'Her hair so brilliant that it hurt my eyes...'
An American sixties equivalent of Roddy Frame, The Left Banke's keyboardist, vocalist and main writer Michael Brown was just 17 when he wrote and the band recorded this in a small Manhattan studio owned by Brown's father, who also arranged and produced the song. They had two big hits in The States both in 1966 with the original version of Walk Away Renee which Brown also wrote (US Billboard #5) and this, the follow up which made #15, .
They released their debut album the following year, possibly too late to capitalise on the success of the singles, an indication of how fast things were moving in those days. The band split into two groups, both incarnations tried to trade on the name The Left Banke, took each other to court and were gone by 1969.
It was pretty much inevitable that this was labelled baroque. It's chamber music, probably too wistful or twee for some ears. But the graceful kernel of the song, its simple lyric and central idea of worshipping some unattainable, fragile object of beauty at a slight remove is undeniably strong. It reminds me of The Zombies who I imagine would be an influence somewhere in the mix.
Over the years it's been covered by amongst others Alice Cooper, The Dickies and The Bluetones. It's biggest influence on what came afterwards was probably as the sixties blueprint for the way Belle & Sebastian sounded and presented themselves along with Love, The Lovin' Spoonful and The Velvet Underground.
'There was ambition and delicacy and orchestration, and there was a baroqueness, for want of a better word.' Stuart Murdoch
'A wimp serenade.' Dave Marsh
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