The Hollies: The Clarke, Hicks & Nash Years track by track discussion thread

'Everything is Sunshine' - outstanding song with a nice double-tracked vocal by Graham. A great B-side - I love it. 5/5

 

A typical descending major scale ditty of the period. This could just as easily have been recorded by Spanky & Our Gang, The Sunshine Company, The Cowsills, Every Mother's Son etc. Check out how much louder the harpsichord is on the mono mix:

 

Everything is Sunshine is a nice song, very 1967 pop. It doesn't quite rise to A-side material, but it doesn't have to for me to like it. Nash (and Clarke and Hicks) deserve much more recognition for the songs they wrote individually and collectively. Even the "lesser" songs like this one have much to recommend them. Overall, I really do prefer the songs Nash wrote with The Hollies to the songs he wrote later on. I'm sure this preference will be implicit in most of my comments on Nash's songs for the rest of this thread.

 

Nice bass playing-really drives the song. One of Graham's better vocal and the harpsichord parts are perfect. 5/5

 

How about that strange guitar effect huh? I really like that

 

Yes, especially the last 20 seconds. Great fade out. It had single written all over it!

 

I love Everything is Sunshine a lot. It really has the summer of love upbeat vibe, but the bridge has that undercurrent of doubt in it that gives it the perfect balance. A wonderful melody with a great vocal my Nash. I often play it at the end of Side 1 of Butterfly, and kick off side 2 with Midas.

 

Seemed like every major British band in '67 had a go with trippy and freaky sounds. From the Animals (When I Was Young), The Who (Armenia), Kinks (Lazy Old Sun), Stones (We Love You/Dandelion), Pretty Things (Defecting Grey), Troggs (Maybe The Madman, When Will The Rain Come) even Herman's Hermits! (Marcells) and many more. The Hollies rode that wave as well. A couple of attempts misfired (King Midas, Maker) but Try It along with Elevated Observations and Pegasus all were first rate pop-psych crown jewels, every bit as good as their competitors. I'm guessing Clarke wrote the verses and Nash wrote the bridge. A great song with plenty of studio wizardry. The 45 mix of Try It that came out in the US, Canada and Australia is also mandatory in the Hollies core collection without any effects and what sounds like a different Clarke vocal, AFAIK never reissued in any form to this day.

 

Yes the US stereo mixes do not have the effects as well. There are a lot of different mixes of Butterfly tracks that got issued haphazardly on B-sides and on US and German lp's. The German pressing of 'Butterfly' contains very different stereo mixes of Eloise, Would You Believe, Pegasus and Elevated Observations (fortunately this German version was reissued on a CD and lp back in the 80's but is long out of print). The 45 mixes of Try It and Elevated Observations are also very different and have never been reissued. Also the mono US King Midas lp features unique mono mixes of Maker and WishYouAWish not available elsewhere. This Hollies box set being reviewed here for this thread is missing a lot of essential Hollies material from their peak period.

 

Okay, so while I’m here in the US I need to pick up some 45s too then...

 

I have a question Billo. I don't have my record collection to hand as I am in the process of emigrating from the UK to the USA, and they are all over there. But I did make a spreadsheet on my computer of all my records.
So my question. I have 'Butterfly' in mono on PMC 7039, which I bought not long after it was released. Later in the 80s I bought a stereo copy, but it is on PCS 7177, still with a publishing date of 1967. I can't recall whether it is on the yellow label or white, but I think it has a different cover. Do you know of this and do you know if it is the unbanded version?

 

I was also going to ask if it is only the original 67 release which is unbanded - and wondering what would be the sensible going rate to get a copy. I have an original mono, but all the talk here is making me wonder if I need to be spending...

 

The 1967 original stereo PCS 7039 on yellow/ black Parlophone label was indeed unbanded while mono version PMC 7039 was banded

the later stereo copy PCS 7177 was released in the UK on 1 August 1978 on the later Parlophone label and has a revised dark blue sleeve with a number of beautiful small Butterflies on the cover - I do have a copy of this LP but not to hand - sorry !

