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All-female rhythm & blues and soul group from South Carolina. The group had started life in 1962 as a quartet called ‘The Gypsies, consisting of the three sisters Betty, Shirley, and Earnestine Pearce, and Viola Billups, and worked for three years under that name. They then changed to ‘The Flirtations’ in 1965.

Betty Pearce left the group, reducing the Flirtations to a trio. After winning a small local talent contest in 1968 to see who could sound the most like the Supremes, they packed their bags and headed for England, where they signed to the Parrot label and in the fall of 1968 supported the label’s star act Tom Jones on his European tour. The Flirtations’ sole Parrot release was “Someone Out There”, backed with “How Can You Tell Me?” “Someone Out There” rose to second place on the “Bubbling Under” list in September 1968, and the track did afford the Flirtations a chart hit in the Netherlands with a No. 25 peak.

In late 1968 the trio signed with Deram Records and released what would become their signature recording, “Nothing But A Heartache” — a dense, dynamic, earth-shattering melodrama produced by Englishman Wayne Bickerton and written by Bickerton with Tony Waddington. The B-side was a Christmas song, “Christmastime Is Here Again”. “Nothing But a Heartache” rose to first place on the “Bubbling Under” list in December 1968 and gave the Flirtations a second Top 40 hit in the Netherlands, reaching No. 36 in early 1969. On the success of those singles in March 1979 they embarked on an 18 date tour of the UK with Stevie Wonder and The Foundations.