The Moody Blues Mark One: In America Part One

THE MOODY BLUES-From The Bottom Of My Heart (I Love You)/And My Baby's Gone U.S. London 9764 1965

The Moody Blues U.S 45 rpm releases stayed pretty much consistent with their British cousins starting with the release of today's subject.  It was their third American 45 (the British issue on Decca F 12166 was released simultaneously) launched in May 1965.  It was their first 45 under London's new blue three tone swirl label as well.  The record failed to dent the charts as "Go Now" (their American debut) did upon it's re-release in early 1965 reaching #10.  The Moodies would not reenter the U.S. charts again until "Nights In White Satin" placed at # 2 in early 1968.  "From The Bottom Of My Heart" marks the first time a Moody Blues original was released on either side of the Atlantic.  Penned by members Mike Pinder and Denny Laine.

"From The Bottom Of My Heart (I Love You)" is not among my most favorite Moodies tracks, it features some trademark 60's Moody Blues high backing vocals by Mike Pinder and Ray Thomas but it's at odds with the r&b sounds the band had previously embraced. Things don't really pick up until the last 30 seconds of the songs where the vocals reach this crescendo fading out much in the same manner of "Go Now".  The flip side, "And My Baby's Gone" fares much. It chugs along with some cool call and response vocals, hand claps and some mild volume pedal guitar sounds care of Denny Laine (and a solo not unlike Jimmy Page's on several Herman's Hermits sides).  Like the A-side it is a Pinder/Laine original.

Both sides have been collected on the CD reissue of their British debut LP "The Magnificent Moodies" and on the far superior  U.K. CD issue that compiles all of their British Decca and American London Denny Laine era tracks.

Hear "From The Bottom Of My Heart (I Love You)":

http://youtu.be/xQdLj5v-ZEM

Hear "And My Baby's Gone":

http://youtu.be/096nCsJXqYg

Obscure European U.S. Releases: The Shanes

THE SHANES-Chris Craft No. 9/Time U.S. Capitol 5963 1967

The Shanes from were Sweden. Though they don't rate high in my book with other acts from their native country like The Tages, The Mascots or Ola & the Janglers they did produce the occasional cool track.  Today's subject was oddly released in the U.S. in July 1967 (it's Swedish counterpart was previously issued in February of that year as Columbia DS 2339). It was their 13th release in Sweden and to my knowledge their first and only U.S. 45. It's also my favorite Shanes track, and no doubt everyone elses.

Barracks life: The Shanes pose in their Swedish army dwelling

"Chris Craft No. 9" was recorded in England in late 1966.  The Shanes were one of the first Swedish beat groups to record in England, preceding The Tages and the Lee Kings in doing so. "Chris Craft No.9" is an ode to a boating vessel (Chris Craft was and still is a manufacturer of boats of all shapes and sizes) that melodically owes a bit to "A Must To Avoid", a Sloan/Barry hit for Herman's Hermits in 1965. That minor "coincidence" aside it's a stunning record for it's time, not sounding a bit '67 but more a '65-'66 beat record with some great hooks and stellar harmonies (and covered way back by our local heroes The Insomniacs) and a driving beat with an ear worm of a chorus ("Chris Craft number nine, you're welcome aboard.."). "Time" it's B-side is dreadful.  It's a below pedestrian ballad that was excruciating to listen through one full time, just dead boring and awful.

Sadly things did not bode well for the band after this single hit the streets as four members were called up to serve in the Swedish army and the remaining fifth member enlisted as a sign of solidarity which kept them off the music scene for almost a year. Sweden's military at the time (like that of Denmark and Holland) were quite liberal in the sense that they did not require recruits to cut their hair allowed the band's locks to remain unshorn (see photo above).

"Chris Craft No.9" appeared on a CD comp of Capitol records sides titled "Book A Trip: The Psych Pop Sounds of Capitol Records" put out a few years back and recently is available on the excellent new Shanes 22 track CD retrospective  "Let Them Show You: 1964-1967" on RPM.

