Only in Melbourne: tracks that didn't chart Top 40 in their countries of origin but did better in the capital of my home state, Victoria. See also: Only in Oz.
(5) Strawberry Children - Love Years Coming
(Jimmy Webb)
USA 1967
Soul City single (USA) #758 / SCR 758
Liberty single (Australia) #LYK-189955597
Australian charts: #17 Melbourne (#50 Australia)
US charts: Did not chart Top 100 Billboard or Cash Box.
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| Survivor of my teenage record |
When I bought this single as a 17-year-old around August or September 1967, the writer credit (J. Webb) meant nothing to me.
A hit Jimmy Webb composition had already entered the charts here in July, The 5th Dimension's Up, Up And Away (#1 Australia, #7 USA). It carried the same clipped credit on the Australian label (J. Webb) but I didn't own that single and wouldn't have made the connection.
Songwriters can toil away for years creating famous songs for famous artists without ever becoming famous themselves. In late 1967 Jimmy Webb was yet to join the group of exceptions, songwriters who become household names, but the process had started.
In May 1968 came Richard Harris's MacArthur Park, a startling work that inevitably drew attention to its composer. It was followed by Glen Campbell's Wichita Lineman (#5 USA) in the same year, and by Brooklyn Bridge's Worst Thing That Could Happen (#3 USA) and Campbell's Galveston (#4 USA) early in 1969. There are of course many others, and to browse further I recommend the 4-page Jimmy Webb discography by Hiroto Yanagida.
Love Years Coming, which I loved, carries the era's familiar message of peace (the lion shall lay down beside the manchild) and I took Strawberry Children to be one of a number of fine new American bands that were emerging, bands like The Association, The Box Tops, The Doors ...
Years later I had read with pleasure that Jimmy Webb was Strawberry Children. More accurately, though, this is Jimmy Webb with a studio band assembled for the session, a practice that was more widespread than we realised at the time, and certainly not confined to the first recordings of The Monkees.
The team at the Jimmy Webb Facebook page confirms that he is on lead vocals, with Hal Blaine on drums and Larry Knechtel on guitar, both from the ubiquitous LA session team now known as The Wrecking Crew.
Don't miss the comments and photos posted at the Facebook page by people connected with other personnel including singers Endore’e Lukem, and "J.W. school friends" Glen De Lange and Mike Reilly.
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