"Baby It's You": The Story Of Florence Greenberg

My daughter, sister, cousin and I went to the Pasadena Playhouse yesterday to see the musical "Baby It's You." The story of Florence Greenberg who discovered The Shirelles, the first American 'girl' rockgroup to hit number one on the Billboard single. During the 1950's-60's, a time of a male dominant run music industry, Greenberg started her own record company, Scepter Records in 1959.

{Florence} Greenberg has fallen into obscurity, but she discovered the Shirelles, the Isley Brothers, the Kingsmen, Chuck Jackson and Dionne Warwick (introduced through Burt Bacharach and Hal David). This pioneering woman, who left home to go into a male-dominated industry, crossed racial lines and paved the way for the Supremes and girl groups of today, is certainly worth remembering. “Baby” is a tribute to woman power, delightfully wrapped in golden oldies, and a colorful portrait of America’s music scene between 1958 and 1965 — before the British Invasion, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, transformed it. Ironically, the Beatles would perform “Baby It’s You!” and record it on their 1963 album “Please, Please Me.”

I'm really not one for musicals or plays. Stuff like Less Miserables or The Phantom, I can do without. But musicals to the songs that I can relate to such as The Jersey Boys or Baby It's You, you can count me in.
It was a great play. A lot of drama, sometimes even getting me teary. But it was music I grew up to and it had me tapping my feet, nodd'n my head and it took me down memory lane. It was a good day. Especially being able to spend some time with daughter #1.

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