The received wisdom is that The Beatles single-handedly invented ‘power pop’ with “And Your Bird Can Sing,” an album track from 1966’s Revolver. The truth, however, is a little more elusive. One could point out that “Paperback Writer” – a song that very much embodies the power pop sound – predates “And Your Bird Can Sing” by thirteen days. Furthermore, Pete Townshend is often give credit for having coined the term when he was famously quoted in 1967 by Keith Altham in New Music Express as having said, “Power pop is what we play—what the Small Faces used to play, and the kind of pop The Beach Boys played in the days of ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’ which I preferred.”
LP cover
LP cover
Every Mothers’ Son‘s second and final album for MGM – 1968’s Every Mother Son’s Back – would find the group charging out of the gate with a song very much in the power pop spirit, “Rain Flowers“:
Note the stirring entrance of the clavinet just prior to the vocal — another early appearance for the relatively new electric keyboard in the year 1968.
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LINK to Power Pop on Zero to 180
