Girl Group Chronicles: The Luminaries (Parody)

The girl groups have often come under attack by parodies which poke fun at their cute, yet sometimes campy, image. In the film Grace of My Heart, a story loosely based on the life of former girl group writer Carole King, however, a group known as the Luminaries showed a new generation what a girl group really had going for them. Beautiful voices, diverse backgrounds, and sweet and kind personalities.

In the late fifties, Edna Buxton, soon to be re-christened Denise Waverly, was an espiring songstress/composer. She entered a talent contest wherre she met Doris Shelley, another contestant. Shelley tells Buxton to sing songs which she likes, not ones which are stiff and formal. Edna sang "Hey There" to an enthusiastic crowd, and eventually won the competition. Shelley, who sang a bluesy tune, was not out of Buxton's life forever, though.

Several months later the two meet up in a club where Doris' new group the Luminaries are performing. Eventually this leads to Denise Waverly, as by this time she was called, to write a song about Doris and her boyfriend titled, "Born To Love That Boy." The group, with back-up members Betty and Sha Sha (probably a refrence to La La Brooks, a Crystal), audition for Waverly's boss. Although he doesn't want to take a chance on a female artist, he reluctantly agrees. The group soared to the heights of the charts, and ala the Shirelles, ushered in a new era of female dominance on the charts.

The Luminaries' next three songs written by Waverly and her new partener Howard Kesset were all banned from the radio because of shock value. "Unwanted Number," was a song inspired by Betty's neice, who became pregnant at 12. This also paralells some girl groups songs which were taken off play lists because of contriversial lyrics.

A new song writing pair, who appear to be a cross between Mann and Weil, and Barry and Greenwich, return the group to the Top Five with, "I Do," a wedding song which screams the Dixie Cups' material.

The group preserveered forr severral more years before going theirr separrate ways for a time. They reformed and started playing small clubs again during the late sixties, with songs like, "The Nitty Gritty," in their repetoire, but failed to achieve the hit status they once had. Denise Waverly went on to record her own hits with Doris providing some back-up. The other two Luminaries had done back-up for Kelly Porter, a Lesley Gore type, earlier.

In a story that seemed so familar, a struggling group hit it big and eventually was pulled down by both external and internal forces. The soundtrack of the film features the Luminaries hits. It was released in 1997.