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TOMMY ROE - IT'S NOW WINTER'S DAY - LP

TITLE: It’s Now Winter’s Day
ARTIST: TOMMY ROE
CAT CODE: FOLP2016
LABEL: FALLOUT

Brand new LP. Factory sealed.

1. Leave Her
2. Moontalk
3. Aggravation
4. Golden Girl
5. Misty Eyes
6. Have Pity On Me
7. Sing Along With Me
8. Long Live Love
9. Nightime
10. Cry On Crying Eyes
11. Sweet Sounds
12. It’s Now Winter’s Day

Though he’s best-remembered for bubblegum smashes such as Sheila, Sweet Pea and Dizzy, Tommy Roe also made some of the most intriguing experimental pop of the 1960s. This lost 1967 classic was overseen by legendary vocal arranger and studio genius Curt Boettcher, and features immaculate backing from the team responsible for the landmark Millennium and Sagittarius LPs. Full of dazzling songs , this album is an obligatory purchase for all fans of adventurous pop and sunshine psychedelia.

By 1967, Atlanta native Tommy Roe (b. 9th May, 1942) was firmly established as one of America’s leading hitmakers, with several Buddy Holly-influenced smashes behind him, starting with the 1962 US number one Sheila. After 1963’s Everybody (which reached no. 3 in the US), Roe moved to England, where The Folk Singer reached no. 4 later that year. Having toured successfully and served a spell in the army, he returned to the US charts with another brace of top ten hits in 1966, Sweet Pea (no. 8 in June) and Hooray for Hazel (no. 6 in November). As the year progressed, however, he’d decided to move beyond the commercial pop that had defined him thus far, and to dip a toe into more experimental waters, in keeping with the adventurousness that characterised the industry at the time.
The producer of his last two hits had been a boy wonder named Curt Boettcher, who’d formed an uneasy working partnership with Steve Clark, the head of independent production company Our Productions, in mid-1966. Boettcher had showcased his astonishing abilities (especially as a vocal arranger) on the Association’s colossal hits Along Comes Mary and Cherish, and was therefore an obvious candidate to work with an established star like Roe. Boettcher and Roe recorded the tracks that would comprise It’s Now Winters Day that autumn, with stellar backing from guitarist Mike Deasy (aka Friar Tuck), Boettcher’s former Goldebriars cohort Dottie Holmberg, session regulars Ben Benay, Toxie French and Jerry Scheff (who later made the ultra-rare Goldenrod LP), Ballroom members Jim Bell and Michele O’Malley (later to record her own Saturn Rings LP), and future Millennium members Lee Mallory and Sandy Salisbury.
With such a sterling cast, it’s no surprise that the album is so audacious and accomplished, combining delightfully quirky pop like Leave Her and Moontalk with esoteric, experimental material such as the title track and Cry on Crying Eyes (which closely anticipates the extraordinary Karmic Dream Sequence #1 from the Millennium’s classic 1968 Begin LP). Its lack of similarity to Roe’s earlier work put off his fans when it appeared in January 1967, however, and it flopped. A 45 of the title cut (ABC 1088, backed with the non album Kick Me, Charlie – included here as a bonus track) tiptoed to number 23 in the US charts in February 1967, a respectable showing by usual standards, but a disappointment in Roe’s terms. Two further singles – Nighttime / Sing Along With Me (ABC 10909) and Moontalk / Sweet Sounds (ABC 10933) – were extracted, but neither charted.
The project’s failure soured relations between Boettcher and Clark (who, as well as poaching the producer’s credit, is alleged never to have paid Boettcher for his efforts), so Boettcher moved away to work on his own, visionary projects instead, including the landmark Sagittarius and Millennium projects. Roe, meanwhile, made another unsuccessful quasi-psychedelic experimental LP, Phantasy, before returning to chart supremacy with Dizzy (a US no. 1 in 1969) and Jam Up Jelly Tight (number 8 the same year). Astonishingly, many fans of his music remain unaware of this album, and it is to be hoped that this LP reissue will establish its reputation as a vital piece of the 1960s psych-pop jigsaw.
1. Leave Her (T. Roe / R. Whitley)
2. Moontalk (T. Roe)
3. Aggravation (T. Roe)
4. Golden Girl (T. Roe)
5. Misty Eyes (T. Roe)
6. Have Pity on Me (T. Roe)
7. Sing Along with Me (T. Roe)
8. Long Live Love (T. Roe / B. Bowie)
9. Nighttime (T. Roe / R. Whitley)
10. Cry on Crying Eyes (T. Roe)
11. Sweet Sounds (T. Roe / B. Bowie)
12. It’s Now Winter's Day (T. Roe)
Produced by Curt Boettcher / Steve Clark
Recorded at Gary Paxton’s and Columbia Records in Hollywood, California

Engineered by Gary Paxton and Tom May

Guitars - Mike Deasy / Ben Benay / Tommy Roe
Piano - Butch Parker
Oboe - Jim Bell
Bass - Jerry Scheff
Drums - Jim Troxell
Percussion- Curt Boettcher
Vibes - Toxie French
Organ - Mike Henderson

Backing vocals by Curt Boettcher, Jim Bell, Sandy Salisbury, Michele O’Malley, Dottie Holmberg, Sharon Olsen and Lee Mallory

Vocal arrangements by Curt Boettcher
Original cover design & photography by George S Whiteman

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