The Tammys

The Tammys were a Pennsylvania girl group featuring sisters Gretchen Owens and Cathy Owens alongside Linda Jones. In 1963 the trio cut three little-known singles for the Ascot, United Artists, and Veep labels. Their lasting recognition stems chiefly from ties to Lou Christie, who arranged their recording contract and, together with his songwriting partner Twyla Herbert, supplied several of their songs. The group’s second single, “Egyptian Shumba,” stands out among girl-group curiosities for its wildly ferocious vocals and undulating Middle Eastern melody, portions of which appear to come from a heavily distorted guitar—though some sources credit a clarinet instead. The remaining numbers adopted a far more conventional, lightweight pop/rock approach that varied from merely adequate to uninspired. Every track from those three singles, plus three previously unreleased cuts, appears on the anthology Egyptian Shumba, which also contains nearly a dozen Lou Christie recordings from the same period.