teen Pop
This e-zine has a good guide to girl group CD compilations here, with pictures.

The Girl Groups Jukebox
About a dozen MIDI files and twice that many RealAudio files of Girl Group classics.

Girl Groups
A virtual jukebox of (mostly) very obscure girl group classics, presented in their complete form in RealAudio format. There are other similar pages by this fan on different websites, which you can view here: Girl Groups 2 | Girl Groups 3

The Bomp Bookshelf: Phil Spector / Girl Groups
A great guide to girl group books, including biographies, autobiographies, and other histories.

Girl Groups: Fabulous Females That Rocked The World
A VERY well-regarded compendium of Girl Group history and facts by John Clemente. Available at Amazon.com.

www.45rpm.org.uk: The Girl Group Sound
A look at several key girl group milestones from a UK 45 collector's standpoint.

Oldigger Collector Website: The Nordic Girl Groups
That's right... Sixties girl groups in Finland and Sweden. With discographies and photos!

Da Doo Ron Ron
The UK's original girl group nightclub?!