71: EGG
Seven Is A Jolly Good Time/ You Are All Princes
(Deram, 1969)

ONE of the most beautiful if unintended side effects of the late 60s music explosion was the fact that record companies were well and truly wrong-footed for a few wonderful years.

They had absolutely no idea what it was that hairy young people wanted to listen to, and little or no understanding of the music that was being produced by some of the mutant entities which were multiplying like germs all over the country.

The result of this confusion was a signing frenzy whereby reams of bands with little or no commercial potential were snapped up by record companies just in case they possessed some kind of arcane appeal that record company A&R men couldn't readily discern.

Better still, major labels were actually releasing records by these weirdos - even if they had to quickly invent subsidiary labels in order to hopefully manufacture a pretence of hip cachet, and also to prevent bands like Egg from becoming labelmates with, say, Val Doonican.

Decca's subsidiary labels were Deram and Nova, and among their crop of wilfully obscure signings were the aforementioned and utterly cherishable Egg - an organ/bass/drums trio specialising in compositions of ferocious complexity.

Somehow, somewhere along the line, someone must have inexplicably figured that an Egg single was worth a punt, and so it was that Seven Is A Jolly Good Time/You Are All Princes was presented to a bemused and uncomprehending market in August 1969.

The A-side breezily documents the joy of avoiding the commonplace 4/4 tempo and duly offers up dance-defying passages of 7/8, 5/8 and 11/8. Consequently, it stood about as much chance of becoming a hit as my bottom, but the most important thing to bear in mind is the miracle of its very existence.

It's out there somewhere, on its lovely Deram label, if you can find a copy and are willing to shell out £100 or more for the privilege of owning it...

The cheering if equally peculiar postscript to this mythical tale is the fact that Egg keyboardist Dave Stewart - not to be confused with the Eurythmics bod - later enjoyed number one success with the 1981 version of It's My Party which he recorded with his partner Barbara Gaskin...