The Apollas “Open The Door, Fool” (Warner Brothers 7181, 1968)

Another door opens, and then it closes. So goes a number of “game of love” songs in the proliferation of music created by humanity. There’s plenty of those to find and discover in the Lady Soul mold, therefore, as we slip and slide down a rather wet Women’s History Month here in the Bay Area, we revisit some of those finest moments. Rare does the actual internal dialogue, with friendly gossip get weighed out on record, though.

For their last single for Warner Brothers, we find Leola Jiles counting down the benefits and detriments of opening that front door to her house, and heart. They had been recording since 1963. Despite having a decent shot of publicity on shows like Hollywood-A-Go-Go during 1965-66, they didn’t chart any national hit records for Loma or their upgrade to Warner Brothers.

Like the bulk of their output, their singles represent some of the best forgotten girl group efforts of the decade, but are such gems to uncover years later. Thankfully both their work together and Leola’s solo efforts from the same time frame (more often than not backed by The Blossoms!) can be found on compilations these days.