for Sunday 12th February 1967

The Pussyfoot line-up was Terry 'Barnyard' Barfield, vcls, David Osborn gtr, David 'Turnip' Townend, bs, John 'Fingers' Williams lead gtr, and Terry 'Goodmayes' Goodman, drms. Released 10th February, both Mr Hyde and the single's B-side, Hasty Words, were written by band members Terry Barfield and David Osborn. The producer was Tony Clarke, who became famous for his work with the Moody Blues. This London group is reputed to have been previously known as Rare Breed although not the group of that name that appeared in Fab Forty of 11th September 1966.

On March 6th, 1967, Pussyfoot appeared as the live group at the Radio London night at the Rhodes Centre, Bishop's Stortford, Herts, hosted by Mike Lennox.

One of my all-time favourite recordings and like its chart companion, Mr Hyde, was another track played regularly during the Radio London RSLs. Left Banke was from New York, although drummer George (Justo Fabio) Cameron was born in London. The band's classically-trained keyboard player Mike Brown (Lookofsky) wrote Pretty Ballerina which, although not quite as big as their first hit, Walk Away Renee, reached #15 in the US Hot Hundred. The lead singer was Steve Martin, lead guitarist was Rick (Richard David) Brand and Tom (Thomas James) Finn played bass.

Walk Away Renee had been in the Fab in October '66, and the song returned to the Fab Forty in March '67, by the Truth. However, the song did not appear in the Nationals till December '67, when the Four Tops took it to #3.

Read the story behind the song inspired by a girl called Renee Fladen www.tsimon.com/renee.htm

leftbanke.thefondfarewells.com is a dedicated fan site, which contains a wealth of information about Left Banke, personal reminiscences from people who knew them and links to the numerous references to the band which have been discovered on the Internet.

Regarding the strange workings of the Fab, Alan notes:

Oscar makes a reappearance in this week's chart at no 36. Two weeks earlier he'd entered at no 33 then gone straight out again. Two weeks before that he'd been Kenny Everett's climber, but out of the climber list the following week. I remember reading that the DJs hated this record, but were told by Curzon Street they had to play it. This "one-week-on, one-week-off" in the playlist appears to provide evidence of the ongoing struggle.

Over The Wall We Go was a third Fab entry for the artist formerly known as Paul Dean. The full story with Oscar's true identity, a Knees Club connection and the reason why this novelty record can change hands for around £20, is revealed in the Fab Forty for 19th June 1966.

Besides climbers that were played at the time of the broadcast of the Sunday Fab Forty, Alan kept a note of others he heard later in the week and incorporated them into his list.