The Smiley Smile Message Board

the kinda POP stuff Glen Campbell was doing in the late sixties or Dusty Springfield. Really well produced/pristine recordings with lots of session players/good songwriters.

Sorry I have not phrased this question better, having some kind of mental block/brain freeze  ???

Maybe Harry Nilsson's Aerial Ballet? Kinda smooth, well produced with strings and crack session dudes.


Jim Webb's Reprise albums might be good, too - a bit West Coast 70's for what you're looking for, but nice and smooth.

And pick up a Bacharach comp, you should be able to find a few more leads on that?

Neil Sedaka's late 60s/early 70s demos might fit the bill. There is a 2CD set that has them all:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L4Lg3QaaaM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk8H_JOUxmw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmzpCARlBDo

The Monkees - If I Ever Get To Saginaw Again is a prime Campbelll-soundalike....but better, because it's Mike Nesmith.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJNIwjrqBNs

Thanks Guys

@hypehat, great shout! never listed to that Nilsson album before. Gorgeous stuff.

@ego, cool stuff, cant seem to track down a comp online or on spotify with more from this era

Here's where to find all that stuff:

http://www.amazon.com/Let-Good-Times-Neil-Sedaka/dp/B000083E80

Wasn't as pricy when I first found it!

The 5th Dimension's The Magic Garden album.

Bobbie Gentry's The Delta Sweete.

Brenda Lee's "Memphis portrait" is a very cool album. You might like that.

Sagittarius
The Millenium

Thanks guys. All good shouts. Most of em Ive heard before but Bobbie Gentry was new to me. Really like her stuff!

Happy to hear it! She is one of my favorite artists.

May I suggest the 5th Dimension.  Not sure who the session musicians were, but almost all of their stuff was really big, jazzy, sounded great, nice clean clear music that's got all kinds of sh*t going on.   It might get a little more muddy sounding than what you're looking for but nice production on everything IMHO.  Just a warning though, they've largely been ignored for 30 years and I don't believe any of their stuff has been remastered.  So it all sounds pretty lo-fi... although I think you'll run into similar problems if you're looking for old Glen Campbell or Dusty Springfield stuff, that's all been largely ignored too.


It's all very airy and cloudy music. Lots of their stuff was covers of other people's music.  They'd take a song, and just produce the sh*t out of it and arrange some pretty complex harmonies on top of everything.  Marilyn could sing the phone book too, so you actually find yourself listening to the lyrics.    So, you said Pop but this is Pop/Soul/Jazz, not sure if it would be of interest... but I imagine you're looking for songs in that style because you're looking for good moody, thoughtful, well arranged music from that era.  This fits that bill!    Of course there were the big hits, but also:


Jimmy Webb wrote a song cycle called "The Magic Garden" for the 5th Dimension in 1967.  I've never even seen it on CD, although you may be able to get it on Amazon.  It has "The Worst That Could Happen" in the middle of it, Oh. My. God.

"The Magic Garden" (sample of all the tracks, the first is probably the worst... they even cover Ticket To Ride!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NuMZ-T2Enw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRKaVcQHML8

Workin' on a Groovy Thing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPDAoyd4NSc

Summer's Daughter (From Magic Garden)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci1sRrLuHZ8

Dimension 5ive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asTETuSmo14


Time & Love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10CUlyset0A

He's a Runner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU1pjAfkbnM

Day By Day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4IkZasB7NE


Carpet Man  (written by Jimmy Webb)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB_J-mp5Paw


Never My Love (live version, so may not be of interest)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G34cKlFPX4U

Hey, you beat me to it!

Love them Dimensions! The Wrecking Crew took care of the instrumentation, and most of their stuff has been properly remastered. BTW, Never My Love is a studio recording with overdubbed applause.

Oh, O.K. I was wondering why it sounded so great.  A few years ago I got the bright idea that I wanted a 5th Dimension CD, so I drove all over town one day looking for one.  Nobody, even the big local 'indy' record store had even 1 greatest hits cd by them.  Had to order stuff online, they've got huge hits but I guess most record stores don't carry anything they have. 

Yep, and that is a damn shame. They should be as big as the Carpenters and ABBA. No one remembers what a star attraction they were.

Yeah, I couldn't believe it because they had #1 hits!  I can understand not being able to find old stuff at the new stores, but if you go to a record store the size of a grocery store... and they don't have 1 CD by a band that had multiple #1 hits and everybody in the world knows at least a few of their songs, what's going on with that?  Hell they're STILL TOURING AS A BAND, lol. 

Here's the later band after McCoo left :

"High On Sunshine"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPnaZKW9axA

Still pretty cool stuff.  Crazy high harmonies too. 

Yeah, Marilyn and Billy left the group to have their duet career, and had the smash You Don't Have To Be A Star To Be In My Show. High On Sunshine is a cool tune, the title track from their first album on Motown.

I'm rather partial to the 5th Dimensions' doppelgangers, Friends of Distinction. "Grazin' In the Grass" and "Love or Let Me Be Lonely" are classics. Also in the spirit of smooth music of the late '60s, the Classics IV (Spooky, Stormy, etc.).

Going In CIRCLES!

I saw Dennis Yost in concert once.  It was at an oldies show.  This would have been around 2000 or so... sadly, he was god awful.  He may have even been intoxicated.  They let him sing 3 songs or so, he did Traces of Love and it was just god awful.  He started a 4th song, and no sh*t, they came out and took the microphone away from him!  It was embarassing. 

cool, will have to give the 5th dimension another go. I get turned off by overly hippy type lyrics though. I love the Millennium and Sagittarius albums for instance but find the lyrics in some cases annoyingly date the songs.

Scott Walker.

Try some Bobby Vee:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ylv-MQduM4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1bnAPeZ2Vg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PicjvrNN244

You may have a problem with a lot of their stuff then, lol.  About as hippy as hippy gets.