To me this is certainly a pinnacle of pure late 60s sunshine pop. Composed by pop genius Roger Nichols the timeless, idealistic lyrics were written by Tony Asher (who wrote most of the lyrics with Brian Wilson on Pet Sounds) not by his regular partner Paul Williams. Sunshine pop hardly gets any sunnier than on this track: great production, strings galore, Beach Boys-esque vocal harmonies, great bassline & trumpet and catchy as hell with it's uplifting chord progressions throughout. While the album version (recently included on the highly recommended "The Get Easy! Sunshine Pop Collection") is good already, the single version is just crisper, lusher, just perfect.
from Captain Nemo (Decca) available on CD - The Get Easy! Sunshine Pop Collection (Universal)
08 Jul 04 ·delicado: I have to agree. What a beautiful track! Very similar to the Small Circle of Friends record, but perhaps even better! I just have the version from the compilation; I'll try and track down the single. 08 Jul 04 ·eftimihn: Delicado, you have the single version already, it's the one on my Roger Nichols compilation, i just somehow forgot to mark it as the single version. The single is clocking in at 2:18, the album version runs 3 minutes. 09 Jul 04 ·delicado: Cool; I'll listen again. This track is sure to make it onto one of my comps; surely it could make a soft pop fan out of anyone! 03 Feb 05 ·tinks: great album, and a horrendously overlooked group..."dear undecided" is the best beatles song that the beatles never recorded. 24 Jun 09 ·Major Minor: I agree this is the best version... I think it's the same one that's on the "Sunshine days" compilation.... The one on Captain Nemo isn't awful or anything, but the orchestral intro does go on a bit...
11 Jul 04 ·djfreshmoney: How about filling in the rest of the info, including the reasons you're recommending the song! Tell me why you think this group and the song are good! Without that, your recommendation isn't really worth anything. 12 Jul 04 ·eftimihn: Hmmm, there have been lots of new users lately that sign in and recommend some dozen songs without any information except title and song. Seems pretty pointless to me, i mean evryone could recommend 100 songs in an a couple of minutes that way. Apart from that, amazing song for sure... 12 Jul 04 ·delicado: I think the key is to assume no knowledge on the part of the reader when describing the track. A lot of us are so into our favorite music that perhaps for a moment we imagine everyone else is as well. But the fact is that with no explanation, a recommendation probably means nothing to most people. I love this song as well, although a fellow DJ once laughed at me for playing it in a bar! 23 Jul 04 ·konsu: My two cents may contribute to an already long thread but, I have to add as a writer on this site it takes guts to reccomend a Free Design song that doesn't sound like Stereolab. And I should mention the same for any DJ that plays them out. Let em' laugh
Delicado!
From the 1968 film of Romeo and Juliet. One of the most beautiful movie themes I've ever heard.
It's all there. The composition, the sweeping orchestra, the violins. Everything. So wonderful.
available on CD - Henry Mancini's Greatest Hits
20 Jul 04 ·delicado: I think the score was actually by Nino Rota, although Mancini's version was a hit. I do quite like the tune, but its overuse in soap operas has killed it for me a little!
Man! Out of all the dollar-bin records i've bought in the last six months this one takes the prize. Amazing vocal pop ala' Harpers Bizarre or The Vogues, but more like the latter, due to the sheer genius production and selection of material.
This is a song by the great Box Tops that gets played all over your local "oldies" radio station, only made more superior with better production and beat. It has that misty sunshine appeal of HB, with cooed almost whispered verses, but then takes it higher with their own trademark choir-loft harmonies and effects. It supersedes the original by a longshot, bringing together sly shuffles and baroque arcs of genius.
The album has too many great versions to mention, but look for a review on their version of The Doors "Touch Me" coming soon, with a clip.
A must for fans of HB, Classics IV, Association, Cyrkle etc.
25 Jul 04 ·delicado: yeah, this one has been on my list to recommend for a while. Superb stuff! 18 Apr 07 ·artlongjr: I used to hear this song back in the early 70's, I didn't know who it was back then but it did get airplay. This group's first hit I really like and recommend, it's called "Symphony for Susan" and came out in 1966.
This is my favourite Eurythmics track by some considerable margin, though I also rate some others on the album quite highly. I consider "Julia" to be a classic of 80's electronica, with a rather haunting chord sequence underpinning an effective vocal line with extensive use of vocoder on Annie Lennox's voice. There is a bridge section (heard twice) which is rather derivatve of Vangelis's "Chariots of Fire" theme, but as the track progresses and builds up texturally, there is an undeniable emotional impact, and I always enjoy the various instrumental melodies and counter-melodies that appear.
22 Sep 04 ·delicado: A fantastic track. It definitely rises above a lot of other songs of the period, even though it does feature an extremely cheesy guitar solo. And I still have the 12 inch of it that you sold me in 1987! 23 Sep 04 ·Mike: Hold onto that 12"... a lot of great work was done in rock and pop during the 1980s. Rather like 1960s British housing, much of it has yet to reach classic status, but for some of it at least, its time will surely come!
