100 Greatest Songs of the 60’s #81 The Belles – Melvin

Released: 1966

It might have been a man’s, man’s world so the song went, but given that in 1966 what would come to be known as garage rock didn’t really even know what it was, finding an all girl band playing it counted as a strange and wonderful thing regardless.

Whilst whatever it was at that point was ninety-nine percent skinny men in turtleneck sweaters, The Belles were a minor revelation in their own right; from Miami’s North Beach, they wrote and played their own material when many of their peers in other musical fields went with the flow.

Their only single, Melvin was a ballsy act in of itself, flipping the hormonal vibes of Them’s Gloria on it’s head, a reverse wolf-whistle that immortalised their collective beau whilst fusing surf and R&B into a couple of lustful minutes. Whatever the world thought, this elbow in the ribs was proof that girls could always have fun.