The first singles you ever loved

It was just a little box of second-hand singles, but I reckon that’s where it all began, the moment that music took on a lifelong meaning.  I can’t even recall quite how they came into our possession - something to do with my teenage sister; she’d either bought them for a few pence, been given them or swapped them, I think.  But I do remember that there was much excitement about their addition to the family’s music collection.

I would’ve been about 8 or 9 I think.  My personal record collection at that point comprised a 7” EP of children’s songs on yellow vinyl (‘How Much Is That Doggy In The Window’ being my fave track), some Pinky & Perky, something from the Nutcracker Suite, and a concerto by Handel, or was it Mozart, on 45 in a shiny picture sleeve.  I wasn’t able to discern between Pinky & Perky and Mozart - but how free you are at that age, totally lacking any self-consciousness about genre; as far as I was concerned each had their own merits.

Downstairs in the very modern Danish style G Plan cabinet where the hi-fi, books and my mum's pottery were housed there were a few other records, but nothing that was of much interest to me: some jazz, opera and classical, one or two Reader’s Digest freebie flexi-discs, Glen Miller I think.   So this box of singles made quite a statement; they were pop records.

Childhood memories are funny – the things that can seem quite unremarkable to an adult can be so vibrantly sensual to a child and imbued with the most vivid associations and feelings.  Those old singles do just that to me.  I can clearly remember the ones I really liked, their B-sides too.  They were about more than just the tunes, they were about the weight and the shine of the vinyl, the touch of the creased paper sleeves, and about the room and the rugs and the cats and the curtains.   Their labels are indelibly imprinted in my psyche too - the colours, the logos, the type style.  My mind drifts now to the way this is so perfectly expressed in the words to 'Over The Border' by St Etienne: 

 “…. green and yellow harvests, pink pies, silver bells…”   

We know what they mean!

In this particular box the pies/Pyes were blue, and a faithful terrier listening to an old wind-up  gramophone was silver on black.

Within this small collection was one of my favourite songs of all-time – one of my bestest, most favouritest songs ever ever in fact - so it deserves a post of its own some day but I can’t write about the rest without mentioning it here.  I was totally hooked on this song and still am.  I could play it over and over and never tire of it (and I did, probably driving my parents and sister mad). I wonder what it is that makes it so special and enduring, and what was it about it that appealed to me so much, even as a child?

The Kinks: Days
(eternal perfection)

But the others in the box all had their own unique appeal, here's what they were:

I loved the catchy soulfulness of ‘Build Me Up Buttercup’ by the Foundations and was intrigued, and slightly unnerved by its contrasting B Side, ‘New Direction’ - a strangely doomy, jazzy/psychy number.

The Foundations: New Direction

'Do Wah Diddy Diddy' by Manfred Mann had obvious singalong appeal to a child of my age.  ‘What You Gonna Do?’ on the B-side was far less commercial – a classic example of raw ‘60s R’n’B.

Manfred Mann: What You Gonna Do?

'I’ll Be There' by the  Jackson Five - well,  a little later I had some pictures of the Jackson Five on my wall (next to the Osmonds), of course I liked it!

'Love Child' by Diana Ross & The Supremes - a song I still hear in my head with pops and crackles.  What a fine example of classy soul, not that I would have understood that word then.  

There were a couple of singles I was less keen on, one of them was '(If Paradise Is) Half As Nice' by  Amen Corner – I didn’t like the voice, I still don't.

And then there was also 'I Can’t Let Maggie Go' by the Honeybus – famous for its use in the Nimble advert and anyone as old as me will remember the girl in the balloon who "flew like a bird in the sky".  However, I much preferred the fabulous B side, ‘Tender Are The Ashes’ and I still really love this song with its uptempo groovy Northern Soul vibe.

The Honeybus: Tender Are The Ashes

Finally there was a record that always sounded a bit more grown-up to me.  I think it was because of the harmonica combined with the fact that it was an instrumental - it was 'Groovin’ With Mr Bloe' by Mr Bloe.  You know it, of course you do!

