Zero to 180 was browsing Lovin Spoonful‘s 7-inch releases on Discogs and decided to give a listen to an obscure 45 track, “Lonely” – a harmonica instrumental, as it turns out – only to discover upon further examination that this song was released as an A-side for the Brazilian market only!
“Lonely” by The Lovin’ Spoonful (1967)
Zero to 180’s pleased to see Kama Sutra did up the occasion right with a picture sleeve:
Hey, whaddaya know, “Lonely” (or “Solitário”) would also be tapped as a B-side for the Japanese market:
Likewise a B-side in France. Immediately brings to mind the decision that would be made by Immediate the following year to release P.P. Arnold’s version of “God Only Knows” as a single for the Italian market only, as discussed in the previous piece.
How curious to come across the existence of this entry in 45Cat for a US single release for “You’re a Big Boy Now” b/w “Lonely (Amy’s Theme),” with a date of Jun. 1967 indicated but ultimately “unreleased” — wonder what’s the story is?
“Lonely (Amy’s Theme)” would originally be part of the soundtrack to Francis Ford Coppola’s 1966 feature film, You’re a Big Boy Now, whose songs would all be composed by John Sebastian (who, in an earlier piece, had graciously hipped Zero to 180 to the fact that his father had been a master concert chromatic harmonica player).
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LINK to Harmonica Instrumentals
One Response
No idea what the issue was.
I’m trying to track down a copy.
It looks like it was released as a 45rpm single in the US years later under a “golden oldies” label called “Radio Active Gold”.
BTW – the “movie” version of “You’re A Big Boy Now” appears in a montage sequence about halfway through the film.
It sounds nothing like the Stereo version which appears on “The Best Of” cd.