Listen: She Smiled Sweetly / The Love Affair
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It happened hundreds of times. Label takes chance on an act, issues a single or two with no results, then moves on. Same act gets another deal, sometimes only months later and blows up. David Bowie bounced from label to label, Marc Bolan too, The Herd – a bunch of them. On the quick path were The Love Affair. Probably signed by Decca in-house blues master Mike Vernon (or assigned to him for production), a good cover choice (Jagger/Richards ‘She Smiled Sweetly’) was released almost simultaneously with The Rolling Stones own rendition from BETWEEN THE BUTTONS on February 10, 1967. By the end of the year, the band had moved on to CBS and that label’s debut ‘Everlasting Love’ entered the UK charts in the first few days of January ‘68, ending up at #1. Someone had egg on their face, including me.
I was so excited to see a copy in a local department store, and without a penny in my pocket, I decided to shoplift it. Got caught, almost arrested. Threatened to call my folks, which they didn’t – but it did cure me of that one.
Listen: Rainbow Valley / The Love Affair
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‘Everlasting Love’, like all their singles, was a cover, this one originally released by Robert Knight. Even U2 have taken a stab at it, but no one has one upped The Love Affair’s.
The followup, ‘Rainbow Valley’, was just as great. In particular, it continued to make obvious the strength of lead vocalist Steve Ellis. I’m sure I’ve read many times that this patch of singles – all Top 10 in the UK – were indeed Ellis with studio musicians, a persistant trend in the 60’s. Probably to great frustration, the calculated pop made the band member cringe but who can say.
Listen: A Day Without Love / The Love Affair
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Producer Mike Smith had a simple formula down, which with ‘A Day Without Love’, now included recording the songs of non-member, singer/writer Philip Goodhand-Tait.
Listen: Bringing On Back The Good Times / The Love Affair
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What seemed to rub the more hip, progressive rock fan of the day wrong is exactly what attracted me to The Love Affair. Big, over the top productions, with loud brass and orchestration, almost Motown-esque, and a perfect showcase for that great Steve Ellis voice.
