THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,171) One in a Million* — “Fredereek Hernando”
The Scottish band’s ’67 Christmastime 45 (with “Double Sight” as the B-side) is truly one in a million: “one of the very greatest obscure British psychedelic singles” (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/double-sight-mw0001743746), “one of the jewels of British psychedelia — a superb double-sided disc with psychedelic guitar work out of the top drawer” (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited), “what just might be the most cataclysmic single to escape from the primordial mushroom soup of the British psychedelic underground” with “the void-embracing ‘Fredereek Hernando’ [an] astonishing, skull-busting example[] of the crash-and-burn end of the British psychedelic spectrum, marrying acid-ravaged lyrics and a psychotropic lead vocal to a blitzkrieg sonic assault led by Jimmy McColloch”. (David Wells, Record Collector 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records: High Times and Strange Tales from Rock’s Most Mind-Blowing Era)
23 Daves opines:
Much talked about but seldom actually made sense of, “Fredereek Hernando” was listed in Record Collector magazine’s list of the greatest British psychedelic singles of all time . . . . Now, whilst I wouldn’t quite go that far in my praise for this single . . . there’s no question that [it] is a bit sodding strange. It’s not just the lyrics that confuse and bamboozle, seemingly being about some infamous but eccentrically named figure being publicly hung, it’s the salad of sinister echoing backing vocals, the screeching tape-rewinding effects, and the squawking guitar. In an interview many years later, lead vocalist Alan Young commented: “It was too way-out for mainstream exposure”, and so it proved. . . . [B]y Young’s own confession they were probably trying to sound like [the Who] at their most cataclysmic rather than a hippy freak-out act. Still, whilst the gritted teeth vocals are decidedly not part of the peace and love plan, the surrealist lyrics and odd noises ensured that this single would inevitably come out of other side whiffing of incense, much as the ‘Orrible ‘Oo’s “I Can See For Miles” is forever referenced in a psychedelic context. . . . One of the more astonishing things about this single is the fact that the guitar lines were delivered by the 14 year old Jimmy McCulloch. Pete Townshend obviously wasn’t blind to his prodigious talent, and ended up match-making him into the band Thunderclap Newman who subsequently had a massive number one hit with “Something In The Air”.
https://left-and-to-the-back.blogspot.com/2010/05/one-in-million-fredereek-hernando.html
As to OM, David Wells notes that they were “[i]nitially known as The Jaygars, Alan Young (rhythm guitar, lead vocals), William Scenters (bass) and brothers Jimmy and Jack McColloch (lead guitar and drums respectively) [and] regrouped as One in a Million when they moved down from Scotland to London in 1966.” (Record Collector 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records: High Times and Strange Tales from Rock’s Most Mind-Blowing Era) Richie Unterberger adds:
Featuring young teenage prodigy Jimmy McCulloch (later of Thunderclap Newman, Stone the Crows, and Wings) on guitar . . . . Double Sight” was simply one of the greatest Who circa-1966-1967 soundalike songs ever, and while “Fredereek Hernando” went in a somewhat different direction with its monkish harmonies and crunching freakbeat, it was almost as good. While it’s something of a cliché for pet collector bands like these to be unable to match their one capture of lightning in a bottle in the rest of their repertoire, that is, alas, true of One in a Million. Though taken altogether th[eir] material could have comprised an actual LP back in the late ’60s, it just doesn’t sound like the band was ready for that honor. The remainder of the group’s output was pretty average mod rock with occasional psychedelic spice, and sometimes quite derivative of the Who . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/album/double-sight-mw0001743746
Well, as Alan Young freely admits, “We were always very influenced by the Who, really — we used to cover a lot of their songs . . . That was the sound we were aiming for.” (Record Collector 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records: High Times and Strange Tales from Rock’s Most Mind-Blowing Era)
* Alan Young recalls:
[The band’s name] was inspired by Jimmy, who was still only 13 and was considered by us to be one in a million. . . [W]e had to have private tutor during the day to make sure that he didn’t miss out on his education. I guess he probably shouldn’t have been playing in the clubs either, but everyone turned a blind eye.”
Record Collector 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records: High Times and Strange Tales from Rock’s Most Mind-Blowing Era
Here they are live (starting at 53:30):
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