No matter, the highly arranged efforts on this underrated album make it well worth rediscovering. Quite why Spanky and co didn’t see fit to make it a single is anyone’s guess, but they missed a chance there since the four-way harmony would surely have made a huge impact. Perhaps the other standout track is an early cover of John Denver’s now evergreen “Leaving On A Jet Plane,” the easy-listening standard that Peter, Paul and Mary made their biggest hit, though its position at No.1 arrived in 1969. The bebop/cool jazz pianist and composer Bob Dorough provided the impetus for a slinky take on “5 Definitions Of Love.” Female folk singer Jo Mapes, who did write for The Monkees and The Association, had another perfect Spanky vehicle to hand in “Come And Open Your Eyes (Take A Look).” Disparate as it seemed, all of this hung together thanks to the production chops of Jerry Ross, mentor to Kenny Gamble and the man at the controls for Bobby Hebb’s ‘Sunny’ and Shocking Blue’s epic “Venus.” meaning that both his previous and his aftermath were impeccable credentials. To reiterate: we ain’t talking “Masters Of War” here this is all about pure pop. Brill Building fellow Tony Powers (who composed tracks covered by everyone from The Banana Splits to KISS) was the brains behind “Lazy Day,” a nugget from the Screen Gems film production company that could easily have fallen into The Monkees’ clutches. Unlike John Phillips’ Mamas And Papas, the Spanky crew didn’t write original material, but made a virtue out of revisiting such practiced lyricists as Meredith Wilson, whose Broadway piece “Ya Got Trouble (In River City)” was given a relentlessly cheery backbeat.
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Originally a straightforward ballad, the Gang changed the song’s dynamic by adding a vocal “Ba-da-da-da-da” that cemented the hook for radio listeners and elevated the track into classic territory. The group’s self-titled debut album, released through Mercury on August 1, 1967, contained what would become million-selling singles in “Sunday Will Never Be The Same” and the sublime “Lazy Day.” Terry Cashman and Gene Pistilli, seasoned backroom songwriters, penned the former.