Download Instrumental    “Dear Dave”, the email began.  Don’t you love it when someone puts “dear” in front of your name?  Makes you feel all special.  Obviously, this person doesn’t know me.  It continues: “Would you please, please, please do an arrangement of a song called ‘Girls Grow Up Faster Than Boys’ for us?”  I love it when they beg.  Then she indicated that she didn’t care what it cost.  Even better.  Turns out, she’s a member of an all-girl group in Chicago performing songs from the early 60’s.  The song she wants was recorded by a trio of “chick” singers in 1963 called “The Cookies” – new one on me.

“The Cooklies” had one big hit – “Don’t Say Nothing Bad (About My Baby)” –  which I actually have heard of but the song is so repetitive it’ll drive you insane.  Two minor hits included “Chains” (later recorded by The Beatles) and this little gem –  “Girls Grow Up Faster Than Boys”.  They later became “The Raelettes”, backup singers for Ray Charles.  They also sang backup behind “The Locomotion” by Little Eva and Neil Sedaka’s hit tune “Breaking Up is Hard to Do”.  Well, it seems cookies are a good backup to everything.  Chocolate chip, anyone?

While I think everyone would agree that girls do, in fact, grow up faster than boys, this song about that phenomenon would not fly today.  Lyrics such as “Once you used to date my big sister, but now she’s too old for you – won’t you take a look at me now” gives one pause.  Follow that up with “I’m everything a girl should be now – thirty-six, twenty-one, thirty-five” and you’ve got yourself a class-action suit.  Besides, isn’t that “21” reference a bit tiny around the waist in proportion to the other two numbers?  Sexist, I know… so sue me.

The one thing I do like about this song (other than someone was willing to pay for it) is the slightly dissonant saxophone licks.  That was fun, and proves to me the whole piece is pretty much “tongue-in-cheek”, which makes me feel better about the whole thing…. but not much.  How this one will play in Chicago is anybody’s guess.