Spanky's Greatest Hit(s)

The odd parentheses at the end of the title of this career-summation anthology refers to Spanky McFarlane's newborn son Matthew Gemini Galvin, who's pictured on the front cover and to whom the album is dedicated. It was released as the group was splitting up following the death of singer/multi-instrumentalist Matthew Hale and McFarlane's decision to devote herself to motherhood. While it contains all of their hits and more, the song selection gives a rather skewed view of what the group was really like, de-emphasizing the folk, blues, and jazz elements that appeared on their albums in favor of showcasing the faux-hippie sunshine pop hit singles that made their commercial name. Although Spanky and Our Gang are most often compared to the Fifth Dimension and the Mamas and the Papas (a reconstituted version of which the zaftig McFarlane joined in the '80s, taking the late Cass Elliot's place), the group had more in common with Harpers Bizarre, both in their wholesale adoption of decidedly unfashionable pre-rock influences, and in their perverse sense of humor. Just about everything Spanky and Our Gang ever did was accompanied by a knowing wink, from their publicity photos to bizarre comedy skits like this album's pro-marijuana "Commercial." There's a subtle but unmistakable satiric edge to the way the group's gorgeous overdubbed choral vocals recall not only such profoundly square ensembles as the Ray Conniff Singers, but the anonymously perfect studio singers whose TV and radio jingles permeated the national consciousness at the time. But mostly, Spanky and Our Gang just sang real pretty. There are oddities galore in these songs, such as the way the spacy, jazz-influenced coda of "Like to Get to Know You" is by itself nearly as long as the rest of the song, or the oddball lyrics of "It Ain't Necessarily Bird Avenue," but the real worth of the songs is in the soaring harmonies and detailed arrangements. The hit singles "Sunday Will Never Be the Same" and "Lazy Day" are pinnacles of sunshine pop, and album tracks like "Three Ways from Tomorrow" and "Yesterday's Rain," both written by guitarist Lefty Baker, are nearly their equal. It should be noted that the version of one of the group's best-known songs, Margo Guryan's "Sunday Morning" contained here, is not the single, but a strange, six-minute version preceded by vocal warm-ups and followed by a two-minute mock studio argument that plays out over a loop of the song's fadeout. The 45 version is available on other Spanky and Our Gang anthologies and the 1968 album Sunday Will Never Be the Same.