While musically the sixties will rightfully be remembered for its many groundbreaking acts and albums (The Beatles or their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Who or Tommy, The Beach Boys or Pet Sounds, virtually every album by Bob Dylan or the Velvet Underground, among a plethora of others), it was also a time for some really great pop records. From Phil Spector's Wall of Sound to Motown, from the British Invasion to folk rock, the sixties were loaded with great pop tunes...much like this week's featured song.
The Association formed in Los Angeles in 1965, broke up briefly in 1978, and has been performing together since they reunited a year later. To be frank, there have been so many incarnations, with original members quitting and rejoining and numerous new members joining, that it would take a lot more than a paragraph to summarize their history. For their career, the Association released seven studio albums (the last in 1972), have been elected to both the Vocal Group Hall of Fame and the Pop Music Hall of Fame (no lie, never knew either existed until this week's half-assed research), and had three million selling singles. The band still tours regularly as part of many sixties' nostalgia tours.
"Windy" was the first single released from their deliciously entitled 1967 album, Insight Out. The single would reach #1 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, while the album would hit #8 on the Billboard 200.
Fun Fact: Ruthann Friedman, who wrote "Windy," had released her debut album in 1970 and was touring in support of it when a family tragedy called her home, and she stopped playing music. She got a degree from UCLA, married and raised a family, and started her own business. In 2006 a record company re-released her only album and due to its popularity, Friedman began practicing the guitar again and by 2008, at the age of sixty-four, was performing around Los Angeles. She's released three albums since and is still playing music clubs in the L.A. area. Proof positive you are never too old....
"Windy" opens with a bitchin' bass line before the drums kick in and the band begins harmonies that are just this side of heaven. As noted above, the song has a plush sixties feel to it (Wikipedia called it sunshine pop, which, truth be told, I'd never heard of either), and the Association's six members all harmonize like the twelve apostles would have had they been a pop band instead of the saviors of the world. Friedman said that originally, she thought the song was about the type of man she'd like to be involved with, but eventually realized it was about the type of person she'd like to be. And that's not a half bad end note....
Lyric Sheet: "Who's peeking out from under a stairway/Callin' a name that's lighter than air?/Who's bending down to give me a rainbow?/Everyone knows it's Windy..."
Enjoy:
Republicans = Nazis
Peace,
emaycee
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