A short, but astoundingly catchy instrumental in the bossa nova style. This is led by guitar and bass, with subtle stabs from the horn section. It's hard to put into words how clean, yet edgy and catchy the sound is. Somehow, in spite of all the instrumentation, there is a lot of space in the mix. This is from an LP on reprise called simply 'Bossa Nova', with a generic looking sleeve that is also used for a much less bossa-inspired Barney Kessell LP.
I'm not going to say much about this track aside from it being one of my favorite Sammy Davis, Jr. performances. This really shouldn't work, but it does. Chalk it up to the genius of Sammy.
28 Nov 02 ·n-jeff: But isn't Sammy Davis Jnr just like that? Silk purses out of sows ears, I treasure his performance of 'If I could talk to the animals'. It should stink, but it doesn't. Its a real treasure. 18 Jan 03 ·konsu: He also managed to spin gold from "Mr. Bojangles" without too much effort... A dying breed indeed. 20 Apr 04 ·olli: even though his vocal version of the hawaii 5-0 theme (you can count on me) is unbelievably corny, i absolutely love it. a party favourite.
i even made an animated ninja movie about it.
One beautifully-constructed, jazz-flavoured number.
Its jazzy chords and conga rhythm are complemented by a set of psychedelic lyrics about Tracy who "had a hard day Sunday" for "she had to be herself and no one else". Real ear-candy for me. One of the best (mildly) psychedelic tracks out there, ever.
from West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Vol. 2: Breaking Through (Reprise)
14 Jan 04 ·executiveslacks: I was going to recommend this one, but you beat me to it. Great song.
Two and a half minutes of infectious, sunny folk-rock with extra added jazziness in the changes. The FAB were a Lovin' Spoonful spinoff of sorts, produced and overseen by the troika of Jerry Yester, Zal Yanovsky (RIP) and Eric Jacobsen. Bassist Kenny Altman, who wrote this gem, later wrote "Feelin' Blue" which was memorably recorded by Earth, Wind & Fire and today apparently is in the restaurant business. Too bad he's not still cooking up delicious tunes like these!
Fast and furious, with incendiary guitars, this one is a radically different version of the P F Sloan track covered by the Grass Roots (q.v.), and it's half of my favourite pair of song-that-was-covered-by-two-artists-differently. They didn't have much else, although "Transparent Day" is pretty good, but the third LP is just bad country-flavoured pop to my ears.
from West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band Vol. 1 (Reprise), available on CD (Sundazed)