The Vernons Girls.

The Vernons Girls began as an unlikely publicity exercise: a staff choir at the Vernons football pools company in Liverpool, originally some seventy strong, whittled down to a professional sixteen-piece around 1955 and signed to Parlophone Records under the name “Voices of Vernons.” They made their TV debut on Eamonn Andrews’ BBC series in 1957 — seen by at least one critic at the time as a direct response to rival pools firm Littlewoods, who had their own vocal group, the Littlewood Songsters.

Renamed the Vernons Girls, the group became the house vocal act on ITV’s youth-focused rock and roll show Oh Boy! through 1958 and 1959, and released a debut LP in 1958 — a collection of fifties standards like “We’ll Gather Lilacs” and “Lonely Ballerina,” arranged by Peter Knight with sleeve notes by Eamonn Andrews — a record quite different in character from the group’s later pop and rock and roll reputation. That reputation stuck regardless: they're often credited as Britain’s first all-female rock and roll act.

The lineup shrank steadily through the early 1960s, settling into a core trio — Maureen Kennedy, Jean Owen and Frances Lee — who signed to Decca in 1962. Their cover of “Lover Please” became their biggest hit, reaching #16 on the UK Singles Chart, followed by further minor entries including “Loco-Motion,” “Funny All Over” and “Do the Bird.” Alongside their own records, the group worked prolifically as session backing vocalists for Decca through the decade — one of their earliest credits was Billy Fury’s “Maybe Tomorrow” — and they opened for a fast-rising Beatles, later appearing alongside them in the 1964 TV special Around the Beatles and recording one of the first Beatles tribute songs, “We Love the Beatles.”

The group’s alumni went on to some of the more interesting footnotes in British pop: Jean Owen left in 1964 to become Northern soul-era solo singer Samantha Jones; Maggie Stredder — made to wear horn-rimmed glasses on camera as a Jack Good-devised gimmick — left to co-found the Ladybirds, who went on to a much longer career backing acts on Top of the Pops and The Benny Hill Show; and Lyn Cornell departed in 1960 for a solo chart hit with “Never on Sunday.” The Vernons Girls officially disbanded in April 1965.

A note for sourcing: the 1958 Parlophone LP (catalogue PMC 1052) is a completely different record from the group’s later Decca pop singles — standards and orchestral arrangements rather than rock and roll — so it’s worth confirming artist, label and year carefully against the actual pressing before buying, rather than going on catalogue number alone.