2017 - October 15 - Tin Soldier

I really like The Small Faces... Kenney Jones on drums, Ian McLagan on organ/keyboards, and the leaders, Steve Marriott on guitar and vocals and Ronnie Lane on bass and vocals. Eventually they added Peter Frampton, and then it all collapsed. However, it didn't collapse until after they had released some mighty powerful music on both Decca (which also was the home of The Rolling Stones) and Immediate Records (which was run by The Rolling Stones' manager Andrew Loog Oldham). As part of their Immediate output, they released the song Tin Soldier in 1967, the second of two instant classics (the other was Itchycoo Park - and yes, I expect to play that one as well). Tin Soldier was not released on any regular album - it was a single only. It is a Steve Marriott composition - and he also takes the lead vocals on it...

September 14 - Sha-la-la-la-lee

This week is turning into quite the hodgepodge of songs, as today I am heading into the 60s, more specifically 1966. The Small Faces was a band led by Steve Marriott on guitar and vocals and Roonie Lane on bass - and with drummer Kenney Jones, who joined The Who after the untimely death of Keith Moon, and keyboardist Ian McLagan.

At one point in my early teenage years, I found my parents' (mostly my mom's) old single collection. It was a spindle with probably 50 singles or so, and I resolved to hear them all. There were singles by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Mannfred Mann, and Herman's Hermits - and then there was The Small Faces. The first part of their career, they were signed to Decca, and they cultivated a rawer sound than on their later years on Immediate Records. There was a single from the Immediate years there Itchykoo Park - an then there was today's song, which I immediately took a liking to. That song was today's song. From 1996, here is Sha-la-la-la-lee.