The Shanes in action, 1967

For a Shanes discography head over to:

http://swedishbeat.wordpress.com/bands/shanes/

Hear "Chris Craft No.9":

http://youtu.be/GPNsYu6dTyM

Phil Everly: Gone, Gone, Gone

Phil Everly R.I.P.  The legacy of the brothers Everly is too long and too well known to waste time feebly attempting to it chronicle here.  Instead I've sat myself down on this fucking miserable cold, grey day and hammered out ten of my fave's by the boys:

1. "Wake Up Little Susie"
1957's "overslept at the drive-in" teenage angst opera summed up nicely in 2:05. My sister and I played our mother's beat to crap copy to death (which sadly, like all of my mother's 45's had been piled , sleeveless, onto some horrible metal rack where they were slotted in between rungs and were technically, already near death).  This was my introduction to the brothers Everly and possibly my first rock n roll song with a story to it.

http://youtu.be/LojqhHnmyvc

2. "Love Is Strange"
From the "Beat & Soul" LP (which also contained #10 below) the boys tear the machinery out of the Mickey & Sylvia original thanks to some jangly/crunchy in the red guitar folk rock guitar beneath some Floyd Cramer style ivory tinkling.  The guitars amp it up a notch even more towards the end. And dig Don and Phil's laid back country spoken bit "Hey Don..Yeah Phil.".  Rocking.

http://youtu.be/hO7mz9pncTg

3. "Somebody Help Me"
An over the top version with some heavy fuzz/distortion of the Jackie Edwards/Spencer Davis Group number that was a single a few months (August 1966) after the SDG's release but in my humble opinion takes the cake against all comers.  It's also on their essential "Two Yanks in England" LP (more on that below). The vocals are brilliant and the tough guitar is riveting. Brought to my attention thanks to Edsel records 1989 reissue of the LP.

http://youtu.be/FqW49_l10qA

4. "Finding It Rough"
More interesting cover versions, this time the pre-Nirvana band Hat & Tie's 1967 freakbeat/pop sike obscurity penned by Patrick Cambell Lyons and Chris Thomas.  The Everly's scooped it up and cut it on their '67 LP "The Everly Brothers Sing The Everly Brothers". The fuzzed out guitar from the original is still there but the brothers rack up the pop sike quota further by adding some flute and some "la la la's" and intricate harmonies.  Again a superior take.

http://youtu.be/xy9IOUZT7fI

5. "Leave My Girl Alone"
Another jangly folk rock number from their 1966  "In Our Image" LP (that came in between 1966's "Beat & Soul" and "Two Yanks In England", a pretty prolific year for Phil & Don). The vocals are stellar and the arrangement has a distinctly Byrdsy feel.  I can easily imagine Gene Clark singing this!

6. "Hard Hard Year"
Phil and Don hit England in '66 and gather up The Hollies, Jimmy Page (allegedly), John Paul Jones and according to Graham Nash one Reg Dwight (aka Elton John) and take to the studio to cut the 12 track LP later to become "Two Yanks in England". 8 of the numbers are "L. Ransford" (Clarke/Nash/Hicks) compositions , three of which were at the time not yet record by the Hollies. This is my fave of the Hollies covers on the album.  It lends itself well to the boys voices behind some faint organ and tambourine before the searing guitar solo from Jimmy Page (faithful reader Keith Patterson pointed out it was not Tony Hicks and utilizes Page's style) blows it all to smithereens.

http://youtu.be/ZnocXAoRa0U



7. "Bowling Green"
Despite the quaint English name (and the poppy/pysch arrangement not unlike The Association) Bowling Green, is as the song says, in Kentucky. The vocals airy, soaring feel propel this 1967 single firmly into Everly's legendary ability to use bits of genres without sounding like they were trying to be trendy or contemporary.  It was sadly the last time they ever saw the U.S Top 100 or the Top 40 (the song croaked at #40). Criminal.

8. "The Air that I Breathe"
A solo single from Phil released in 1973, a whole year before The Hollies hit version and easily better (arranged by Warren Zevon) thanks to the simplistic vocal arrangement and subtle cello, not the over the top Hollies job. Dig the choral backing vocals spine tingling bits instead of that blistering guitar lick that The Hollies used.

http://youtu.be/rdVA8YYpSMw

9. "Let It Be Me"
Hands down the definitive version of this track in my estimation is by the Everly's , the A-side of their 1959 Cadence 45 (with "Since You Broke My Heart" on the flip). Easily the best possible example of the vocal magic that was the pairing of these guys.

http://youtu.be/kjhQceK0Y6E

10. "Man With Money"
My introduction to the Everly's began with my mom's beat to shit Cadence 45's, my interest in them began after hearing this original by them that was a fave among mid 60's mod types like The Eyes (who ineptly covered it), A Wild Uncertainty and The Who (my fave version of the three) back in the late 80's. It drives along with some baroque swatches of harpsichord and Phil and Don's precision soulful vocals. Hands down my fave Everly's tune of all time.

