THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,610) Mike Batt — “Fading Yellow”
From Volume 1 of Jörgen Johansson’s “legendary pop-sike compilation series” (The Strange Brew, https://thestrangebrew.co.uk/fading-yellow/), here is, appropriately enough, “Fading Yellow” by Mike Batt. The song is “a beautiful, melancholy ballad, with atmospheric instrumentation” (Martin Crookall, https://mbc1955.wordpress.com/2025/02/24/the-infinite-jukebox-mike-batts-fading-yellow/) including a “plangent guitar line” (Bob Stanley, liner notes to the CD comp Tea & Symphony: The English Baroque Sound 1968-1974), a “mournful, sweeping ballad . . . the perfect summation of what’s on offer [on Fading Yellow Volume 1] and . . . certainly worthy of having an entire compilation named after it. . . . sumptuous”. (Jon “Mojo” Mills, https://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2012/06/various-artists-fading-yellow-vol1.html) The song “Fading Yellow” and the comp series Fading Yellow “named [their] own genre of ’60s styled sunshine psych pop”. (Marios, https://therockasteria.blogspot.com/2024/01/various-artists-fading-yellow-vol17.html)
As to the song, Martin Crookall writes:
[“Fading Yellow”] has become representative of the whole pop-sike era, in its gentle wistfulness, it’s measured melody, it’s sense of a slight otherness not entirely grounded in everyday life. . . . [It] concerns a girl who is lost, isolated in a world that spins round her whilst she stands there, deprived of connections, everything she could have been going to waste because she has no means of expressing it. It’s sad, it’s sympathetic. She’s dressed all in yellow, a colour that is both ironically bright and eye-catching, and which calls to mind the lack of courage she embodies in not taking part. It’s a song that starts on the edge of falling into darkness, and ends in the night, with her still wearing yellow, but now it’s fading. In contrast to the nihilism of the situation, the music is almost ethereal, yearning but lamenting the inevitable all at once.
https://mbc1955.wordpress.com/2025/02/24/the-infinite-jukebox-mike-batts-fading-yellow/
As to the Fading Yellow series, Crookall notes:
[The] series of compilation CDs . . . containing numerous hidden gems and obscurities . . . suggest[s] a better musical world was there for the asking if people had but heard of it at the time. The compilations cover British and American music, and continental singers and bands who chose to adhere to the more poppy aspects of psychedelia rather than its hallucinogenic exploration.
https://mbc1955.wordpress.com/2025/02/24/the-infinite-jukebox-mike-batts-fading-yellow/
Despite some serious competition, Fading Yellow remains my favorite comp series of all time.
Jon “Mojo” Mills tells us about FY Volume 1:
Running the gamut from jolly mid-60s beat-pop through to heavily orchestrated affairs from ’69, Fading Yellow’s overall concept of “pop-sike” and more so “other delights” is fully realised. . . . [T]he psych/pop compilation is clearly becoming far poppier with the passing of time, and such a fine example as Fading Yellow sits perfectly on the cusp of the Rubble series most commercial selections . . . . It’s practically a gem after gem ride too. . . . It really is a solid set, and possibly the greatest pop-psych comp to come out in years. Rather than focus on fifth-division acetate pressings of “four Lancashire lads trying to be Syd Barret” everything included here is well performed pop saturated in that certain late ’60s over-the-top production that so regularly gets classified as psychedelia. And there are plenty of obscure choice cuts to satisfy even the most hardened psych-head. . . . If only more compilations were as good as this.
https://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2012/06/various-artists-fading-yellow-vol1.html
As to Mike Batt, Mike Collar writes:
British singer/songwriter, producer, and composer Mike Batt is a journeyman artist with a long track record of successful productions that cross from film and television to musical theater and pop music. . . . Batt was signed to Liberty/United Artists Records at age 18 and left after two years to form his own publishing company. Beginning in 1974, Batt began writing and recording music for the children’s television show and bubblegum pop group the Wombles, and ultimately scored eight hit singles with the group. He then went on to write successfully for a bevy of artists, including . . . Art Garfunkel, with whom he won his second Ivor Novello Award for 1979’s “Bright Eyes” from the animated film Watership Down. Batt continued as a solo artist in the ’70s . . . . However, it was as a writer that he found his niche, and in 1983 he scored several Top Ten hits for Cliff Richard, David Essex, and Alvin Stardust. A year later, Batt made his debut as a conductor . . . with the London Symphony Orchestra. . . . [and] embarked on the first of his musical theater-inspired endeavors with the album Snark . . . . [a]n all-star cast recording based on the nonsensical poetry of Lewis Carroll . . . . [and] he would return . . . with a live stage version in 1991. During the ’90s, Batt continued his work in both the classical and pop worlds . . . . Batt continued to hone his niche as a man behind the scenes, developing and guiding the careers of several acts including the classical-crossover groups Bond and the Planets . . . . Batt also helped guide and launch the career of vocalist, Katie Melua . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mike-batt-mn0000642263#biography
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