Jon - Upstairs, Downstairs 7" NZL Leedon, LK-1667, 1967

Here is Jon's fab, Gibb brothers penned ode to Anglo girl desire. A particular favourite of mine, seething with obsession and need; her mysterious ways "tor-men-tinnngggggggg myyyyyyy braaaa-iiinnnn..."

But wait on, I thought this blog was about odd O/S pressings? Well look closely - this one's 'Made in New Zealand'. I've only seen a few records like this and this seems to be the only one I've kept. I mean sure there's Delltones and Johnny O'Keefe NZ pressings - but what else is there from the more interesting end of the Leedon spectrum? Hint: Other Leedons from around this time are Tony Cole, a couple of Pogs, Others, Syssys, R. Black and the Rockin Vs...

The Aussie Leedon press has exactly the same catalogue number. Hear the track on Pretty Ugly and Peculiar Hole In The Sky.

Peter Best - Carousel Of Love 7" USA Capitol P 2092, 1967

What a mess! That's my first reaction on hearing these kitchen sink psych operettas - orchestration, sound effects, rich melodies which fall down, break or twist (to replicate the psychedelic experience). Or is the breakdown to replicate the cycle of falling in love, then everything falling apart? Overall a good pop-psych track - hear it on A Forest Of Gold Tops.

This Peter Best was a member of the Pogs from Sydney's North shore. He has a mess of songwriting credits on late 60s records (Tony Shepp's Pretty Dull for one), and two solo singles of his own (this one came out on Columbia here (DO 5039)). Later he composed film scores - Bazza McKenzie is one of his. Interestingly at least half the internet still thinks this single is by the Beatles' drummer, which may have been at least some of the thinking behind Capitol's original US release.

Billboard also reported he'd made a colour film to go with the song which he was sending over to Capitol. I wonder what became of that. They also tantalisingly mention a possible Dutch press - contact me if you're holding (not talking about microdots).

Jimmy Hannan - Beach Ball 7" USA Atlantic 45-2247, 1964

Yikes. Jimmy Hannan - big toothed, big haired TV show host as I remember him. Well he put out one ok surf record in early '64. I avoided this for years because, well, it's Jimmy Hannan, and how could a song about a beach ball be any good? On the second point the subject of the song is actually balls, you know - parties, soirees, gatherings - same subject as AC/DC's Big Balls, but set on a beach.

Anyway it's a pretty good example of Sydney surf from around that time, instrumentally kicks along really well - I don't actually know who the band is doing backing on this, though the Bee Gees are in there vocally somewhere. 

My source for all things Aussie surf is Stephen McParland's Waltzing The Plank, a pretty great compendium of info. My man Stephen makes the valid point that Jimmy could've Australianised the lyrics of this Jim McGuinn penned piece of Californiana.

Aussie release on Reg Grundy's RG label (RGK-557).