A day off and an opportunity to attend to my much neglected song of the day website…
I heard this song on one of the podcasts that I subscribe to and had to have it. However, my initial internet searches proved futile and none of my music cronies had ever heard of the song. For a good reason. “Say Those Magic Words” was recorded by The Birds not The Byrds. In retrospect I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I thought this mod, R&B rocker came from the same American band that popularized so many Dylan tunes and penned such classics of their own as “Eight Miles High” and “So You Want to Be a Rock n’ Roll Star” — but hey, anything is possible in music and I was happy to entertain the idea that I had discovered some long-last gem by a band who I obviously needed to get to know a whole lot better.
Instead, my search for this great tune lead to a different discovery. It turns out (according to Wikipedia) that The Birds was one of the top rhythm and blues bands in England during the mid-1960’s, and part of the first British Invasion — one of my all-time favorite musical periods. They shared top billing with bands like The Who, and The Yardbirds. The best known member of the band was Ronnie Wood, future guitarist for The Faces and later The Rolling Stones. Another member of the band, Kim Gardner, went on to form The Creation. Eventually the band, which started out as the Thunderbirds, disbanded in 1967 after a lawsuit failed to stop The Byrds from using the name or from quickly gaining enough popularity in the UK to overshadow the success The Birds had achieved with hit singles like “You Don’t Love Me” and “Leaving Here.”
You can find this song on the spotty Nuggets II collection entitled Original Artifacts From the British Empire and Beyond 1964-1969. Or you can just listen to “Say Those Magic Words” by The Birds right here on the Happy Medium Song of the Day. (Please use the comments box to share your thoughts.)
Instead, my search for this great tune lead to a different discovery. It turns out (according to Wikipedia) that The Birds was one of the top rhythm and blues bands in England during the mid-1960’s, and part of the first British Invasion — one of my all-time favorite musical periods. They shared top billing with bands like The Who, and The Yardbirds. The best known member of the band was Ronnie Wood, future guitarist for The Faces and later The Rolling Stones. Another member of the band, Kim Gardner, went on to form The Creation. Eventually the band, which started out as the Thunderbirds, disbanded in 1967 after a lawsuit failed to stop The Byrds from using the name or from quickly gaining enough popularity in the UK to overshadow the success The Birds had achieved with hit singles like “You Don’t Love Me” and “Leaving Here.”
You can find this song on the spotty Nuggets II collection entitled Original Artifacts From the British Empire and Beyond 1964-1969. Or you can just listen to “Say Those Magic Words” by The Birds right here on the Happy Medium Song of the Day. (Please use the comments box to share your thoughts.)