http://youtu.be/8gi-G358LGc

Love,Poetry & Revolution

Ever since Mod Fun's Mick London and Ron Rimsite urged me to check out Bam Caruso's "Rubble.." series in 1985 my life has been forever entwined with obscure U.K. 60's "freakbeat" and/or "psychedelia".  Since that time I have purchased a multitude of comp LP's/CD's in the genre and all too often there's a lot of track overlap.  When "Love, Poetry & Revolution: A Journey Through The British Psychedelic And Underground Scenes 1966-1971" was announced I was hesitant as a great deal of tracks (23 to be exact) I'd already had in a variety of places.  But the rest looked intriguing. It semmed to me to be a perfect companion to 2006's mighty 4 CD "Real Life Permanent Dreams: A Cornucopia of British Psychedelia  1965-1970" set and I duly pre-ordered it.  Repeats aside (Mirage, Jason Crest, John's Children, Sands, Mike Stuart Span, Crazy World of Arthur Brown etc) my mind was suitably blown and continues to do so....The liner notes by Tenth Planet man and all round U.K. 60's scholar David Wells are spot on and informative. It's like taking a university course in U.K. 60's psych/freakbeat.  Did you know that The Shy Limbs (of "Love"/"Reputation" fame) included Greg Lake and Robert Fripp in their ranks?  Or that members of the Flies and The Cymbaline joined forces in 1969 as Infinity? Or that The Mirage backed Caleb (Quaye) on "Baby Your Phrasing Is Bad"? And that's just a taste...In an effort to reign in my enthusiasm fueled long winded-ness I'll keep this brief (yeah like that's gonna happen) and give you some of my fave pics from each disc.

DISC ONE:
Deep Feeling (formerly known as The Hellions) and home to pre-Traffic Dave Mason and Jim Capaldi (in addition to pre-Art/Spooky Tooth member Luther Grosvenor) open the comp with the unreleased 1966 song "Pretty Colours", with it's "Mars, Bringer Of War" intro and a lysergic percussion charting the journey from mod/r&b to psychedelia perfectly. And on that similar path is the gem of the set, an acetate recording by Tintern Abbey, responsible for the greatest U.K. psych single of all time ("Beeside"/"Vacuum Cleaner"). "Busy Bee" is an acetate demo of "Beeside" before the band got to utilize studio gimmickry and create their sole 45.  "Busy Bee" is just bass, drums, one guitar and vocals on the famous Oak acetate label.  To me, as mentioned in last month's picks, this track perfectly illustrates the period where The Who-ish/Creation crunch of mod/freakbeat gave way to sugar lumps and mind bending technicolor. Worth the price of the whole set in my book! The Shame's 1967 Janis Ian cover "Don't Go 'Way Little Girl" is a nifty little number with some raga fuzz licks and bleak lyrics that are pretty deep for '67 (it even got a US release on the obscure Poppy label).  One In A Million (responsible for two highly recommended and costly 45's in '67) offer the unreleased "Man In Yellow" a choppy, tough little mod/power pop number not at all dissimilar to The Game or The Barrier.  We here at "Anorak Thing" as you may have read a zillion times are fascinated by that period where all the modernist Stax/Motown loving Ben Sherman crew popped a tab and put a bit of fairy dust in their music.  In that line of thinking comes The Alan Bown , formerly The Alan Bown Set, a 7 piece soul/r&b combo who lived at the Marquee and couldn't catch a break no matter how tight they were. Their 1968 single "Storybook " (their second for the new label, MGM and new image) features a mix different than that on their LP thanks to some trippy effects on the intro.  The band still sports the souful Jess Roden on lead vocals, high Action style backing vocals, Hammond organ and flute/sax backing....then the breathy backing vocals, reverberating voices, Middle Eastern sounding horns and Mellotron tells us Rufus Thomas missed the bus and no one's going back to pick him up...magic. The disc closes with the surprising folky "Child Of The Sky" from England's favorite counter culturists The Deviants, not at all what you'd expect from what one wag called "The Limey MC 5".

