scratch in the sky is the name of the cryan' shames
album that came out in 1967 from these chicago soft/sunshine pop masters whom also added an amazing dash of psyche to all there recordings...
"a carol for lorelei" starts the album off with bells and association(ish) harmonies!! brilliant
ignore what allmusic.com said about this album they are fools the song writing is up to par with the beach boys and others.
if you dig the Association and The Millennium and other fine sunshine pop groups with that mellow groove get it now. the japanese import is worth the extra for the original back cover art work that the sundazed version didn't recreate faithfully. i love 'em

Delicate instrumental by Dave Grusin, that grows with each listen and has all the charachteristics of late 60s arrangements i love so much. The instrumentation is diverse, rich, yet subtle with piano, organ, horns, flutes and wonderfully arrangened, smooth strings and some harp embellishments thrown in. The mood is mellow, romantic with a dose of melancholia. Another great instrumental from the soundtrack, "California Montage", has recently appeared on "The Get Easy! Sunshine Pop Collection", while this one unfortunately is only available on vinyl.

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.

A breezy popsong, produced by Anita Kerr... a grrrrrrrreat slice of uptempo sunshine pop...a tune that makes you feel good... isn't that what music is all about ???

Sunshine Pop in the same vein as "Up, Up and Away" by The 5th Dimension of "The Rain, The Park, and Other Things" by The Cowsills...but Bubbles has a smidgen of funk in the drums and bassline. This track was also covered recently on the 'Powerpuff Girls' soundtrack.

My favorite track from the latest Goldfrapp LP.
The song takes AM-Radio sunshine pop and exposes the concept to English psychedelic folk at its most radioactive.
The resulting mutation is both sexy and ominous.
The groove is languid, but insistent.
The samples and the synths sound dusty/dirty.
The strings/guitars/harps brood luxuriously.
And then there is Allison's lovely/creepy voice/melody: all woozy sex appeal and little girl menace.
It sounds like that image from the film "Blue Velvet" - lovely summer lawn under which throbs thousands of huge bugs.
Wonderfully slurred....

An underrated, forgotten gem of perfect sunshine pop. Why this is rather little known is completely beyond me, since the song just has it all: breezy, swirling, lush strings, tight rhythm section, sweeping french horns and great male/female vocal harmonies. It's an uplifting uptempo song, pretty much in the vein of the 5th Dimensions' "Up, Up and Away".

uplifting, string-laden, lyrically abstract modern indie-pop. i think adam green`s strenght as a songwriter lies in his ability to combine bizarre random lines of text and catchy, but sophisticated melodies to something that`s bigger than the sum of its parts. that`s why i prefer his latest work to what he did back in the moldy peaches, the more well-produced sound really helps to balance out things. the strings on this song, for instance, is what makes it a slice of near-perfect sunshine pop. i really need to get around to actually buying this album soon..

To think there was a time when pops vision could be this grand and ambitious .This song originated from an American tv show "The Partridge Family" and was played out by pedigree session men and David Cassidy. its elements contain sunshine pop vocals ,harpsichord and a psuedo classical middle eight and an irrestible chorus,the song almost sounds like two songs alternating with each other and managing to resolve their differences at every chorus ,As good as pop ever got.

This is a mesmerizing pop-psych number from maybe the greatest British vocal group of the sixties. The composition is adventurous and reminiscent of SF-based sunshine pop but with that distinctive, eloquent British touch.
Harmony Grass was the group Tony Rivers fronted after his success with The Castaways.
He's been an important influence on Mike Alway's legendary �l label.

A very cool sunshine pop style number from the soundtrack to the Brazilian soap opera 'selva de pedra'. This two-minute track has an irresistable groove and some nice harmonized group vocals. The vocals are mostly gentle and smooth, like strings, but there are also some jazzier scat phrases thrown in. The entire soundtrack is highly recommended.

The Critters really came up with a gem in this 1966 top 40 hit, which seems to have a sort of Brazilian influence. I had the lyrics to this for years in a magazine before I heard the actual song. The greatest hits CD I cited is out of print, but this song may be found on various compilations as well.

Another hit the Critters had was their version of the Lovin' Spoonful's "Younger Girl", which was also
done by the Hondells...I like the Critter's version better.

Does it get any more happier and sunnier than this? This is a true sunshine pop / jet-set lounge piece with a fast paced beat, lush strings, woodwinds and a catchy melody. The style reminds me of Bacherat's 'Pacific Coast Highway' and Alan Hawkshaw's 'Girl in a Sportscar'. Just imagine your self beeing on the French riviera, crusing around in your sportscar with a beautiful girl at your side and you are the king of the world as you drive into the sunset.

