Soulful Baroque Bubblegum... And Blues Rock

Sometimes huge internet marketplaces show their strong side... I had never heard of a British band called the Love Affair until I ended up buying a very affordable collection called The Best of the Good Times. For some reason, whenever people report the male lead singer of a band being exceptionally good, I often check out if there really is something to it. I remember it only took one song of Steve Ellis' singing to get convinced.

Like many bubblegum superstars, Steve Ellis was only a teenage boy when he was already singing on hit records in the late 1960s. Also like many other bubblegum artists, on the a-sides the Love Affair was practically Ellis backed by session musicians. Also, the band had only one chart-topping hit, Everlasting Love - a song that definitely deserved the spot! But the Love Affair wasn't a one hit wonder as it had other top 10 hits as well.

However, the Love Affair wasn't really a bubblegum band. The hit songs were arranged to appeal to the masses, pretty much like Edison Lighthouse and others, but on the b-sides the Love Affair was showing a heavier r&b style. The music is all good, and the distinction between the a-side and b-side style is quite interesting, as if there were two whole different bands. There was obviously a difference of opinion concerning the band's desired image and direction, so Ellis and his bandmates broke up after only a few years. It seems that the music business won this round.

In any case, Steve Ellis is a fantastic white soul vocalist. He sound equally good singing heavenly pop songs like Bringing on Back the Good Times, Rainbow Valley, and A Day Without Love, as he sounds singing more bluesy songs like Let Me Know, 60 Minutes (Of Your Love), and I'm Happy – there is also a great version of Hush.

I must say, I rarely buy music with such high quality for about £3,50. There are so many songs that sound like hits that it is almost exhausting. The blues rock works nicely as a balancing agent.

Check out some cool songs (YouTube):

Everlasting Love

Rainbow Valley

60 Minutes (Of Your Love)

I'm Happy

Another Serving of British Bubblegum Sunniness

While going through my massive piles of CDs that I haven't had time to listen to yet (at least not very much), I came across a release called The Best of Vanity Fare. I spotted this band on a bubblegum website several months ago and decided to give it a try.

Vanity Fare, originally called The Avengers, were a lot like the other British 70s bands like Edison Lighthouse and anything else connected to Macaulay and Macleod - sunny, soft-sounding, baroque-tingled, melodic, and often absolutely gorgeous.

This band released some really wonderful melodic pop singles such as I Live for the Sun (a minor hit for a Murry Wilson-managed American band The Sunrays) and Early in the Morning already in the late 60s. Vanity Fare actually hit it big with I Live for the Sun – it was a huge hit especially in America. Vanity Fare wasn't just a cover band, though. The band also wrote original material right from the start. For instance, check out You Made Me Love You from 1969, written by keyboardist Barry Landeman.

To be honest, one of the reasons I am writing this is to get myself to listen to this band more. Music with such great harmonies, lovely melodies and optimism is always a winner – and so is anyone who listens to it.

Enjoy Hitchin' a Ride, from Top of the Pops, 1970! The band is understandably misspelled by the uploader here.

Love Grows (You Know the Rest)

Tony Burrows is the man. He is Britain’s Ron Dante, and probably a lot more. He was a studio singer in the 70s and scored countless hits as lead singer in several bands. He sang in Edison Lighthouse, White Plains, Brotherhood of Man, The Pipkins, and that’s not even all. Once he performed in Top of the Pops as the lead singer of the three first mentioned bands – all of which were guests of the very same TOTP episode, and it resulted in Burrows being banned from the program since the TOTP makers thought the watchers might think it was some sort of a fraud. This didn’t, however, stop Burrows from performing with The Pipkins in the show a few weeks later.
Lately I’ve been listening to quite a lot of Edison Lighthouse, a wonderfully melodic pop group with lots of strings.. Edison Lighthouse – like other Tony Burrows bands - only existed in recording studio and television. That is, in fact, the official recipe of bubblegum success. But anyway, who cares about the fact that Edison Lighthouse wasn’t a real band? It’s the music that counts. You can fool people with many, many ways but you just can’t forge a good song.

Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) sold millions, which is of course a good thing. Good songs should be noticed! I never had heard it myself before I heard a cover version of it by Freedy Johnston about a year ago. As you might guess, Edison Lighthouse and probably every other Tony Burrows band, too, have been labeled “one hit wonder” which isn’t very nice. Edison Lighthouse and others actually have several hit-worthy songs.

In the early 70s record company Bell released numerous singles that were credited to Edison Lighthouse, and other singles credited to Tony Burrows. Most of these singles can be heard on Edison Lighthouse's Best of collection, that nicely seems to be out of print. Luckily, there is YouTube..

I wish more people knew about the greatness of Tony Burrows bands! The situation might not be all bad, though. In Finland, for instance, probably everyone is familiar with the Finnish version of Tony Burrows single Every Little Move She Makes (Elämältä kaiken sain), performed by Pepe Willberg, but I'm not sure if hardly anyone has heard Love Grows.

Finally, here are some of my favourite Edison Lighthouse/Tony Burrows songs. Don’t mind the videos (or lack of them), just listen to the music! I picked the ones that had the best sound quality. While you listen to them, I’ll just move on to White Plains.. And the other bands.

Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) (YouTube)
Every Little Move She Makes (YouTube)
Find Mr. Zeebedee (YouTube)
In the Bad Bad Old Days (The Foundations cover, YouTube)