DISC TWO:
The West Coast Consortium, best known for their Association on six bags of sugar sound offer the almost CS & N plus Mellotron laced unreleased psych pop ditty "Amanda Jane" full of lyrics about tricycles and playgrounds. The Flies unreleased  jaunty piano/organ driven "Winter Afternoon" is perfect as I sit here typing this out in Lower Binfield and the snow is coming down and bending the three story tall pine tree outside my window under it's rapidly accumulating weight.  "Jabberwocky" by Peter Howell & John Ferdinando comes from two gents (Howell  was later of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and responsible for updating the "Dr. Who" theme) who cut an LP in 1969.  Their musical reading of the Lewis Carroll poem was not groundbreaking as Pink Floyd chum and London Free Clinic doctor Sam Hutt already cut a suitably trippier version in '68 as Boeing Duveen and the Beautiful Soup.  But this version is far folkier, and not at all unlike something from Duncan Browne's "Give Me Take You" elpee, but with some subtle psychedelic bits.  Forever Amber were responsible for one of the rarest LP's of the genre (the 99 copies pressing "The Love Cycle") and touted by cutie Zooey Deschanel in "Mojo" as her fave LP.  "Bit Of Your Life, Bits Of My Life" is not unlike a bargain basement "Odessey And Orcale" era  Zombies, and to date the only track I know by these guys.  Maybe someday I can pop by Zooey's and have a listen to the rest. "Strange Ways" by Please, an unreleased '69 tunes sounds like The Flies late era, possibly because they were led by their former lead vocalist Pete Dunton. The Liverpool Scene's unissued '69 cut "We'll All Be Spacemen Before We Die" makes use of some great NASA control chatter and rolls into a heavy,wah wah pedal monster with a vocalist who sounds like a cross between Danny the Dealer and Al Stewart reciting beat poetry while being backed by The Pink Floyd '66, got that?  Good. "The Makers" by The Sorrows comes from their Italian only  LP "Old Songs New Songs" (butchered in the 80's by the dodgy Gallic label Eva as "Sorrows In Italy"), with heavily Anglicized lead vocals and funky heavy Small Faces '68 musical backing . Cool till it starts to exceed 4 minutes mark. Second Hand, responsible for the mind numbing , apocalyptic "The World Will End Yesterday" serve up a distinctly unlike them pop-psych demo "A Fairy Tale", a slice of Mellotron twee pop psych not unlike Wimple Winch's late era demos. "Love" by the Shy Limbs has been a fave ever since it was unearthed by Strange Things Are Happening's first "Circus Days" CD comp in the early 90's. Propelled by driving throbby John Entwistle/Ace Kefford style bass from Greg Lake (who also supplied the soulful lead vocals) and searing guitar licks(c/o Mr. Toyah Wilcox Robert Fripp) and crashing into an amazing blissful chorus, it's always been a string track to these ears. Lake and Fripp soon absconded to form King Crimson. "Tomorrow Today" by ex-S.D.G. members (Eddie) Hardin & (Pete) York is a big fave here at "Anorak Thing" manor and this Hammond/tambourine fed track with some gorgeously soulful female backing vocals gets lots of airings!

DISC THREE:
Disc three is a bit too "mellow" for me really, some bargain basement Bill Fay's and "heavy" stuff that's possibly not sounding as good as it could for me in my present, lucid, straight weekday state.  Naw wot I meahn? Taiconderoga's (yes it's spelled like that!)  heavy take on "Whitchi Tai To" threw me for a loop as I'm used to the John Schroeder muzaky version.  This version awash in tabla, phlanged guitar (courtesy of a teenage pre-Damned Brian James) is not bad at all but I'm sure this hippie dirge was a skeleton in Mr. James closet in '77! Hawkwind Zoo (aka Hawkwind) contribute an unreleased '69 mid tempo mantra "Hurry On Sundown" full of some good raga riffs and a groove for the oh-so-stoned cut before they snipped the "Zoo" from their moniker. Fut's Fab Four-esque psych parody (complete with Scouse accents)  "Have You Heard" has seen issue in lots of issue in other places and is in reality the work of Maurice Gibb, Aussie ex-pat duo Tin Tin and Mo's then brother in law (and Lulu's brother) Billy Lawrie, no matter how many Beatles bootlegs it's been on.  The Fab Four sound is so spot on that the liner notes indicate that the Dragon Lady attempted to register it as a Lennon track in 1985, silly cow. From the "from the 70's but sounds 60's" comes the magic of Octopus and their Badfinger-esque "Rainchild", don't own their LP "Restless Night"?  Go forth and get it. Beau's "Creation" from an LP on John Peel's short lived Dandelion label is firmly in the "from the 70's but sounds '60's" category (1971 actually).  It would've sounded quite a home in a late 60's/early 70's Hammer film! Uncredited on the sleeve comes Lol  Coxhill's "I Am The Walrus" which is a group of small group of English children singing the Fab's track with flute and Monk-ish piano.  Lol was a late British sax player who'd been part of Kevin Ayer's and the Whole Wide world as well as spending a spell in Welfare State. That was quite weird, there's hope for my four year old's Syd Barrett-eque tunes yet.....

