Saturday 16 January 2010

Next Plane to London

"Maybe over there I'll get a start. Only hope by leavin' I don't break his heart. The more important part than any record on the chart. I'm on the next plane to London. Leavin' on runway number five ..." The Rose Garden's glorious Next Plane To London deals with the dilemmas of fame. Should the ambitious singer move to another city to make their mark? And is that more important than the loves they'd leave behind? Bit of an old dilemma that one. The song itself was written by Kenny O'Dell, who recorded it for an LP on a White Whale subsidiary. The song made its way to folk rockers The Rose Garden who had a hit with it. Kenny would write another great entry in the American country songbook, namely Behind Closed Doors which was a huge hit for the great Charlie Rich when I was knee-high. And as was the way at the time Next Plane To London winged its way around the world, and there is a particularly lovely interpretation by Renee Martel, a French Canadian who ironically also became a country singer later on ...

6 comments:

  1. Another great song choice. Another song I've never heard of before.
    I'm a big fan of the site in general and have posted a review of the site: http://thelondoni.com/?p=265

    Keep up the great work

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  2. Thanks for that. Lovely write-up too. Plenty more to come!

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  3. there's a beautiful tom paxton other side of the coin to this coming up eventually ( don't hold your breath) over at dustysevens

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  4. Perfect Ally. It would be chapter two in the story ...

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  5. lagging behind as usual and only just got a chance for a proper go on this and ain't it just lovely - what's the rest of their stuff like ? worth a punt ?

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  6. It's not a race Ally! I don't know how much they did but I have heard the LP this comes from and it's glorious in a brazenly Byrds/Mamas and Papas folk rock way. Lots of harmonies and dare I say jangling guitars. None of that baroque biz. Obligatory Dylan number is She Belongs To Me so they get bonus points for that too.

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