Nothing But the Flirtations: South Carolina Soul in the UK

I've always been interested in one-hit wonder bands, especially when I really liked that hit. Take the Flirtations, for example. Nothing but a Heartache is an absolutely killer late 60s soul record. I had totally forgotten about it and them until fairly recently, when I ran across the song on YouTube. Based on their hit, they should have been bigger. Why not?

Based on Sounds Like the Flirtations, their first album, which features a number of cuts that are right up with Nothing but a Heartache, it wasn’t lack of talent. Curiously, the group, consisting of the Pearce sisters―Earnestine and Shirley―joined by Viola Billups after sister Betty left, had to head to the UK to hit at all. Originally performing as the Gypsies and then the Flirtations, they put some records to little acclaim before Vi Billups saw A Hard Day’s Night, which reinforced her fondness for the Beatles, and convinced the group to take their shot in the UK. They quickly were signed by Deram Records. Nothing but a Heartache, backed by a Christmas song (!) did well in the UK but really broke loose in the States. Nothing else hit big, and the group cashed in tis chips a few years later, only to reform when their music hit big in the UK Northern soul wave. As of a few years ago, they were still performing―not bad for one-hit wonders, after all.

Note: RPM records, which put out the reissue, fell short on QA, at least on my copy of the CD. The booklet has lots of good info but the signatures were stitched incorrectly, resulting in my having to puzzle out the Flirtation story―I hope other purchasers fare better.

Here are Nothing but a Heartache, Once I Had a Love, and Keep on Searching, all of them well worthy of your attention.