The Mindbenders c/o Rodney Argent

THE MINDBENDERS-I Want Her She Wants Me/The Morning After U.K. Fontana TF 780 1966

1966 was the year everyone left their backing groups and went solo. Billy J. Kramer parted ways with The Dakotas, Brian Poole and The Tremeloes went in separate directions and Wayne Fontana and The Mindbenders were no more even before 1965 was over.  Oddly both artists stayed with Fontana (both in the U.K. and the States) the label they were on together. The Mindbenders struck first, in time for Xmas 1965 with their #1 hit "A Groovy Kind Of Love" (TF 644) while it was not till the Spring of '66 (April to be precise) that Wayne Fontana released his solo debut ("Come On Home" TF 684). The Mindbenders quickly cranked out three more singles before 1966 was over and today's item in question was among them being released in December 1966.

 "I Want Her She Wants Me" was penned by The Zombies keyboardist Rod Argent.  A Zombies version of the track would not see the light until the posthumous second LP "Oddysey(sic) And Oracle" saw the light of day in April 1968. The Mindbenders version eschews any high note backing vocals and is pretty straight forward with very little backing vocals at all really, just lead singer Eric Stewart's voice double tracked with bass, drums, guitar and some faint piano.  Certainly not a patch on the later Zombies recording it's still interesting.  The B-side is where it's at and is in my opinion the finest Mindbenders track of all time.  "The Morning After" was introduced to a whole generation of 60's fans when Bam Caruso included it on their incredible 1984 LP comp "The Psychedelic Snarl". It's ballsy, filled with great harmonies and busts of "freakbeat" guitar licks and a cool chugging rhythm .  Infectious to say the least it's their best track and one of my favorite 60's singles (and a original, written by Eric Stewart).

Both cuts can be found on a an Mindbenders anthology "A Groovy Kind Of Love: The Complete LP and Singles 1966-1968".

Hear "I Want Her She Wants Me":

http://youtu.be/F9nZbxadahU

Hear "The Morning After":

http://youtu.be/llSiUW-Wua0

More U.K. Obscurities On U.S. Labels: Jake Holmes via Jackie Lomax

JACKIE LOMAX-Genuine Imitation Life/One Minute Woman U.S. Epic 5-10270 1967

Singer/bassist Jackie Lomax landed on his feet in early '66 when his Liverpool band The Undertakers went belly up. The Undertakers released three singles in the U.K. on Pye, a one off in the U.S.(their best in my book "Throw Your Love Away" b/w "I Fell In Love (For The Very First Time)" on the U.S. Black Watch label) and also released a one off 45 as The Takers in the U.K. The Undertakers had moved to the States in '65 along with The Pete Best Combo (Pete was milking the Fab Four associations for all that they were worth over here). Both bands cut loads of material in NYC at the Talentmasters studio on West 42nd Street. After the band split Lomax and drummer Bugs Pemberton hooked up with some NYC locals and began playing as The Lost Souls (fitting perhaps)and in early '66 Brian Epstein saw them play in Greenwich Village and convinced them to come back to England where under the name of The Lomax Alliance they cut several tracks, in fact nearly an album's worth. The results of some of which were released in the States only as "One" ("Hey Taxi" b/w "Enter My World"  on Columbia 4-44256 August '67) and a U.K. only release by The Lomax Alliance ("Try As You May" b/w "See The People" CBS 2729 in May '67). Unreleased tracks "Honey Machine" wound up up on "Circus Days Volume One" and the stellar "Golden Lion" turned up on perhaps the fab-est British psych box set: "Real Life Permanent Dreams": A Cornucopia of British Psychedelia 1965-1970". All of these and others have turned up on on the Jackie Lomax compilation double CD "Lost Soul: Singles And Demos 1966-67" (featuring "Better Get Going Now", later made famous by Aussie power poppers Zoot). The LP's completion was terminated with the death of Brian Epstein and the band folded, but Lomax made the transition like many other Epstein acts to impresario/producer Robert Stigwood who duly wasted no time getting Lomax into the studio to cut today's record.

