I happened across this LP in a friends shop. I went to listen to it and this song blew me away. It's almost like a tune from a lost Jimmy Webb opus, or a Galt McDermott musical.... Like "HAIR".

The group sings in a loose ensemble with a very gospel-like arrangement that jumps from a driving, fuzzy, Motown like groove to waltz-y 3/4 skip. It represents the two impressionistic counterpoints in the songs drama :

" We see the phonies, you and I.... Their faded posies make us cry...." to " I smell the flowers... I smell the roses, and buttercups...."

It also reminds me of the Rotary Connection stuff that was around the same time.

The arranger is what turned me on to it, Ralph Carmichael. His label, Light, released stuff by the Oral Roberts kids, which is worth checking out for novelty's sake.

50% of this record is preach-y, but the rest of the songs, like this one, are well done with a lot of personality.RC is well known in sample circles for his famous cut "Addict's Psalm",from the Xian film soundtrack "The Cross & The Switchblade".

Use caution!

When I first came to this site I was suprised to not see any Harper's Bizarre tunes! They were a pretty fab vocal group who seem to be getting their due.

This song is from an almost unknown "lost" album from 76'. (Their heyday was the mid to late 60's, and had great success with their hit "Feelin' Groovy" in 67') And is a suprisingly jammin' version of a song from 1943 called "Speak Low" (From the film "One Touch of Venus"). I've heard other versions of this song, but nothing like this!

It starts off sounding like an O'donell Levy track, with a slinky/breezy latin step, and smooth, jazzy, compressed chords gliding across the top..... And then the vocal kicks-in, with this apropos low vocal harmony, instantly recognizable as HB, but more subdued.... They take the song and totally make it their own! Really just a superb track! Very A&M like, but with a bit more whimsy.... This record is hard to come by and needs a re-issue..... HELLO?!

HB is a must for fans of later B-boy's stuff or other Sunny pop from LA in the 60's and 70's!!!

This is my favorite these days. Totally cuts into my dull recession-based lifestyle and peppers it with some yellow Nashville sunshine....

The song bounces through a hum-drum monday with the bouyant post-it note poetics of a 9 to 5 cutie... Nothing is going right today, and the song sounds like the antedote :

" ...Gotta' go to work, really gotta per-cu-late... Try to catch the fish that's jumping off your
dish-or-plate...." To "Don't ask for help... from anybody... cause they'll only turn you down-ooo...
na-na-na-na-na, ooooooooooh na-na-na-na-na, Blame it on a mondaaaaayy..... YEAH! ....

The session smokes and the players are astounding! Huge southern brass-blasts counterpoint the bouncing hoe-down groove... It must have been a hoot to play because the track clocks in at over four minutes, but you hardly notice for all the fun....Funky in a very music-city way. Almost Nancy & Lee like, with a little Free Design-like harmonic optimisim in the vocal arrangements, which Anita's well known for.

I recommend the whole record though.It plays straight through, and you play it again & again. A lost gem.

If anyone could improve this Classics IV ditty, it's the adorable Mr. Montez!

Although the arrangement doesn't change much, (it didn't need to) Nick De Caro did add some nice little "effects" that really set the mood. Like a cool bit of "spooky" delay/filter effecting after the refrain...nice.

Montez's voice just seems to add to the story of the song. Like a guy like him could get spooked by a chick more than your average dude... he's sensitive.

Great Grusin-like organ solo too... That just nails it for me!

WOW! We all know how much the brazillians love Burt, well, this is a fine example of how well he was interpreted by the south.



They keep the original arrangement but spice it up a bit with snappy side-stick beat and pumped-up organ stabs ala' Wanderley.The singers are (I believe) Gracinha Leporace & Pery Ribeiro,and they harmonize beautifully as Manfredo Fest rythmically taps his organ paired with piano in a sumptuous unison.They carry the song along in gradually ascending stages of bliss,until they drop away only to build "Do-you -know-the-ways"in an rounded refrain to finsh it off...Absolutely gorgeous! Produced by Sergio Mendes in his imitable style!!!Also check out their version of "Up, Up, And Away", from the same LP.