The Small Faces

[Carol Baynes]

When we think of the best and most successful and influential British bands of the 1960s, the same names tend to be called. The Beatles, The Rolling stones, The Kinks and The Who usually get a mention. But a fifth band often get given their dues these days. Between 1965 and 1969 The Small Faces were one of Britian's biggest groups behind the four giants mentioned.

For those not familiar with '60s 'Mod' speak, a 'Face' was a trendy out on the town individual. Someone commented what small faces they had, and the name was born. The focal point of the group was always the late Steve Marriot, who was a young pretty boy Mod with (thankfully) a lot of songwriting talent. They could combine soul and rock in a very palatable fashion, and I can see how they remained a quintessential Mod band to the end, but it was the coming of the summer of love and psychedelia that gave them a chance to try something else. Their most famous songs are probably from this era. "Itchycoo park" is a wonderfully British bit of hippy pop, and "Lazy sunday" is practically the blueprint for Blur's "Parklife" album. That was taken from their album "Ogden's nut gone flake" which remains, in my opinion, one of the more essential '60s Brit albums.

They only had one Uk no.1 (1966's "All or nothing") and hardly made much impression in America (although part of the group later became The Faces with Rod Stewart), but what do they know? Over ten years later, they didn't 'get' The Jam either!

So...any Small Faces fans? What do we think of them?

[Captain Tancredi]

I'll let you know in about a month

[Wayne]

'All or Nothing' is cracking, but i've not really heard much beyond that.

[SiHart]

Wonderful band, and quite probably my favourite of the 60s groups. I haven't got time to write much at about why I like them at the moment, but I'll just say Ogden's Nut Gone Flake and leave it at that for now!

Si xx

[Milky Tears]

This week, I mostly prefer their Immediate recordings. Current favourites include: 'Get Yourself Together', 'Tin Soldier', 'Eddie's Dreaming', 'Itchycoo Park', 'Lazy Sunday', 'Rollin' Over', 'Ogden's Nut Gone Flake' and the sublime 'Afterglow (Of Your Love)'



Top track is always 'Song of A Baker'.



The 2003 Small Faces: Ultimate Collection (50 tracks/Decca disc and Immediate disc) is usually going cheap somewhere. It's only 6.99 on Amazon right now. Highly recommended.

They only had one Uk no.1 (1966's "All or nothing") and hardly made much impression in America (although part of the group later became The Faces with Rod Stewart), but what do they know? Over ten years later, they didn't 'get' The Jam either!

ANAL GIMP ALERT!!

Ah, but 'Sha,La,La,La-Lee' topped three of the five main published charts in 1966 (Melody Maker, Disc, Music Echo) plus Pick of the Pops/TOTP. Sadly, not the Record Retailer chart Gambo and Rice decided to use for their Guinness Book of British Hit Singles. The NME and Melody Maker charts were more widely recognised pre-BRMB (1969). As were TOTP and Pick of the Pops.

Same thing happened with those other Sixties "number two" hits 'Please Please Me' (topped NME/Melody Maker/Disc and BBC's Pick of the Pops charts) and '19th Nervous Breakdown' (topped NME/Melody Maker/Disc and Pick of the Pops/TOTP charts). The Stones were robbed, man!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_Top_40#Early_charts

The charts used by the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles/OCC are a bit dodgy pre-1969. Cliff Richard, Elvis and The Beatles should all have more chart toppers.


P.S. I'd rate Manfred Mann up there with your top five as well. Some of their later stuff with Mike d'Abo is superb.

[Carol Baynes]

I didn't know that about the Stones! That is ...appalling! Are all these charts based on sales?? I don't get how they can be so different? "Nineteenth nervous breakdown" got to no.4 "officially" didn't it? (Testing my knowledge there!)

"Please, please me" is...well, it's a no.1 really! It's all wrong! And just think- two Small faces no.1s...sounds right!

[Milky Tears]

Slightly

They all had different sample sizes. Record Retailer (the chart used by Guinness and The Official Chart Company) were still only sampling 80 stores by 1969, but NME and Melody Maker had been sampling over twice as many stores since the early Sixties.

Comparison of UK singles charts prior to 1969

New Musical Express
Launched the first UK singles sales chart (a top 12) on 14 November 1952, initially compiled on a points system, from a sample of 15-30 from a pool of 53shops. The chart was expanded to a Top 20 from 1 October 1954, a Top 30 from 13 April 1956 and a Top 50 from April 1983. The sample size was initially 15-30 shops, expanded to 70 by the early 1960s and 150 by June 1963. The NME chart survived until the early 1990s, and was still compiled in-house until the mid-80s when it was taken over by MRIB.

