The Chocolate Watch Band — “Requiem”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — December 20, 2024

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

1,435) The Chocolate Watch Band — “Requiem”

This UK “pop sike orchestrated masterpiece” (Wilthomer66, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkvl8VoAxbE&pp=ygUgVGhlIGNob2NvbGF0ZSB3YXRjaCBiYW5kIHJlcXVpZW0%3D), a “pop gem with . . . strings, mournful vocals, an addictive melody reminiscent of the early Walker Brothers and moderate studio effects” (sound studio snob (courtesy of Google Translate), https://estudiodelsonidoesnob.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/the-chocolate-watch-band-requiem-whats-it-to-you-german-decca-1967/), is actually an anthemic, bouncy . . . requiem. Yup. “Oh no, baby don’t you go.” Sadly, it was the last of the band’s two A-sides.

By the way, I don’t care if you’re gonna be at the love in or not, this is not your la la land Chocolate Watchband (see #160)!

The CD comp Piccadilly Sunshine: Volumes 11-20: A Compendium of Rare Pop Curios from the British Psychedelic Era explains that:

[The band] was a collaboration between two songwriters, Gary Osborne and Jack Oliver. The pair had worked alongside each other at Chappells Music publishers as songwriters, but decided to give the pop lifestyle a go themselves. After disappointing sales from their two singles in 1967, Decca let the pair go which prompted Oliver to seek better reward with Apple publishing. In 1968, Gary Osborne joined forces with Paul Vigrass penning the majority of his work before joining him as an artist in the duo Vigrass and Osborne in the early Seventies.

liner notes to the CD comp Piccadilly Sunshine: Volumes 11-20: A Compendium of Rare Pop Curios from the British Psychedelic Era

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