By LouisW (67.126.131.191) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 04:21 am:

Does anyone know who was in the group The Lollipops on Motown?


It lists A. Walker on some of the songs.
Do you know if this is Arnetia Walker from Dreamgirls and if she was in the Motown group the Lollipops?


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By Davie Gordon (193.122.21.42) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 02:21 pm:

Louis, I've never come across a lineup for the
Lollipops but suspect that Arenita Walker was one of them as her name crops up in the writer credits
for both their Impact and VIP singles.

"Dreamgirls" - the stage play ? - I don't know.

Davie

By Joe Moorehouse (152.163.252.68) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 03:41 pm:

Arnetia Walker of Dreamgirls would have been about 5 years old when the Lollipops were performing. Sorry to report that I can't shed any light on the group's lineup, though. Their Impact and VIP singles are great.

By Ritchie (62.254.0.9) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 03:43 pm:

Child prodigy ;o)

By RD (63.188.32.170) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 03:48 pm:

Doesn't John Rhys post on this forum? He might know the lineup; Rhys was involved with Impact Records. The writer's credit on a Impact Records compilation CD credits her full name: Arenita Walker.

By Vandelron (24.44.20.172) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 05:59 pm:

In Motown book the Golden Years it says Lollipops recorded a song co-written by Arnetia Walker(Look what u done Boy)--they went to RCA after Motown and Impact before.

By Joe Moorehouse (152.163.252.68) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 06:36 pm:

Well, it would be great if someone with real information would chime in here, but in lieu of that, I'll add some thoughts:

The Lollipops' Step Aside Baby--a terrific song--gives writing credit to Arenita Walker. Which is, of course, almost the same name as Arnetia Walker of Dreamgirls fame. Arnetia was born in 1961, so she wasn't in the Lollipops, but the names are so unusual and so similar that it's hard not to think there's a family connection.

The correct label order for Lollipops singles, from earliest to latest, is RCA, Impact, VIP, Atco. Supposedly there's a record on Smash that was released after the RCA singles and before Impact, but I've never seen it and can't confirm.

Duke Browner worked with the Lollipops on both their Impact and VIP singles, so he would presumably know a lot. But from everything I've heard, Duke ain't talking, to anyone on any terms, about his past in soul music. Mike Terry arranged the Impact 45, so maybe he remembers something.

Although the RCA material has its fans, I'm not really among them. But the Impact record is one of the great Detroit two-siders, and the VIP single is likewise A/B awesome. Need Your Love never gets mentioned--probably because most copies of the record are promos and have Cheating Is Telling on You on both sides--but it's an ace Motown record.

By LG Nilsson (213.89.29.129) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 07:36 pm:

I cannot add anything about the members in this group but I can add some other info. The VIP 54051 single was first scheduled for release on Gordy 7089. At least one another song �Look What You Done Boy� was also recorded at Motown (acetate exists). Here�s a scan of the not so common b-side:



LG

By Vandelron (24.44.20.172) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 08:02 pm:

"Sorry"JM if info didnt meet your specifications but its all I had from Motown the Golden Years which said the order was Impact,VIP,RCA. Why the tude?

By Scratcher (65.238.172.241) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 09:16 pm:

Are you sure the RCA Lollipops and the Impact, VIP Lollipops are the same group?

By Vandelron (24.44.20.172) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 09:17 pm:

Per Motown the Golden Years book they are.

By Joe Moorehouse (152.163.252.68) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 09:21 pm:

Vandelron, if you detected attitude in my note, it wasn't intended. When I said it would be nice if someone with real information would chime in, it was meant as a self-deprecatory remark, not a snipe at you. Trying to get accurate data about these old artists and records is no small task--there isn't exactly a big body of scholarly research that's been done, so all of us are laboring along with some information that's legit and some that's not. The beauty of this forum is that we all get together and separate the true from the false. I've contributed some misinformation here myself--much to my embarrassment--and fully understand when someone else passes along the odd bit of data that isn't right. As long as we keep working in the direction of real knowledge, I think the whole process is good. My apologies for causing you to think I was having a go at you--I assure you I wasn't.

By Scratcher (65.238.172.241) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 09:29 pm:

I did some checking and I think the RCA Lollipops are a different group than the Impact/VIP group. Reference websites and books are great sources but I've yet to read one that didn't have a zillion errors.

By Scratcher (65.238.172.241) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 10:10 pm:

Arenita Walker was later a member of the funk group Godmama along with Carolyn Myles and Cynthia Girty--all Detroiters. Bootsy Collins produced at least one LP on them.

The RCA Lollipops appears to be a white group. They recorded songs like "Mondo Cane #2," "Peggy Got Engaged" and "Billy, Billy, Billy."

By Joe Moorehouse (152.163.252.68) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 10:23 pm:

Scratcher, I can't put my mitts on a Lollipops RCA 45 right now, but I think I have a couple of them, and if I recall right, the girls are black. For what it's worth, Love Is the Only Answer is a Northern record--don't know when or where it got spins, but it's shown up on a lot of lists over the years, and I've sold or traded a few to Northern fans (not that this guarantees that the girls weren't white, of course). As soon as I can locate one of the singles, I'll report on any info of interest in the credits and in the grooves.

By Davie Gordon (212.159.94.2) on Tuesday, June 10, 2003 - 05:40 am:

First off the Lollipops on Atco (from around '71) is an entirely different group - the singles were
UK recordings.

The Lollipops on RCA might be the same as on
Impact and VIP but I've yet to find definite information. I'll post more info. when I've had a chance to check my files but off hand the RCA singles are from '64 - 65, some of them recorded in New York with producer Joe Rene. What is interesting is that Mike Ossman, the brother of Raynoma Gordy crops up in the writer credits.
We know that Raynoma was working in New York in
'64 - 65 so that may just be additional weight to
the theory that all the RCA tracks are NY recordings.

As I said, I'll check my files later and post what info. I have. It would nice to get this one sorted out finally.

Finally,
1. the Lollipops on Smash appear to be another group

2. Just to confuse matters there's a Danish
group called the Lollipops (a male group) who
recorded for RCA in Denmark - I'll have to check if any of the RCA singles ties in with this lot
but it looks unlikely.

Davie

By LG Nilsson (212.247.9.242) on Tuesday, June 10, 2003 - 07:25 am:

The Danish Lollipops were brothers Torben & Jorgen Lundgreen and their uncle Poul Petersen. They had a couple of hits in Scandinavia: "Do You Know" and "Lollipops Shake" from 1964 and "I Feel The Sun Up There" 1968.

LG

By RD (63.188.33.238) on Tuesday, June 10, 2003 - 07:29 am:

The Lollipops' RCA singles are from 1963 to 1965.

By Scratcher (65.238.127.195) on Tuesday, June 10, 2003 - 10:49 am:

Update: Arenita Walker (born in 1945) now goes by the masculine moniker of Tony Walker. (She was known as T-Baby in Godmoma.)In a bio she says she started singing and recording with the Lollipops when she was 12 years old for United Artists Records. She mentions the Motown association but says nothing about RCA, which of course doesn't mean the Lollipops didn't record for RCA, but it's hardly a confirmation that they did. She also wrote songs for Motown and for Don Davis' for people like Tyrone Davis.

The only song Stanley "Mike" Ossman co-wrote for the RCA Lollipops was "I Want You Back Again" their final single for RCA (1965).

There has been quite a few female groups with the name or variations there of: Becky & the Lollipops recorded for Troy and Epic Records. A late '50s early '60s group called the Lollypops recorded on Universal International, Holland and Kandee Records. Yet another Lollypops group recorded for Jamie Records.