Non-Spring, if you're thinking of '70s pop with a soulful bent, there's Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. Members of the 5th Dimension (who were originally marketed as the black Mamas and Papas, though their later work doesn't really have the male-female interplay) who went on as a duo after the group broke up.

Do you want more duets (trading vocals) or more male/female harmonies?

Harmonies. Less relay, more two-legged race.

Thanks for the suggestions. The 5th Dimension, The Miracles and Spanky and our Gang sound interesting. Not that X and the Pixies don't but they're not really what I'm after.

I think there's a small bias in rock and roll against male/female harmonies. The fear that it's too glee club or folkie.

The early Fifth Dimension does have some very cool Jimmy Webb and Laura Nyro compositions (aside from the hits) that are worth hearing.

If you're willing to get really twee, then check out the Free Design who had very tight, complex male/female harmonies. (It was a family group, so you get those close brother and sister harmonies.) Cowsills also have male/female harmonies.

Um... I thought the Miracles just had Smokey singing really really high on lead, no women?

Um... I thought the Miracles just had Smokey singing really really high on lead, no women?

Indeed, Smokey sang high parts. But early on the Miracles had a woman in the group. Then Smokey married her. (I think.) Anyway, I've definitely seen pictures of them with her.

Let me go check...

It was a fairly brief period, actually:

The vocal quintet then changed their name to the Matadors, and in 1956 Claudette Rogers joined the band after her brother Sonny Rogers was drafted. The Matadors auditioned for Jackie Wilson's manager, Nat Tarnapol, in 1956. Although Tarnapol wasn't interested, finding the group too similar to the Platters, Jackie Wilson's songwriter Berry Gordy Jr. was, and he soon began producing the band, who now went by the name the Miracles. Gordy produced their first single, "Get a Job," which was issued by the NY label End Records in 1958. After one more release on this label, the Miracles recorded their first song for Gordy's new Motown/Tamla label, 1959's "Bad Girl" (which was issued nationally on the Chess label). Next came the first hit for both the group and the label, 1960's "Shop Around," which reached number one on the R&B charts and number two pop. The next song by the Miracles to hit the number one R&B spot and reach the pop Top Ten came two years later with "You've Really Got a Hold on Me." Smokey and Claudette got married in 1963, and she retired from the group a year later.

If you're willing to get really twee, then check out the Free Design who had very tight, complex male/female harmonies.

Sure, I'll sample them on Amazon. I’ve picked up on the way some of my favourite songs (“Go Where You Wanna Go”, “We Love You, Carol and Allison”, “All About You”, “Solar Sister”, “The Ballad of the Comeback Kid”, “Another New Day”, “It’s All In My Mind”) carry the most emotional charge when they harmonies kick in or when they’re made noticeable by their absence. It’s only recently though, while I’ve been getting hardcore into The Mamas and The Papas, that I countenanced the idea of chasing the predilection into not-pop-and-rock. I also thought that maybe The Mamas and The Papas' success would have given rise to a plethora of copycats and some would be worth looking into.

All my good male/female vocalist recs are alt country/bluegrassish not pop.

I couldn't love the new Yo La Tengo album more if I tried. Seriously. I love them and I like a lot of their albums a whole bunch, but this is the kind of album I need to listen to constantly. It's danceable and varied and affirming and wonderfullll. Yay!

The new Buckner is much like the new Mountain Goats - too sad. I'll try again in another month when I am not (still) getting over a nasty breakup and spending Friday night doing laundry and wishing I was in southcentral Kansas sitting in front of a campfire and listening to many distant banjos.

Back to the kids' songs: Corwood, your mixes put my "B's Bedtime Compilation" to shame, but here it is anyway - in its favour, it was made with much Buffista input:

Doris Day, "Lullaby of Broadway"
The Chordettes, "Mr. Sandman"
Everly Brothers, "Dream"
Elvis Presley, "Blue Moon"
The Beatles, "Golden Slumbers"
The Pentangle, "Watch the Stars"+
Paul Weller, "Moon on your Pyjamas"
Crowded House, "Weather with You"
Allison Krauss, Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris (O' Brother Soundtrack), "Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby"
Suzanne Vega, "Stay Awake"
Judy Collins, "All the Pretty Horses"
Ed McCurdy, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" ++

+Apparently, Bert Jansch plays this on his new CD, The Black Swan, with Beth Orton.

++This whole CD, "Children's Songs - the Greatest Hits" is wonderful. I used to listen to it when I was small.

Clara doesn't have a CD of her own yet. Poor second child.

Thanks, David! I really need to bone up on my early Motown history!

male-female harmonies

Fleetwood Mac