I can be very wrong here, but it seams that this is the title song for the movie with the same name, made in 1998. I could have sworn that this was a piece from the 1960s, the sound, the arrangement, the instruments, sound incredibly accurate and realistic. I found this song on the excellent 'Jet Set Society' compilation from our own eftimihn on this site, a brilliant pick.

This song has been a favorite of mine ever since I first heard it on the album "Birthday" back in the 80's. It reminds me of walking along the beach with my girlfriend, looking at a gorgeous sunset. The song was written by Jim Yester, who also sings lead...the string arrangement, great vocal harmonies, lush melody and delicate guitar solo by Tommy Tedesco make this a sunshine pop classic. Jim Yester also contributed two other equally great tunes on this album, "Birthday Morning" and the stunning, majestic "Barefoot Gentleman". I recommend the entire album to fans of 1960s harmony pop-it is their most psychedelic record, hands down, and my favorite by them,although I still haven't heard their first LP yet, which others have recommended to me as their best.

If you are familiar with the,by now,well played M and P sound this will surprise you ,a gentle ,light funky ballad with an entirely male led vocal .The measured ,considerate vocal by John Phillips takes the Mamas and Papas into a new mature almost sophisticated territory.Regretably short at 2.20,the previous sunshine pop makes way for new feeelings and concerns ,from a fantastic album callled "People Like us " which seemed to pave the way for what came to be known as AOR,the relentless sunshine of California discovers the humidity of 70,s L.A .This was their last record

I have to write about this song just to defend it. Because,among Szabo fans, this is considered crap...

But for a guy not known for his pop,this is a slammer! Most of this can be attributed to the singers on the session, who incidentally, are from The Love Generation. The Bahler brothers wrote this under the guise of "The California Dreamers", who also did a record the same year for Impulse with Tom Scott... And, whereas the Scott record has become a plunderphonic classic, Szabo's record goes unnoticed for it's lack of "breaks".....

This song is a great groovy stomper much in the tradition of all sunshine pop from the time period. Only with the added bonus of being performed by some of the best west coast session players of the time including Tom Scott himself, alongside Jimmy Gordon, Mike Melvoin, and Carol Kaye. And as with all Szabo's stuff,dark and sexy,with that eastern twist that he added to everything he did.... Bill Plummer added some buzzy sitar to this track too, which makes it a must for indo-pop fans!!

Did I mention the cover art?

Sunshine pop.

Great soundtrack to a great film and composed by Dave Gruisin that some of you might know from the excellent the get easy! sunshine pop compilation from last year (2003). I think this was the one record who got me into the soundtrack genre. It�s got that typical 70�s funky soundtrack sound. Dig it.

When mentioning Swing Out Sister casual listeners often dismiss them as forgettable, mere 80s martini pop kitsch. Or worse, one hit wonders due to the fact that their 1987 offering Breakout is still, by far, their biggest single hit. But this is completely wrong. In fact, they're enjoying an ongoing career for almost 20 years, recording 8 studio albums. Nowadays they�re fitting a niche no other group fits in so comfortably: escapist, late 60s oriented sophisticated glamorous easy listening pop music with all the right influences that spring to mind of that era: Burt Bacharach, Jimmy Webb, John Barry, late 60s european soundtracks in general, Ennio Morricone specifically and sunshine pop. Since these guys aren't necessarily household names in mainstream pop culture today, Swing Out Sister were practically invisible from the mid 90s on in Europe and the USA, releasing their records primarily in Japan, where easy listening music still gets the biggest exposure. The Sisters� 2001 album �Somewhere deep in the night� is their most cinematic, most elegant and visually evocative album to date, where the Bacharach/Barry/Morricone spirit is prevailing the most: 60s arrangements with Bacharach-oriented songwriting, Barry-esque lush strings, Morricone-style harpsicord, saxophone, harps, jazzy guitars, muted trumpets, fluegelhorn, wordless vocals, blending vocal songs with atmospheric instrumentals, creating an imaginary soundtrack. The whole album is a truly underrated gem.

Late 60s mellow sunshine pop with amazing vocal harmonies, composed by the legendary Roger Nichols with lyrics written by his long-time partner Paul Williams. A very gentle, breezy and light tune, due to excellent arrangement/production by Nick DeCaro and Tommy LiPuma with a delicately sounding trumpet playing the main melody. Like many Nichols songs, it's soft and mellow while being full of longing and melancholia at the same time.

This track is pure, unadulterated soft rock/sunshine pop heaven. This could easily be mistaken for a lost Association gem with beautifully arranged vocal harmonies by Hi-Los'Clark Burroughs, who, in fact, also produced "Never My Love" and "Windy" (and the rest of the "Insight Out" album for The Association). Combined with a slightly baroque sounding harpsicord, organ, xylophone embellishments and highly idealistic lyrics it makes a lovely piece of sunhsine pop.

Overproduced 1969 hit. But under the strings and horns is a good song and an excellent group vocal harmony performance.