Starting All Over Again

It’s time to start writing about music again. As I limber up, here’s a placeholder.

¶ I’d heard the song for the first time in years on one of the last episodes of the TV series, Mad Men. Brian Hyland’s 1962 puppy-love pop classic (#3 on both US and UK charts) has a naggingly dark/slightly hysterical melody that stuck in my head for days after watching the programme. On one hand it’s an over-ripe teen anthem, on the other a singular melody that doesn’t sound like a “pop” tune at all. I fitted a moody, dragged-out beat underneath the guitars, aiming for a Badalamenti mugginess.
¶ Having roughed it out thus, Mark P came to play “Next!” — a game where I play Mark tracks in various states of completion and he either responds to them, or doesn’t (and hence “Next!”). He has no knowledge of what I’m going to serve up, and sometimes it hooks him in enough to play multiple takes or work a part out. He played, I think, three passes on this song, adding his tensile guitar to the mix.
¶ An idea had occurred to me, a while before, to hire a bona-fide musician (Mark’s one, but he works with me for lunch and wine). And I thought of horns on this, so I emailed the wonderful Paul Taylor, who I’d seen, and enjoyed, with improv outfit the Horseless Headmen. I trepidatiously waited for a reply to my request that he write horn charts for a couple of songs, and was hugely thrilled when he said yes.
¶ Paul’s a great musician and a lovely chap to spend a day with. We discussed a ridiculous range of music, from trad to bebop, from The Bureau via Improv to Trombone Poetry. Having tuned up the part of my brain needed to cope with engineering a live trombone session — we set to. Paul methodically and with great precision overdubbed the trombones that you hear here. Then, realising that it was missing a bass track, and having seen Andy Cleyndart playing with my old friend Sammy Rimington, I asked him if he would do a session, working on various songs. So I then had to engineer a double bass session.
¶ So did their pledge hold? It’s September and we need to know… Here‘s my take, in all its crepuscular glory. This is one of five songs from a new project, Super Hits (!) of the Sixties!
¶ n.b. Brian Hyland moved to New Orleans in the 70’s and recorded an album, In a State of Bayou, produced by the late, great Allen Toussaint. I think Brian’s still touring today.

¶ Lead guitar | Mark Pringle | Trombones arranged & played by Paul Taylor | String Bass by Andy Cleyndart | Vocal, rhythm guitars, vibes & song arrangement by Martin Colyer. The first of the revived Five Things will follow next week.