The Charmaines were an American female vocal trio of the 1960s, described by the NME as sassy as The Supremes and The Marvelettes.
[1] Supported by Irene Vinegar and Dee Watkins, the group's lead singer and sometime lyricist was Gigi Jackson.
[2] The Charmaines were considered Cincinnati's leading female R&B trio in the early 1960s,[3] notably as a backing unit for many better-known artists on the King label, including Conway Twitty, James Brown, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Little Willie John, Bobby Freeman, and Gary U.S. Bonds[4] As a group in their own right, The Charmaines' first single was Rockin’ Old Man (late 1960) with lyrics by Jackson and backed with If You Were Mine.
[5] The nearest they came to a hit was #117 on the Billboard chart in 1961 with What Kind Of Girl (Do You Think I Am), which out-sold a rival version of the same song by Erma Franklin.
The Charmaines went on to appear on Lonnie Mack's best-known album Wham of That Memphis Man and recordings of comedian-singer Jack Larson.