R.I.P. Bernadette Carroll

The death of girl group-era singer Bernadette Carroll was announced on her Facebook page yesterday. No cause was listed.

Carroll was born Bernadette Dalia in New Jersey. Since she graduated from Linden High School in 1962, she would have been around age 74 at the time of her death.

Carroll is probably best known for her bouncy Top 50 hit from 1964, "Party Girl," which came out on Laurie Records and was co-written by Ernie Maresca ("The Wanderer," "Shout! Shout! "). The record probably would have rose higher than #47 had it been released six months earlier, since it came out at the peak of Beatlemania in the spring of 1964.

Carroll was also a member of The Angels at one point and is one of the background vocalists on Lou Christie's #1 hit from 1966, "Lightnin' Strikes." She was also a member of the Jessica James and the Outlaws, whose 1966 single "We'll Be Makin' Out" became popular with the Northern Soul crowd in England later on.

It's sadly ironic that she'd pass on at this point, because her music was being rediscovered by a new generation. Her first single from 1962, "Laughing On The Outside," was used as the theme song for the UK TV series "The End of the ....World" in 2017 and got re-released on 45 this year.

Carroll never released an album. But several lot of her singles were compiled on an import CD released in the 1990s called Meet The Carroll Family Girls, which brings together songs by a bunch of female singers from her era who all used the last name "Carroll."

R.I.P. Bernadette Carroll.

 

RIP. I love that song. I may have a version by Dean and Jean as well.

 

Rest In Peace.

 

Too bad they didn't make a record like this "sung by The Christmas Carrols".

 

Update regarding cause of death: According to author Donald Riggio, Carroll "lost her battle with cancer." Riggio and Carroll were apparently close; she wrote the cover blurb for his "rock'n'roll novel" "Seven-Inch Vinyl."

 

Rest in peace. I remember Party Girl from the '60s, and it wasn't bad at all.

I believe she did a LOT of backing vocals in her time! Many of them with Peggy Santiglia and Denise Ferri.

A couple of years back I found a different Jessica James and the Outlaws track that I really liked, Give Her Up Baby:

 

Love her single "Nicky", which I THINK has the Four Seasons on backing vocals. Also discovered her lost single "One Little Lie" thanks of course to YouTube collectors (As if any radio airwave would dare touch it). RIP.

 

R.I.P...

 

RIP.

 

Very sad news. RIP Bernadette