The major -- yet extremely irrelevant -- hit

The minor -- yet extremely excellent -- hit

The extremely irrelevant cover of the minor yet extremely excellent hit

UPDATE: Just wanted to confirm what a number of you were already thinking: that the subject of this edition of "Mystery Date" was none other than England's The Marmalade! You'll find interesting videos of the band in action above. The two tracks posted in my original post came from a patchily excellent comp of the band's largely psych mid-60s ouvre, which is worth paying a couple of bucks for.

Remember -- when discussing this band, it's helpful to pronounce their name correctly: "The Mar-mah-lahhhd."

Thank you for your attention.

HVB

PREVIOUSLY...

Follow up:

Hey, all -- for your mystified consideration: two tracks from a band whose global super-smash hit you all know, but about whom you probably know next to nothing. Even more mysterious, perhaps: the smash hit song they covered is universally loved, but the fact that this band made a hit out of it only caused them to be shunned by "serious" music lovers everywhere. Who could it be? Perhaps the following tracks will help you figure things out:

Mystery Date Track One

Mystery Date Track Two

The first of these tracks is, in my opinion, just wonderful. When I was about eight or nine years old, I have a vivid memory of being at some outdoor school function -- a food fair or something -- where the older kids piped in music over the school PA system. I was doing my little kid jungle gym thing, when the loudspeakers started blaring a song (I can't remember which, sadly) that made me feel like I could fly. It was anthemic in all the right ways: uplifting, moving, soaring -- I remember clambering down from the jungle gym and just running -- running at breakneck speed, in no particular direction, feeling like at any moment the song would carry me up, up, up into the air.

It didn't, of course, and my current age and general cynicism largely prevent me from stopping whatever I'm doing to run around like a ckicken with my head cut off when the right kind of song comes on the stereo -- but this one comes close. The harmonies are beautiful, the groove is propulsively uplifting in a weird, slightly-but-not-really country rock kind of way... and those cymbal crashes! WTF?! Anyhow, I just love it.

The second of the two tunes is a fave of mine because of the feint-followed-by-the-left-jab of its psychedelic Part One, followed in the chorus by the angelic pop refrain in Part Two. Why wasn't more "psych" like this? Why couldn't more bands have just done a good job pretending to like hallucinogenic drugs?

Anyhow, there are your two tracks. Let me know whether you think this date is a dreamboat... or a dud.

I look forward to your responses,

HVB