I haven't played my vinyl copy of the later PCS 7177 Butterfly in a long time now but I have a feeling it was unbanded too

- tho' others my know otherwise !

the later Mono / Stereo 2LP version was restored to the original cover design and issued with a modern post EMI logo - that is no EMI 'greatest recording...' etc credit - duly restored to a modern version of the sixties yellow / black Parlophone label but both mono and stereo versions were then banded

 

German Hansa version of Butterfly.

 

This one I have, 1978 UK version. Sounds very good.

 

The is a cool looking 1971 world record club cover.

 

Today’s song is “Wishyouawish”



Great tone on the bass here. I like the horns and the drums a lot too. A good campy tune, very quaint. Very sunny.

 

'Wishyouawish' - I like this one. Solid pop song with an appealing arrangement. It could have run on for another minute without any complaints from me. 4/5

 

I got rid of my 1978 copy some years ago, which was signed by the band! (I regret it now!) You could hardly make out their signatures on the black cover though. Anyway, strangely, this re-pressing uses the same second round of stampers that were used in 1968, when the album made it's second pressing at EMI, I think the matrix is -1/-2 for side 1 and side 2, or possibly -2/-2. From memory it was unbanded like the original too, which it would have to be if it shares the same stampers as the original 1968 pressing. The only difference is that the 1978 pressing uses really thin vinyl.

For fans wanting the original pressing of 'Evolution' in stereo, but are put off by the price, it was reissued on the 1972 LP simply called "The Hollies" on the EMI Music For Pleasure budget label (catalogue number MFP 5252) uses the exact same stampers with the -1/-1 matrix as the original 1967 LP and it's a really thick piece of vinyl too. It arguably is a better pressing than the original, and it's MEGA cheap (often for less than £5) and easy to find.

The American 'Dear Eloise/King Midas In Reverse' is a total no-go for me, even despite the alternative mixes, which are all vastly sonically inferior to the UK ones and nothing to make them drastically different. They're usually missing the sound effects or play at different speeds. Epic were a cheap label back in the late 1960s, and this LP is one of those pressed on plastic rather than proper virgin vinyl, so the surface noise is appalling. I've never been able to get a pleasing vinyl rip of those alternative mixes.

The German Hansa pressing is probably my favourite of the bunch, despite the alternative mixes in places. It's loud, has plenty of bottom end (which all other pressings lack), the alternative stereo mix of 'Dear Eloise' is sonically cleaner than the UK mix, and the Hansa vinyl is really thick and heavy. It was reissued on Polydor records, which are cheaper alternatives.

 

Another reminder that "Butterfly" came out at the exact same time as Donovan's "Gift From A Flower To A Garden." This song sounds like a combination of about four different tracks off of it, right down to the way the vocals are processed. I wonder if the group had somehow heard this similar sounding single (which had come out just before the recording sessions for the album were about to begin) and were subliminally influenced by it:

 

I’m actually a bigger fan of AGFAFTAG than I am Butterfly! Haha. It’s an amazing Donovan album, my favorite one actually.

 

Wishyouawish is a fun tune, and I love that the lead vocal was recorded inside a bucket! Adds to the charm.

Just left Amoeba SF with the following:

Beat Group! (No-title cover, Stereo)
Stop Stop Stop (Mono)
Evolution US (Stereo)
King Midas/Eloise (Stereo, Minty)

Good first record shopping day in the US - more to come!

 

You definitely need the Epic Try It and Elevated Observations singles. EO has a nice loud mono mix and doesn't speed up at the end. There are multiple copies of both 45's up on discogs right now, pretty cheap too.

 

I have the Epic 45 of Jennife3r Eccles/Try it. I also have a radio station copy of Do the best you can/Elevated Observations on Epic 5-10361. Would this be the one you are talking about?

 

I bought Evolution PCS 7022 in stereo years ago before the price went sky high. I also have the MFP copy too. I also have a reissue on Parlophone PCS 7175 on a slightly different cover. It has the date of 1967 on it though I don't know when it was actually released. Any clues Cameron?