I don’t know what happened to them in the end - they weren't mine! -  but I continued to dig them out and play them in the interim years and even after I started buying my own brand new singles.  By the time Abba, then Buzzcocks, etc. each arrived on the scene for me, records from the previous 10 years seemed bloody ancient.  But there was something about this small selection that made them immune to my teenage prejudice against the past and all things out-of-date. The feelings, those first far-reaching feelings, endured.  I think it must simply be because that’s where my love of music all began.

How about you?

Pinky & Perky
(and a very scary duck)

The youth of innocence

It’s funny how life can take you on circular routes.  Little things that didn’t seem to have much meaning in one stage of your life can resurface in the future and take on greater importance.  It’s like when you hear a record from your childhood, decades later, and suddenly realise that you liked it all along, you just hadn’t appreciated that you would always appreciate it, if you see what I mean.  An example of that for me is ‘Days’ by the Kinks which was in the (admittedly rather paltry) family singles box around the year of its release, 1968.  I was only five and I loved it.  Played it constantly.  I only had a five-year-old’s appreciation of it, though, which is very shallow and instinctive, merely latching onto a small element of what it really had to offer – but it was enough.  I also liked the theme song for a ‘Cherry B’ advert (on flexi disc, remember them?), my ‘Pinky & Perky’ 45 and ‘How Much Is That Doggy In The Window’ on yellow vinyl….  but I have to say my taste for those has not endured as well as for ‘Days’, which I still love to this, ahem, day.

Another circular route I’ve been on has been in my career.  As a child I loved drawing, and I loved picture books.  I had no idea that many years later I’d be drawing for picture books myself.  It took a long while to get here, or even to realise that I wanted to get here, with several other unconnected side-trips en route.  Rather fittingly I still have some picture books from my own childhood and now I view them with new eyes.  I look at the techniques, the style, the composition, and I understand so much more than that five-year-old me did – and still love them.

Here are a few.  You can just tell, can’t you, that these were different times.  Thank you for the days…

Hmm...Mick, Keith, Ron or Charlie...?

From 'Myths From Many Lands' (1965)

...I'm not saying anything.

From 'Myths From Many Lands' (1965)

There's something Hockney-ish about this I reckon...

From 'Susan's Secret Garden' (early 1960s)

Perhaps more consideration should have been given to the order of the
words highlighted for reading practice at the top of the left hand page:

Police      found      sorry      policeman     crying

From 'Susan's Secret Garden' (early 1960s)

This is a gorgeous book - and I especially like the fab typeface.

From 'A Tale of Tails' (1965)

Well, I just love it.

From 'Oriental Tales' (1963)

And for some more lovely and far groovier 1960s children's book illustrations you may also want to check out this from the excellent Voices of East Anglia.



Special effects

I’m a bit of a sucker for a good cover version.  I think it’s that, as my musical taste has evolved and expanded over time, I really appreciate the different treatments that a song can receive and still sound great.   Recently I heard three cool versions of ‘Real Wild Child (Wild One)’ for instance – I came across them in reverse order – I only knew Iggy’s for many years and it always sounds good. Then I recently heard the cover by Jet Harris from 1962 and that in itself was a surprise – like the Shadows turned bad boys – which prompted me to check out the original by Australian rocker Johnny O’Keefe from 1958.   I love all three of these and each one so distinctive from the other. Same song, different angle.

Of course there are more examples of this than I have room to write about… and probably whole blogs devoted just to this subject alone (don’t even get me started on ‘I Put A Spell On You’…) but while I’m here I want to share another with you.  Being written by Ray Davies already suggests that it’s going to be pretty good – but it was one of those songs that the Kinks never officially released, although it was at least recorded in the studio for a BBC session.

Dave Berry recorded it in 1965 and gave it something haunting and atmospheric.  Then in 1998 it was released as a single by Hooverphonic, the Belgian trip-hop/rock/electro-pop/whatever-you-want-to-call-it band (genre names can be so limiting!)  This is such a different version, characteristically electronic with wistful vocals.  I hope you’ll like these two: one male, one female, many years apart, but side by side here.