TheTammys

From top: Gretchen Owens, Cathy Owens, Linda Owens,
Though they recorded a few singles, the Tammys are best known for backing vocals for Lou Christie

Members:
    Gretchen Owens
    Cathy Owens
    Linda Jones

Few girl groups command the type of cult-following of the Tammys’ fans. Like fans of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys love their Honeys, and fans of Phil Spector drool over the Ronettes, legions of Lou Christie fans have a huge soft-spot for three young girls with the wildest sound you could imagine. Finally, after years of being the best-kept secret among girl group collectors, the Tammys are finding a wider audience and new adherents to the cult of the "Egyptian Shumba."

Lou Christie, best recalled for his classic recordings, "Lightning Strikes," and "Rhapsody In The Rain," not to mention his mysterious psychic advisor/manager Twyla Hebert, had become friends with sisters Gretchen and Cathy Wagner, and their friend Linda Jones before he started having big hits of his own.

Christie, also known as Lugee Sacco, paired the girls with his sister Amy and had them sing back-up for him. The girls from Venango County, called the Tammys, were a rare find and a lucky one for Christie. They had an incredibly versatility used in great effect on their recordings and as backing singers. From traditional doo-wop, to sweet girlish wails, to rough grunts and barks, the Tammys were unlike anything around at the time.

With Lou Chrisite

Once Christie hit with his first big single, "The Gypsy Cried," he brought the girls in to record a few of their own songs. But the group’s three tries at making a hit would prove discouraging. Despite local airplay, the weepy "Take Back Your Ring," the sweet "Gypsy," and the absolute insane "Egyptian Shumba," all failed to chart nationally throughout 1963-1964. Perhaps the sheer unique sound of a group that sounded like the Pixies 3 as school-yard bullies (on Shumba, anyway) was so much out-of-character for young ladies at the time that national radio wasn’t willing to give them a try. Only months later the Shangri-las would take their ode to good-bad bikers to the top of the charts, so it’s a safe bet that the Tammys could have been riding high too with the right promotion.

The group also backed Kripp Johnson of the Del-Vikings as Ritchie and the Runarounds for some Christie-related singles.

By 1965 Christie was using another tough-sounding girl group, the Angels, to help him propel his singles up the charts. His biggest chart success, "Lightning Strikes," made it to Number 1 that year. The Tammys, meanwhile, continued to play local shows and record background tracks until later in the decade; but with three no-hit singles to their credit, the Tammys’ waxings became impossibly rare and the group became a footnote in music history.

As Northern Soul hit Britain in the early 1970s, and spurred renewed interest in a girl group revival, collectors began searching for all sorts of rare records from the 60s that should have been hits but weren’t. Looking especially for songs with a dance groove, "Egyptian Shumba," was unearthed and became a sensation.

The song became an oft-bootlegged favourite for collectors who couldn’t get their hands on the 45 itself, and its incredible popularity finally led to its release, along with seven other tracks (all six sides of their singles and two previously unreleased tracks) on a new collections called, you guessed it, Egyptian Shumba – The Singles And Rare Recordings: 1962-1964. Credited to Lou Christie and the Tammys, the project was spear-headed by Harry Young, president of the Lou Christie fan club. The collection also contains the single by the Runarounds and several Christie hits with backing vocals by the Tammys.

Critically acclaimed by music collectors and fans alike, the sides new availability may yet prove that the Tammys had what it took to be a hit act - something the cult of the Egyptian Shumba has always known.

Cathy Owens passed away in October 2022.