The Lomax Alliance circa '67, Jackie Lomax far left.

The lyrically powerful "Genuine Imitation Life" was written by American Jake Holmes and featured on his June 1967 U.S. Tower LP (alongside his original "Dazed And Confused" soon to be nicked by Jimmy Page, but that as they say, is another story for another day) "The Above Ground Sound of...". Lomax had met Holmes whilst playing NYC's Greenwich Village and followed his career and successfully lobbied to record "Genuine.." as his new single.  With lush orchestration by Stigwood giving it an almost "Handbags And Gladrags" feel the record should've been a smash.  Lomax's interestingly soulful vocals (dig the Justin Hayward-esque note he ends the track on) lend itself perfectly to the tune above the sweeping strings, powerful horns and kitschy Swinging London organ straight off of a Scott Walker LP the following year.

On the flip Jackie tackled a track from Stigwood's charges The Bee Gee's debut U.K./U.S. LP "Bee Gee's 1st" the overwrought "One Minute Woman"(later covered unsuccessfully by Billy Fury the following summer on the bottom side of David Bowie's "Silly Boy Blue") .  I've never been a fan of the track no matter who's doing it and Lomax's spirited vocals don't help me sway on the matter. The single was launched in both the U.S. (December 1967) and the U.K. (October 1967 as CBS 2554) and sadly died a death.  The following year Lomax was signed to Apple as a songwriter and the rest is history....

Sadly Jackie Lomax passed away on September 15th of this year from cancer at the age of 69.

Both sides of this 45 are available on the above mentioned CD comp "Lost Soul" from Amazon.com and available from iTunes on a collection titled "Sour Mile Sea:The Early Collection".

Hear "Genuine Imitation Life":

http://youtu.be/PvOpHjrPx2g

Hear "One Minute Woman":

http://youtu.be/HK4PcSt6LpM

A (History) Lesson Perhaps..............

BALLOON BUSTERS-Alcock And Brown/Bluer Than Blue Canada Pye 7N 17748 1969

Despite being a military aviation enthusiast for longer than I've been a 60's music fan it was not until I heard "Alcock & Brown" by The Balloon Busters earlier this year that I learned the story of the intrepid airman Captain John Alcock (pilot) and Flight Lieutenant Arthur Brown (navigator). Both Alcock and Brown served in WWI as airmen and both were shot down and became P.O.W's. Post war in a Daily Mail sponsored competition in June 1919 they flew a World War I vintage twin engined Vickers Vimy bomber on the first non stop flight across the Atlantic from St. John's, Newfoundland to Clifden, Ireland.  Hailed as national heroes upon their landing they were awarded 10,000 pounds and were knighted by King George V. Sadly Alcock was killed in a flying accident just six months later, Brown passed away in 1948.  A statue of them both stands on display at Heathrow airport to this day.

Capt. John Alcock and Lt. Arthur Brown, 1919

Despite being on the Pye label I had never heard of it before, which struck me as positively weird because I was once informed by one of the gentlemen behind the Bam Caruso label that licensing fee for Pye/Piccadilly is reasonable and a great deal of the label's catalog has been comped to death as a result! It was not until my friend Larrry Grogan (of Funky 16 Corners/Iron Leg blog fame) came upon a U.S. copy on Chess a few months ago that I heard it for the first time.  I was immediately struck by it's  jolly demeanor, power pop precision and the fact that it told a story, which as research proved, turned out to be 100% true lyrically! The precision production (by old hands Howard Blaikey and Co.) adds to the catchiness of the tune and is a perfect late 60's British pop record.  There were no more 45's by Balloon Busters (though the single was released in the US, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Portugal and Canada, the last four having the same catalog number as the U.K. release).

U.S. Pressing

The flip side, "Bluer Than Blue" is sadly quite lame.  It's a piece of undistinguished pop/pap akin to something foist on late era Dave Dee and Co. or The Herd.  It doesn't work for me, sorry.

The original U.K. single was released on May 2, 1969.  Former member Colin Fox commented on YouTube:

"The band I was playing with at the time was called St. Johns Wood, but for "Alcock and Brown" Howard Blaikley decided they wanted to name us Balloon Busters, for obvious reasons. Although we were professional for a time, we never made it to the big time. All the band members I´ve played with in the past came from Eastbourne in East Sussex. "

Hear "Alcock And Brown":

http://youtu.be/Llwy5GlsNHY

Alcock and Brown's Vickers Vimy