The first Uk single credited to Rod Stewart And The Faces found superstar Rod back fronting an effectively moribund dayjob combo. Still, propelled by Ron Wood's grinning guitar, its insouciant saloon bar vibes are as irresistible as the woozily Motown-esque chorus. This may lack Stay With Me's anthemic bluster, or Cindy Incidentally's bleary poetics, but it remains quintessentially frazzled, sing-a-long Faces. The B-side, As Long As You Tell Him, is contrastingly tender.
Availability: The Best Of The Faces: Good Boys When They're Asleep Rhino CD
81. THE LOVIN' SPOONFUL: Summer In The City/ Bald Headed Lena(1966)
The Spoonful's early singles pigeon-holed them as a folksy jug band until this heavyweight rocker arrived with its massive descending chord sequence, pounding road drills and car horns. The lyrical intrigue lay in the line," but at night it's a different world", which songwriter John Sebastian lifted from a poem by his brother Mark. The band took their search for sound effects seriously,"auditioning" pneumatic hammers until they found one that had, " the right intestinal tone to it." The finished track was a million miles from the pastoral idyll of Percy Faith's A Summer Place or the teen angst of Eddie Cohran's Summertime Blues. Here, for the first time on a pop 45, was a blistering contemporary urban landscape, hot and sticky and ringing with actual street noise. The frantically witty R&B B-side made a nice bonus too.
Availability: Very Best Of The Lovin' Spoonful Camden CD
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