what would i say? how about what the fuck, for starters?
please dear Lord above, i do not mean to be unkind to the dead, as we lost norman hurricane smith only this year. but please, explain to me how a man who engineered nearly 100 Beatles songs, produced early Pink Floyd; and even produced one of the first rock concept albums by the Pretty Things, tell me: how did he also produce this saccharine piece of shit?
better yet — how on EARTH did it hit the Billboard Top 5?
i used to think this was Buddy Hackett on a dare. it wasn’t. apparently, the british mr. smith wrote this for another artist and ended up singing it himself. lucky for us, it was a major transatlantic hit.
luckier for us, the rest of his hits never made it across the pond.
G-d help anyone who rocks us like a hurricane. at least, like this one, who mostly rocks us to sleep.
Apparently being an engineer does not imbue one with talent in the music writing and performance arenas. Even my questionable music taste can find nothing positive to say about this one. Fortunately, it has no real hook to it, either, so you haven’t gotten it stuck in my head. Nyah nyah.
wow yeah that is bizarre. I had never heard that. Being a connosieur (spelling?) of weird music though, i’m awfully glad you posted this. The other song i listened to on YouTube called “Who Was It” actually reminded me a little of Supertramp, so not too surprising for him to have hit the top 40. not the best voice i’ve ever heard, nor the best singing style (or lack thereof) but i’ve also heard much worse.
One (original) word: barfamous.
The longer it plays, the more it wakes up my memory… yep, I am pretty sure I’ve heard this before…. I almost like it!
Wow. That was BAD. Hands down, horrifyingly bad. I agree with Todd, though—there is much worse out there. Keep ’em coming!
Yikes! This guy was older than my father (he doesn’t look 49). I’ve always assumed that this was some kind of Al Jolson imitation. For some reason, it never bothered me, though I can see how it could drive someone crazy. I first heard this in a store where they were selling those plastic imitation ’30s “cathedral” radios, which seems fitting. I think its “otherworldlyness” made its more grating qualities easier to take than those of say, a Cher song. No surprise that it was recorded by a sound engineer; the production quality on the record was flawless (though, of course, you can’t tell from this TV clip). The sound quality on records like this (eg. Java by Al Hirt or Hello Dolly by Luis Armstrong) was usually better than that of the average rock record.