See-through tops & a dash of spice...the original girl band

Tributes after Beverley sister Babs dies aged 91

very upset. Babs will be sadly missed. “She had been living in a care home but still looked gorgeous despite her illness.” The sisters, a vocal harmony group, had huge hits with Little Drummer Boy, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus and Irving Berlin’s Sisters, They had their own BBC TV show, were a favourite with the Queen Mother and became the first British girl group to hit the US Top 10.

At the height of their fame the siblings – always immaculate in identical outfits – appeared on the billing at the London Palladium above names such as Danny Kaye, Bob Hope and Max Bygraves.

The girls gained notoriety thanks to their risqué songs, as well as their sheer blouses and tendency to show off their midriffs on television.

Babs said in 2015: “We were shy personally, but bold professionally.” One of their songs, We Have To Be So Careful, was a reference to contraception. It also poked fun at the BBC for banning records – and was duly banned itself.

In 1958 the group went into semiretirement after Joy, who was 91 when she died of a stroke, wed Wolverhampton Wanderers and England captain Billy Wright. Babs married Scottish dentist James Mitchell in 1963 but it did not last.

The sisters enjoyed a revival in the