Record Mirror
Launched a top 10 singles chart on 22 January 1955, later expanded to a Top 20 and then Top 30. Discontinued in March 1962 when Record Mirror began taking the Record Retailer chart.

Radio Luxembourg
Radio Luxembourg was hugely influential in the 1950s and 1960s, but never had its own chart. It launched a Top 20 based on Melody Maker's sheet music chart as early as 1948 and switched to using the NME Top 20 singles sales chart at the start of 1960. During the 1970s the chart fractured into multiple genre charts.

Melody Maker
Launched a Top 10 singles sales chart in April 1956, alongside (but eventually superceding) the sheet music chart it launched ten years earlier. The chart became a Top 50 in September 1962. Its sample size was 30 at launch, expanding to 110 by 1963, 150 by 1965 and 220 by the time it merged with the Disc chart in August 1967.

Disc & Music Echo
Launched a top 20 singles chart in February 1958, based on a sample of 25 shops. It expanded to a Top 30 with a sample of c.75-100 shops by 1966. The chart became a Top 50 in April 1966 and merged with Melody Maker's chart in August 1967. Due to Disc's lower circulation and smaller sample size, its chart is not generally considered as important as other charts of the same period.


Record Retailer
Trade magazine Record Retailer launched a Top 50 singles chart on 10 March 1960. Its sample was only 30 shops to begin with, growing to 40 by March 1962, 60 by March 1963 and 80 by 1969. This was the only major singles chart to exclude EPs, which had their own separate chart until 30 November 1967. EPs were allowed into the main singles chart from that point on, just in time for The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour to enjoy a chart run which peaked at number two.

British Broadcasting Corporation
Introduced Pick of the Pops on 4 October 1955, fortnightly until the end of the year, then weekly thereafter, based on an average of the Record Mirror and NME singles charts (and probably also Melody Maker from April 1956).


Building the canon
While the BBC/Record Retailer chart is almost universally accepted as definitive for the period from February 1969 onwards, there is some controversy over which charts should be considered "correct" prior to this. The most common solution to this problem is to regard the Record Retailer chart as the correct one from its inception in 1960, and the NME chart before that. This approach originated with the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles, first published in 1977. However, it may be argued that almost nobody considered the Record Retailer chart to be canonical at the time of publication, at least until "Record Mirror" began publishing it as well. Some chart reference books simply take "Record Mirror" as their source from the start; this is the approach taken by "The Top 20 Book" compiled biannually by Tony Jasper from 1978 to 1994, and "Rock File", an annual publication during the 1970s whose "Chart Log" feature was effectively the forerunner to "British Hit Singles", as well as numerous books by Dave McAleer. The result of this approach is a chart that begins in 1955, and joins up with the "Record Retailer" chart (and so agrees with the Guinness book) in 1962.

A case may also be made for considering the NME chart to be the correct one for at least part of the 1960s, since it was arguably the one followed by the most people. Similarly, Melody Maker's charts could be considered correct for the same period because they drew on the largest number of shops for their compilation. (However, the latter is less practical since unlike the NME charts, the Melody Maker charts have never been reprinted and are therefore difficult to obtain.)

The Official UK Charts Company have adopted the Guinness solution as defining the official chart canon, however different approaches continue to exist.

I'm going to burn my Guinness and Tony Jasper books! They only went with the Record Retailer chart because it was a Top 50... even though it had one of the smallest sample sizes. Gambo and Rice should be shot! Their rewriting 1960s chart history agenda sticks in my chart geek throat. D



It's Anal Gimp Sixties Chart Heaven at the link below:

http://uproar.fortunecity.com/galaxy...xtranoones.htm



Back on topic....





P.P. Arnold did some superb stuff with The Small Faces.

[stephenhannan]

Small Faces. You tube has some amazing performances

[stephenhannan]

wham bam thank you maam

Carole you have started something here. Went out and bought the Small Faces compilation album and can't stop listening to it.

Check out some of Steve marriotts later performance with Humble Pie

[Carol Baynes]

Hey! Which Small Faces compilation did you buy? Such good taste though, Stephen! Pleasure to make your aquaintance!

[Dave Lewis]

Some great mentions of great tunes from a great band, but what about...

Autumn Stone? Autumn Stone. AUTUMN STONE!

Possibly the best love song ever. Oh my word... I feel suddenly all emotional...

[stephenhannan]

Hey! Which Small Faces compilation did you buy? Such good taste though, Stephen! Pleasure to make your aquaintance!

Hi Carol

It's called the Small Faces Ultimate collection 50 tracks for fiver from Fopp