'40s glamour and style, and some great singing
Oh, to be the man in the corduroy suit jacket seated in the back of Scullers Jazz Club Wednesday night. You know, the unassuming guy who turned around and suddenly found a statuesque redhead with even redder lips slinking her arm around his shoulder as she sang in her best after-hours Julie London croon, "Until I first met you, I was lonesome."
"She says that to all the boys," her fellow singing sister cracked with eyes rolling.
Maybe so, but the Puppini Sisters -- all winks and nudges and furtive glances -- have a way of making you feel like the only gentleman in the room (ladies, that goes for you, too). The Puppinis are a trio of London glamour-pusses -- Italian-born Marcella Puppini and her non-sisters Kate Mullins and Stephanie O'Brien, both English -- who sing 1940s-era vocal classics modeled after sisters Andrews and Boswell.
But they're not just pretty faces in pretty dresses, mind you. They played instruments throughout their set, adding old-world charm with accordion, melodica, and violin. That was in addition to their jump-jazz accompaniment from suspender-clad gents playing upright bass, dusky electric guitar, and Dixieland drums.
If their schtick sounds scripted, their tight three-part harmonies and stage presence are anything but. Puckered lips and cocked hips work wonders for these ladies, but their greatest asset is their material. Yes, they sang the standards of post-WWII pop music ("Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and "Mr. Sandman"), but they also reinvented modern songs, from Blondie's "Heart of Glass" to the Bangles's "Walk Like an Egyptian."
Recast as a jazzy show tune, Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" was unrecognizable until the chorus, although the swaying arms and Marty Feldman eyes (straight out of Bush's video for the '80s classic) should have tipped us off.
And as an offering "for the youth," as Mullins put it, the Puppinis played a rhythmic and comical cover of Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love," though it seemed to be lost on the audience. (To be fair, how many Andrews Sisters fans are listening to Beyoncé, right? And who knew accordion on a Beyoncé summer jam sounded so good?)
The novelty can overshadow the fact that the Puppinis -- who met at Trinity College of Music in London -- are splendid singers who handily bring out all the warmth, sex, and humor in a song like "Java Jive." They just happen to do it looking and sounding better than anyone else.
James Reed can be reached at jreed @globe.com. 