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...
I absolutely love Claudine Longet, especially her 60's A&M records due to the consistency in arrangement and production (all A&M albums were arranged by Nick DeCaro and produced by Tommy LiPuma). This is a great Roger Nichols/Paul Williams tune and the arrangement and production, with lovely strings, is just wonderfully done.
Live cover of a Tim Hardin..I think Beth Orton & Billy Bragg have covered it as well. What can I say..the vocal on this is mindblowing. I'd heard Tim Buckley's son Jeff Buckley before..and you can tell that he learned a lot from his old man..this song has been floating through my head now for a couple of days..like some kind of wierd somnambulent dream..awesome
from Dream Letter:Live in London 1968 (Enigma 73507), available on CD (Get Back)
This song was a hit in 68 and I havent heard it sins late 60�ties. On a taxi from Brussels to Maastricht I was pusseled to recognize this old song and started a search on internet, found it,
many good old memories.
totally amazing, swinging piece of japanese vocal-centered 60's big band sound. i�m especially fond of the tarzan-esque way her voice bends at about 2:54, and the uh! ah! sounds of the backup singers. this needs to get its own movie scene ala the big dance number in sabu's "monday", if anyone's seen that.
22 Oct 06 ·Sem Sinatra: I totally agree with the above. It's by far the best song I've heard by Jun Mayuzumi. Her later songs veer dangerously into Enka (Melodramatic and melancholy but largely very dull Japanese popular song) 22 Dec 07 ·sardonicsmile: oh, i own this 7" too! both sides are great, and so are her gutsy and fun vocals.
