It’s the first Tuesday Tunes of a new year, a time for looking forwards, perhaps? No chance! I’m going back to my teen years. Back in the early days of Tuesday Tunes – in 2020 – I played three sets of singles from the Sixties, and followed up with two more sets in 2021. I was scrolling through my notes the other day and I came upon the list I had made for those posts, and realised that there were some good songs that I hadn’t played. So it seemed like a plan to play some of those in another fit of nostalgia. For those of a similar vintage to me I think these may bring back some memories.

Having said that, I’m starting with probably the most obscure song in this set:

As the video showed, that was Cupid’s Inspiration with Yesterday Has Gone, which was a UK #4 hit for them in July 1968. Looking at the guys I can’t help but think that their name was a little generous, especially the one with a giant bird’s nest on his head, but no doubt they did ok as they were pop stars (money for nothing, chicks for free?). The band was formed in 1968 in Stamford, Lincolnshire, and had two Top 40 hits in the UK that year: Yesterday Has Gone was a cover of a song  originally a hit for Little Anthony and The Imperials, and the follow up My World peaked at #33 that October. The lineup on both of these was Terry Rice-Milton on lead vocals, Wyndham George on guitar, Laughton James on bass, Garfield Tonkin on keyboards and Roger Gray on drums. The band went through several lineup changes and breakups, though there have also been several attempts at reforming, and some of them are still playing to this day. I bought this single at the time, but not the follow up, so I’m probably guilty of helping towards their demise!

I also bought this next one, another from 1968:

Barry Ryan started out as part of a duo with his twin brother, Paul, and together they had eight Top 50 hits in the UK, but Paul didn’t like the pressure of the business and decided in 1967 to concentrate on songwriting. Barry went solo and had his biggest hit with Eloise, which was released in October 1968 and reached #2 in the UK, along with being a #1 in many countries, and even made #86 in the US. It seemed like Paul had made the right decision, as he wrote this song for his brother. Barry went on to have several minor UK hits after this, but nothing to match the success of this one, which sold more than 250,000 in the UK. He claimed in an interview in later years that Freddie Mercury had cited this song when he was arguing with his record company that they should release Bohemian Rhapsody as a single. I don’t know if that is true, but it’s a good story!

I’ve played this next one before – they are, after all, one of my favourite bands – but I don’t think it has ever been a Tuesday Tune:

In case you didn’t know, that was Jethro Tull with Living In The Past. They had previously had a minor chart success with Love Story, which made #29 in the UK, but this was their big breakthrough. It was released in May 1969 in most countries and peaked at #3 in the UK and #5 in Ireland, but for some reason it wasn’t released until October 1972 in the US, as the title track for a compilation album. It reached #11 in the US when they eventually got to hear it. The compilation – which was released in June 1972 in the UK – was a big success, making #3 in the US, #8 in the UK and #1 in Canada. I already had several of the tracks on it but treated myself to it out of my summer holiday earnings before I went to uni that autumn – it is a fantastic collection of early Tull songs.

I started today with a cover version of a song, and here’s another:

With A Little Help From My Friends was, as I’m sure you know, a track on The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper album, one of the ones they allowed Ringo to sing, but this cover by Joe Cocker was a revelation when it first came out, in October 1968. It then became the title track of his debut album, released in April 1969 and peaking at #35 in the US. It later reached #29 in the UK in May 1972, when it was re-released as part of a double set with his second album, Joe Cocker! By then he had had a couple more hit singles but this was his biggest: it got to #1 in the UK, the Netherlands and Switzerland, made the top ten in several other European countries, and crawled up to #68 in the US. The single went Silver in the UK, while the album was Gold in the US – odd, or what!

I’m closing today with another favourite from those days. This one comes complete with an introduction from German tv:

Pictures of Lily was released by The Who as a non-album single in April 1967, and it peaked at #4 in the UK and made the top ten in several other European countries, also getting to #51 in the US. According to Pete Townshend in the 2006 book Lyrics by Rikky Rooksby, “the idea was inspired by a picture my girlfriend had on her wall of an old Vaudeville star – Lily Bayliss [sic]. It was an old 1920s postcard and someone had written on it ‘Here’s another picture of Lily – hope you haven’t got this one.’ It made me think that everyone has a pin-up period.” However, in his 2012 memoir Who I Am, Townshend mentioned Lillie Langtry, the music hall star and mistress of Edward VII, as the inspiration for the tune. She died in the year 1929 as mentioned in the lyrics of the tune, so he was probably right with that attribution. I’ve always liked the song, but though I didn’t buy the single I did get the 1971 compilation album Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy on which it was included: one of the best ‘best of’ albums I have ever bought.

That’s it for my trip down Memory Lane and I hope these brought back memories for you if you were around in those days – probably more for UK readers, as I don’t think these were well-known across the pond.

I’ll see you again in a couple of days, and hope that you survive the temperatures: it is late morning here and we still haven’t got to zero Celsius. I had a grocery delivery earlier and the poor guy looked frozen! Take care 😊