THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,993) The Blackburds — “Absolument Hyde Park”/”Absolutely Hyde Park”
French rock star Johnny Hallyday’s backing band, which included a pre-Foreigner Mick Jones (see #1,753, 1,974) and Tommy Brown (see #1,974), laid down this sizzling “soul-flavored British mod rock” (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-state-of-mickey-tommy-mw0001671650) instrumental written by Jones and Brown. It was included on Hallyday’s EP Noir C’Est Noir (Black Is Black), which of course featured Hallyday’s version of Los Bravos’ (see #1,538, 1,636) “Black Is Black”.
Boris-85100 writes that: “This track can be considered emblematic of Johnny’s 1966 comeback, with its instrumental on par with the best British productions. Mick Jones and Tommy Brown were truly the two best musicians of his entire career, even though he already had excellent instrumentalists in his band”. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUsReofzbd4)
Richie Unterberger tells us of Micky and Tommy:
It’s not well known, but long before he joined Foreigner — and even before he was in Spooky Tooth — Mick Jones made quite a few records with Tommy Brown, the pair working in France for much of the period. . . . encompassing recordings billed to several different monikers, including the State of Micky & Tommy, the Blackburds Nimrod, the J&B, and Thomas F. Browne. It may be that the singles they released as the State of Micky & Tommy, obscure as those 45s are, are the best known of the lot, especially “With Love from One to Five[]” . . . . [Their recordings are] fair, though not exceptional, music that reflects the British mod, pop/rock, and psychedelic trends of the time with occasional hints of French and Continental influences. “With Love from One to Five” is typical if classy 1967 orchestrated psychedelic pop; “Nobody Knows Where You’ve Been” strongly recalls the arrangements on Sgt. Pepper’s cuts like “Within You, Without You”; and “Frisco Bay” is nice dainty, dreamy pop with beatific Summer of Love lyrics and the lightest hints of raga-rock. All of those songs were found on singles credited to the State of Mickey & Tommy; the ones billed to the Blackburds are more like soul-flavored British mod rock that could serve as incidental film music, while Nimrod’s 1969 single “The Bird” . . . is a fairly strong relic bridging psychedelia with early progressive rock. The best track, however, is the relatively unheralded 1966 single “There She Goes” by the J&B, a quite haunting, dramatic song that’s a bit like a mini-soundtrack to a story of Swinging London heartbreak.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-state-of-mickey-tommy-mw0001671650
In Deep Music Archive adds that:
As guns for hire in the French Sixties scene, you couldn’t land a better gig than writing for celebrity superstar couple Sylvie Vartan and Johnny Hallyday. Not only did Micky And Tommy write for these artists but they also played guitar and drums respectively in Johnny Hallyday’s backing band. . . . Somewhere in the distant past, two hip kids went to France and had the time of their lives, one of them went on to be a superstar the other drifted into obscurity.
You can find more details of their career here: https://techwebsound.com/artist/?artist=519.
Here is a cool video of Johnny Hallyday belting out “Noir C’Est Noir”:
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