Heaven Is Above Your Head #12

Heaven Is Above Your Head was a weekly radio show and podcast while I was living in New Zealand. For the second hour of every show my friends and I would all play exactly what we wanted and maybe have a dance. They have kept the slot and you can now listen to Simply Thrilled (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=118285020973) every Saturday on non-commercial station Fleet FM (http://fleetfm.co.nz/), at 9pm local time or 9am GMT. If you happen to miss it they usually post a link on the Anorak forum afterwards. The previous episodes of HIAYH can all be found on my blog (http://heavenisabove.blogspot.com/). So the theme for this is 60s music, but avoiding the collectors scenes of garage and northern soul. What I ended up with was this great set of soft pop, haunted by the spirit of the Pye and Immediate labels. I was going to make it like an ordinary radio show at first, with spoken links, cause I felt I had a lot to say about the songs at the time. That was a couple of months ago though, so now I just mixed them together as they are. I hope you will appreciate the blending of some proper hits with more obscure would-be hits. Like the British group Thursday's Children who only released one single in 1965. And "Among the First to Know" which is one of my all-time faves, and has been covered by The Happy Balloon. The Mascots was a Swedish Hollies-styled group, here showing off their freakbeat side with a track from their great and only lp *EELPEE*. The American Breed had a couple of hits, but this string-laden ballad can't keep me from thinking of Belle & Sebastian. The Chants are notable for being a black vocal group from Liverpool, whose live debut took place in 1962 with The Beatles backing them. Read their story here: http://www.triumphpc.com/mersey-beat/a-z/chants.shtml! The group The Missing Links here is not the Australian one, but an American with one single to their name. Harmony Grass was a late 60s mutation of the Beach Boys-influenced Tony Rivers & the Castaways. And The Raindrops was of course the pseudonym used by the late great Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry for their own recordings. Enough talk.

1. The Outsiders - Gimme Some Lovin'
2. Marc Eric - Just Passing By
3. The Ivy League - A Girl Like You
4. The Missing Links - You Hypnotize Me
5. The Two of Each - Trust
6. The Happenings - Crazy Rhythm
7. The Exciters - Tell Him
8. The Scots of St. James - Tic Toc
9. The Macots - Close Your Eyes
10. The Searchers - Have You Ever Loved Someone
11. Dino, Desi & Billy - Not The Lovin' Kind12. The Gentle Touch - Among The First To Know
13. Lee Hazlewood - She Comes Running
14. The Critters - Come Back On A Rainy Day
15. Chris Montez - What A Difference A Day Made
16. The American Breed - Sometime In The Morning
17. Thursday's Children - Just You
18. The Poets - I'll Come Home
19. The Raindrops - That Boy Is Messing Up My Mind
20. Harmony Grass - My Little Girl
21. The Chants - She's Mine
22. The Miracles - The Tracks of My Tears