Listen: She May Call You Up Tonight / The Left Banke LeftBankeSheMayCall.mp3
What a nice initial saga. Both ‘Walk Away Renee’ and ‘Pretty Ballerina’, The Left Banke’s first two singles became deservedly sizeable US hits. Although from New York, both their sound and image were very English, and so they caught my ear.
The 3rd single, ‘Ivy, Ivy’ however, didn’t happen, neither at radio nor with the public, (or as if it mattered with me). They seemed to have completely lost the plot. Turns out, there was a bit of a line up shuffle, most of the original band suddenly weren’t invited to participate – both label A&R and manager clearly being pussies, caved, thereby allowing the inferior track to not only be recorded, but worse yet, released, resulting in a ‘game over’ career killer.
Probably hoping whatever lineup nonsense would calm down and all could be salvaged, Smash lifted ‘She May Call You Up Tonight’ from the first album, issuing it as single number 4. Obviously, the shine for the band had really been tarnished by the very weak ‘Ivy, Ivy’ and airplay was scarce. Luckily, not in my hometown. WNDR played it heavily. I couldn’t buy a copy fast enough.
I bet had ‘She May Call You Up Tonight’ been the followup to ‘Pretty Ballerina’, a big hit it would have become.
