I went to the animal fair, the birds and the bees were there, the big baboon by the light of the moon was combing his auburn hair, the monkey he got drunk, and...I'm (eleven days--yowza!) late again....
This week's featured tune being scheduled here is no random placement--I noted in last week's post that when Melanie passed away, I was reminded of the New Seekers version of her featured song. That in turn caused me to learn that the New Seekers were originally an Australian band called The Seekers--who I remembered had a nice hit with this week's song. Funny how it works out sometimes, isn't it?
The Seekers formed in Melbourne, Australia in 1962, developed a local following, and by 1964 had their first worldwide hit. They would have nice string of hits until 1968 when they disbanded for the first time. It was during this time when Keith Potger formed the New Seekers and had the hit noted above. The band would reunite (for the most part) in 1975. disband again in 1985, then reunite for a final time in 1988 (which lasted until their final demise in 2022). Along the way they had a hell of a career: numerous hits across the world (less so in the U.S., more so in the U.K., Canada, Europe and their homeland), top rated television shows in their native Australia (one remains in the top ten most watched shows to this day), were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame (Australia's version of our Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), had a song nominated for an Academy Award (this week's by chance), had four million selling singles, sold over fifty million albums, and continued to tour and record regularly until their end. For their career, the Seekers released twelve studio albums (four top ten in Australia, two in the U.K., and one in the U.S.), seven live albums, a whopping thirty-five compilations (five of which hit the top ten Down Under with two more in Great Britain), and thirty-nine singles (with three number ones at home and two more in the British Isles). Sadly, original member Judith Durham passed away in 2022 effectively ending the band's run (though Durham had left for the final time in 2019).
Fun Fact: When the Seekers represented Australia at Expo 67 in Montreal in 1967, they appeared on television in Australia on the first ever satellite transmission from the United States to Australia.
"Georgy Girl" was the first single released from their 1967 album, the rather enticingly entitled Come the Day. The song would hit #1 in Australia and Canada (so many cool kids Down Under and up yonder), #2 in the U.S., and #3 in the U.K., while the album hit #7 in Australia, #3 in Great Britain, and #10 in America.
"Georgy Girl" was the title track of a 1966 romantic comedy, entitled, amazingly enough, Georgy Girl. The song is a little bit folk, a little bit pop, and definitely has echoes of the British Invasion as well as the pop overtones of the Merseybeat. It's short (once again amazed at how much can be captured in two minutes), catchy as all hell, features amazing harmonies, and spins the tale of a young woman afraid to let herself fall in love. It comes from an era when the world was still very much full of hope (it still is, just a little harder to find) and also from an era that created some of the best pop music in history (can probably be said for every era, but....). In the end, it's another hefty helping of pop pie...with a little Australian cream on the top....
Lyric Sheet: "You're always window-shopping /But never stopping to buy/So shed those dowdy feathers and fly/A little bit..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump
Peace,
emaycee
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