The Left Banke: Sing Little Bird Sing [instrumental]

Taken from the album ’The Left Banke Too’ on Smash Records 1968. Written by Tom Feher. They say Baroque Pop was invented by The Left Banke, but whichever way you look at it, when it comes to that particular niche in the 1960’s/70’s canon of music, nobody did it better than them. Formed around Michael Brown, a mercurial talent who wrote and guided them to their two biggest hits (‘Walk Away Renee’ in late 66 and ‘Pretty Ballerina’ in early 67) with the help of his father, Harry Lookofsky, a renowned violinist who owned a studio in NYC, and produced, managed and published the bands first works. Even by early 1967, the band had seen numerous personnel come and go, but things got even harder to trace when Brown decided to form a new Left Banke (one of whom was David St. Hubbins, hehe) after tensions arose to the point where the rest of the now ‘old’ Left Banke countered with a cease and desist order and urged their fan club to boycott the latest record 'Ivy Ivy'! This alienated their record label, Smash Records, to the point where they withdrew any support for the single, leaving The (original) Left Banke to have the final say by erm... reuniting!?! Bands eh!?! Needless to say, Brown left permanently shortly after the reformation, leading to yet more personnel changes, by which time Tom Finn had pretty much taken over. Brown’s replacement was then replaced by Tom Feher, who had earlier collaborated with Brown, co-writing three tracks on the first album and a further two tracks for the second with him, and proved himself to be no slouch, writing ‘Goodbye Holly’ and ’Sing Little Bird Sing’ by himself for the second album. Brown and Feher did in fact work together again, writing for Brown’s post Banke project Montage, who released just one album in 1969 and which you should definitely root out if you haven't before! It's the lost third LP, believe me! Paul Leka, a legendary producer of Bubblegum Pop (the best stuff too!) arranged and conducted the exquisite orchestrations you hear on this instrumental version of 'Sing...', enhancing the track as well as capturing a definitive moment in the history of Baroque Pop. The Left Banke never really recovered from their 60's debacle, but did make a proper third album in 1986, a project on which Brown was involved until he left half way through, and they do continue to play sporadic live performances to this day. Sadly, both Brown (whose real name is in fact Michael Lookofsky) and Feher are left out due to the fact that both have passed, the former in 2015 whilst working on new Left Bank material and later in August of 2018. Both left an indelible stamp on 60's music. Any requests for this to be taken down from youtube will result in their immediate removal. I do not own or claim to own any copywrite with regards to this recording. All rights to the owners.

[blisstoriaa]

My favorite song. Thank you for posting

[dawneden]

This is a revelation. I had no idea it was available. Thank you so much for posting it. It sounds like the missing link between, well, the Left Banke Too and Big Star's "Stroke It Noel."