Val McKenna — “House for Sale”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — October 21, 2023

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

988) Val McKenna — “House for Sale”

Northern soul doesn’t get much better than this “marvellous and baroquely atmospheric” self-penned ‘68 A-side. (Kieron Tyler, liner notes to the CD comp Sassy and Stonefree: Prime Late ’60s Brit Girl Rock & Soul) Of course, it wasn’t a hit. Paul Pearson says that “[h]er songs, many of which she wrote herself, are . . . hard-driving, straight R&B pieces that the mod population allegedly found appealing.” (http://paul-pearson.blogspot.com/2015/05/song-20150507-val-mckenna.html)

Bruce Eder tell us about Val:

A singer whose career was managed by Ivy League members John Carter and Ken Lewis, Val McKenna was one of the better white female pop soul-style singers to come out of early- to mid-’60s England. Apart from a convincing delivery on numbers like “Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl,” she also benefited from the presence of Jimmy Page on lead guitar on her records, which also included “Baby Do It” and “Now That You’ve Made Up Your Mind,” the latter her own composition and very good indeed.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/val-mckenna-mn0000303369

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