Look at Me Girl was the album on which
Bobby Vee updated his sound. Officially credited to "Bobby Vee and the Strangers" (a backing band of studio musicians, but a band nonetheless), it showed him belatedly abandoning his early-'60s teen pop sound and suddenly working within what sounded like a group context, with guitar-bass-drums accompaniment and doing songs that not only had a beat but also a modern edge, including "Sunny," "Summer in the City," "Look at Me Girl," with just a couple of songs that recalled his earlier work. And even those numbers, such as the catchy, hook-laden "Growing Pains," show a leaner, more group-oriented production than his older work. It's not great music, though
Vee does amazingly well with the newer style folk-rock and rock-style numbers, and the album does pulse with a level of excitement that most listeners (and even many fans) didn't expect at this late date -- this is sort of his equivalent to
Elvis Presley's
Chips Moman-produced Memphis albums of the late '60s, and
Vee shows off one talent he possessed that eluded the King, throwing in some very catchy originals that don't detract from the whole concert; in fact, his "Like You've Never Known Before" is one of the better songs on the album and fits in perfectly with the new sound, and hearing it today it sounds like it might've made a good song for
the Monkees to cover. ~ Bruce Eder