British R&B Rarities:The Gass

THE GASS-Dream Baby( How Long Must I Dream)/Jitterbug Sid U.K. CBS 202647 1967

I've no idea who The Gass were.  I can tell you they were a kick ass mid/late 60's British soul/r&b band.  They cut three singles from 1965-1967, two for Columbia (including a smoking cover of Jimmy Holiday's "The New Breed") and this, their final on CBS.

You'd think a soulful version of Roy Orbison's "Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)" would sound lame, but it works, in fact it works very well.  With it's cool horns, funky organ and very soulful vocals this track could easily be mistaken for a track by our mod/Hammond heroes The Quik, ace.  It's flip, "Jitterbug Syd" is a funky Hammond/sax instrumental, worthy of any host of 60's British r&b acts like Wynder K. Frog, it's more sax than organ but still pretty cool.

Neither side has appeared anywhere, in fact I can't even locate a clip on YouTube right now so you'll have to take my word on its greatness!