Name: The Tremeloes
Album: Here Comes My Baby
Year: 1967
Style: Oldies, Pop Rock, Bubblegum
Similar Bands: Beatles, Monkees, Buddy Holly, Four Seasons, 1910 Fruitgum Co. Ohio Express, Kinks, Paul Revere & Raiders, Bee-Gees, Cat Stevens
"One-Word" Review: Another Merceybeat-Brit-pop band
Based Out Of: Dagenham, East London
Label: Epic, CBS
Here Comes My Baby - Cover & Record
Here Comes My Baby - Back & Record
Here Comes My Baby (1967)
- Here Comes My Baby 3:05
- Run Baby Run 2:35
- My Own 2:25
- What a State I'm In 2:20
- Loving You 2:25 /
- Good Day Sunshine 2:00
- You 2:30
- Shake Hands 2:20
- When I'm With Her 2:15
- Even the Bad Times are Good 2:45
Album Rating (1-10): 8.5
Members & Other Bands:
Alan Blakley - Guitar, Keys
Len "Chip" Hawkes - Bass
Ricky West - Guitar
David Munden - Drums
Mike Smith - Producer
Unknown-ness: So I had never
heard of this band before now. Or maybe I have, but I don’t recall them.
Either way, I expect this to be full on oldies pop, perhaps psychedelic pop,
since it is from 1967 and the cover has streaming, gloopy lobs of color. It could either be really good or really bad, and with
the Paul Revere & Raiders outfits, I’m going to lean to pretty good.
Album Review: As it turns
out, I really should have heard of the Tremeloes by now. After all, they were
the band chosen by Decca over the Beatles in a rehearsal tryout back in 1962.
At that time, Brian Poole was the leader of the band, and they did turn out a
bunch of hits for Decca, and later, for CBS, which is where they were for this
album. I do feel a little embarrassed for not knowing this band, but I guess you
have to learn some time.
“Here Comes My
Baby” begins with some hand claps and cheering, and it feels like it will go
right into “If You Wanna Be Happy.” Then the George of the Jungle bass line
comes in, (along with cow bell) and it finds footing as a much more rocking
version of Cat Stevens’ original (released the same year). There are freewheeling
hoots and hollers in the background, trying to promote an intimate live
setting.
“Run Baby Run”
starts off with the nice psych organ and is a much more garage heavy sound,
with thick harmony, which gets dissected in the verse with a high falsetto
voice singing in overlap to the title. The driving pace makes it hard to
ignore, and the harmonies synch up the pop hooks.
“My Own” is a
more vocal based skiffle song. It is laid back and features more of the male
vocal band harmonies, making this a much lighter song, which is not always
found to be a highly regarded style. It seems to be in the right place on the
album to display the diversity of the band, but as a standalone song, it is a
bit of a passé number, even for their time.
“What a State I'm
In” has a guitar and harmony coupling that is very Beatles in production. There
are backing sections of the guitar that is very fuzzed our and heavy, but they
also added in short spacey lines that are spoken, that feel like when a story
breaks the third wall of reader/story separation with a character speaking
directly to the reader.
“Loving You” is a
bouncy pop song, reminding me of the more exciting early Bee Gees songs. But it
still is lacking some clinching hook that would make this a great song. It is
pretty close. Perhaps it is because the chorus is too close to the verse, so
there is not much diversity within the song.
“Good Day
Sunshine” starts off the second side, like a Kinks version of the Beatles
classic, released a year earlier. The melody of the chorus is not quite as
sunny as the original, as the notes are not on an up-tempo structure, and they
fall flat. The verse, however, is fun with a Vintage vaudevillian style.
“You” is a
marching right from the get go, where the vocal melody is established right
away, and is very catchy. After two verses, the song becomes guitar heavy and
is more rock than pop. But after that “chorus” section, it returns to the
simplified verse from the outset. The instrumental is very heavy with electric
guitar. But the basic melody remains throughout the song, even into the fade
out, and is one of the best hooks on the album.
“Shake Hands”
goes back to the Beatles style of jangley pop that is super fun to dance to.
They bring in some higher pitch harmonies here, and the Frankie Valli-ish falsetto
vocals are the lead in the chorus (and are part of the chorus), and are the true
spotlight to this driving song.
“When I'm With
Her” brings the jangely guitar back (perhaps too much so) for this folksy,
side-to-side love song. It is the most Buddy Holly / Roy Orbison style song on
the record.
“Even the Bad
Times are Good” is the stand out track on the album. It starts off with some
background chatter and La-La-La’s before it delves into the rollicking melody
that continually builds up to the chorus, which has a very satisfying delivery
(particularly the hook ‘as soon as I get to you baby’). It is not as gritty as “the
letter,” so it is not as good, but it feels like it has a similar structure.
There is one particular odd mouth harp sound in the background of the chorus
that doesn’t quite fit, but helps make the song that much less serious.
Stand Out Track: Even the Bad Times Are Good
Links:
Wiki
Discography @ 45rpm
website
Discogs
Allmusic
British Invasion
