The Beatles loved girl groups with a passion—John Lennon famously spent his first night in New York City in his hotel room, calling up radio stations and asking them to play the Ronettes. They craved the extravagant girliness of the Shirelles (mentioned as the band’s biggest influence on the back cover of their first album) and the Shangri-Las and the Crystals—the way these girl singers combined deep fervor and silliness at top volume, acting out the run-mascara-run melodramas scripted
