Monday, July 21, 2008

Help! British Invasion Has Invaded Me!

It’s summer – what would be a better way to spend it than listening to awesome 60s pop? British Invasion is hot stuff (Beatles and DC5 are pretty good bands..), but this invasion isn’t really limited to just British music. This is an American Invasion, too, and maybe a bit Australian. My latest passion #1: The Hollies.

I found The Hollies three years ago. I listened to their stuff a bit and noticed they had some excellent pop tunes and harmonies. Also, I noticed they had one amazing lead singer, Allan Clarke. The result was utter bliss and happiness. The hype subsided after some time but I think it’s about to start again..

I can’t help it. I love nasal male pop singers – their voices, I mean.. But I guess you just can’t help loving the person a bit, too, for having such a great voice. Unfortunately, representatives of this wonderful talent seem to be very few and far between. Or maybe I’ve just missed all the best nasal singers somehow. If this is true, I really hope someone will tell me where they (and their recordings) are..

On the other hand, there might be a huge number of nasal male singers right behind the corner. I’ve even found some already – there really seem to be quite a few Japanese male singers with nasal voices! But but.. Whether they sing pop music or not is another thing.

The Hollies have lots of brilliant tunes: I’m Alive, Here I Go Again, On a Carousel, Bus Stop, Just One Look, Would You Believe, Look Through Any Window, Stay, Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress). The Air That I Breathe is one of the most heavenly tunes ever, and He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother is beautiful. So good, so amazing stuff.. I have to have some more right now!

The Hollies Website

2 comments:

side3 said...

Kind of late to the party...but have you ever seen this live clip from The Hollies?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWCSnsc8w-c

I think they may have been the best live band from the British Invasion.

Melody Freak said...

Gorgeous! No, I had never seen this before. Thank you very much, side3.

Oh my, I haven't listened to British invasion music for ages. I had a pretty good thing going with the Swinging Blue Jeans some time ago but gave up that project for some reason. I also remember really liking the sound of the Searchers. Should check out them better as well.

I love Allan Clarke's voice. Definitely something Doug-like there, too... Anyway, The Hollies sang incredible harmonies, they really amaze me.