Goldie & the Gingerbreads was an all-female American rock band from 1962 to 1967 consisting of 3 musicians and a singer. They were the first all-female rock band signed to a major record label. Whereas most female bands were ignored by the big record labels and rarely attracted live audiences, the quartet consisting of Goldie (Genya Zelkowitz, later Genya Ravan), Ginger Bianco, Margo Lewis, and Carol MacDonald was among the first to break into a domain dominated by men. They were signed to Decca in 1963 and to Atlantic in 1964. (More from Wikipedia)
The first all-female rock band that was signed to a major rock label was Goldie and the Gingerbreads, consisting of Ginger Bianco (drums), Margo Lewis (organ), Carol MacDonald (guitar and vocals), and Goldie Zelkowitz (lead vocals). They were active from 1962 to 1967 and released a handful of singles; I got to hear some of their songs on a compilation album called Girls with Guitars.
Goldie and the Gingerbreads was hired to provide the music for a party in 1964 in honor of Andy Warhol’s protegé Baby Jane Holzer; other guests included the Rolling Stones. Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records was also present and promptly signed the band.
The Goldie and the Gingerbreads 1964 recording of “Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat” made it to #25 in the UK. Here in this country, Herman’s Hermits released “Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat” two weeks earlier; the heavy promotion of that song cut them out of the U. S. charts. After meeting Eric Burdon and the Animals, Goldie and the Gingerbreads was signed for a European tour, where they performed with the Who’s Who of the British Invasion: the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Animals, the Yardbirds, the Hollies, the Kinks, and others.
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After Goldie and the Gingerbreads broke up, bandleader Goldie Zelkowitz changed her name to Genya Ravan and joined a brass-heavy rock band called Ten Wheel Drive in 1969, where Ravan was accompanied by 10 male musicians. Before long, comparisons began to be drawn between Ravan and Janis Joplin.
In the New Wave era, Genya Ravan released Urban Desire in 1978; as is apparent from one look at the cover, this is a no-nonsense album from a no-nonsense woman.
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Ginger Bianco and Carol MacDonald of Goldie and the Gingerbreads formed a second all-woman rock band in 1972 called Isis. This band also had a strong horn section. They were signed to Buddah Records in 1973 and released two well-received albums plus a third for United Artists Records, though they failed to reach a wide audience.
Following a one-time reunion of Goldie and the Gingerbreads in November 1997 that featured Ginger Bianco and Carol MacDonald plus Genya Ravan, Bianco and MacDonald organized a new line-up of Isis in 2001.
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Richard Perry had a previous connection with Goldie and the Gingerbreads also; Genya Zelkowitz was the lead singer in Richard Perry’s band called the Escorts when she met Ginger Panabianco, who was playing drums for one of Perry’s friends. Seeing a woman playing drums gave Zelkowitz the idea for an all-female band; they changed their names to Goldie Zelkowitz and Ginger Bianco and crafted the band name Goldie and the Gingerbreads as a play on their two first names.
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If Goldie and the Gingerbreads were the first all-woman rock band to be signed to a major label, and Fanny was #3, who was the second? That would be the Pleasure Seekers, which was Suzi Quatro’s first band In her memoir Unzipped, Suzi said that she and her sisters searched through the dictionary for a name for their band. They found the word “hedonist” and took their name for one of the definitions for that word, “pleasure seeker”.
(October 2013)
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Items: Goldie and the Gingerbreads
