This was also performed by Frankie Valli with our without the Four Seasons.
Incidentally, the advertising on YOUTUBE is getting to be extremely
annoying. Extremely.
The Four Seasons released "Silence is Golden" as the "B" side to "Rag Doll"
in 1964. Inexplicably, it never caught on, and the Tremeloes smartly
picked it up in 1967.
The Tremeloes had been known as "Brian Poole and the Tremoloes" (a newspaper
misspelled the name) until 1966 when Poole left. He did them a favor:
without a "lead" singer, all of the members of the band stepped up, and, it
turns out, all of them could sing very well. "Silence is Golden"
sounds like it: nobody has the diva role.
A faster version has been recorded by "The Square Set" (1967) in South
Africa.
2011-10-09
By the Tremeloes
This is one of those songs I vaguely remember as part of the aural wallpaper
of the rooms of my youth. Nowadays, you would hear a song that you like as
much as I liked this and immediately go home and download it. Well, no--
you would just immediately download it onto your iPhone or whatever.
I
probably hadn't heard it in 30 years when I suddenly remembered it.
Actually, it's the name of a recent column by Maureen Dowd in the New York
Times.
And I remembered part of the song: "and if I tried, she would say that
I lied" then something something then "... don't hurt her, you fool".
So I went to
Youtube and there it was. And I was frankly astonished at the
harmonies.
Even more astonishing in this video: they are actually playing and
singing! Live!
The lyrics, for an early 60's pop song, are surprisingly allusive:
Talking is cheap, people follow like sheep.
Even though there is no where to go.
How could she tell he deceived her so well?
Pity she'll be the last one to know!
But it's the vocal arrangement that is... well, really quite stunning,
with the harmonies on the italicized words:
How many times will she fall for his lines
Should I tell her or should I be cool?
And if I tried I know she'd say I lied.
Mind your business don't hurt heryou fool!
The solo falsetto voice insinuates itself into your mind, like a distant
conscience, only to be hammered into full awareness by the choral harmonies,
and then that wonderful sliding should I be "cooooool".
