My Top 1000 Songs #404: Crimson And Clover

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

File this one under Sentimental Favorites.

I can't say I spend a lot of time these days spinning my old Tommy James & The Shondells singles (though, c'mon, what a fantastic run of singles they had in the mid & late 60s!). But I'll always have a soft spot for "Crimson And Clover," the title track off their 1968 album. I have a vague recollection of hearing it on the radio as a kid and finding something about it totally entrancing. Sure, it was your basic 60s pop song, not far afield from the Beatles and Turtles and other stuff I'd hear on the oldies station. But there was something a little strange about the languid pace, the harmonies, the spacey production, and especially that tremolo vocal at the end.

Without understanding it at the time, this song was essentially my entry point into psychedelia. Especially the longer album version, which tacked a couple minutes of fuzzbox jams onto the original single and upped the strangeness.

Of course, later on I'd get deep into 60s psychedelia, music far more drug-addled than the relatively tame "Crimson & Clover," but I think this song went a long way towards opening me up for something a little more trippy. 

The longer album version:

Joan Jett, who kicks ass on everything she touches:

Chilean band Aguaturbia spins it out to its full 10+ minute psychedelic glory in 1969: