Los Bravos: Black is Black (1966)

 |   |  <1 min read

Los Bravos: Black is Black (1966)

People speak casually about the global village as if it had been invented by the internet, but how is this for an implosion of cultures?

This song was written by a couple of British guys, was recorded by a Spanish group who had hooked in a German singer, the song was sung in English and went into the charts in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand -- as well as various European countries.

And the reason it has appeared here now is because I heard the other day in my supermarket.

Written and sung in the Beat group style of the era, it was a minor classic and -- rather surprisingly -- not the last we heard of Los Bravos who could have been a one-hit wonder as so many were.

They were a two-and-a-bit hit wonder with their follow-up I Don't Care, then reaching the lower rungs of attention with Bring A Little Lovin' (which, with horns, sounded more like Edison Lighthouse than their original guitar/organ-based sound).

They didn't last long -- although two years was a long time in the Sixties for some bands -- and the reason they make it out of the vaults is this deserves to be better than the background noise while you are buying veggies.

For more oddities, one-offs or songs with an interesting backstory check the massive back-catalogue at From the Vaults.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   From the Vaults articles index

Bobby Rydell: Ghost Surfin' (c 1964)

Bobby Rydell: Ghost Surfin' (c 1964)

The cover of this British album from '64 gives the title as "Bobby Rydell Sings" . . . but the most interesting two tracks are where he doesn't. Rydell was one of those lightweight US... > Read more

The Mississippi Sheiks: Bed Spring Poker (1931)

The Mississippi Sheiks: Bed Spring Poker (1931)

The blues is often blunt and to the point when it comes to sexual imagery, at other times it is coded -- although no one should be in any doubt that when Lonnie Johnson says he is the best jockey... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

Elsewhere Art . . . Jeff Healey

Elsewhere Art . . . Jeff Healey

Blues singer- guitarist Jeff Healey -- who died in 2008 -- was a great collector of 78rpm records. When Elsewhere interviewed him in the early 2000s he spoke about the 11,000 he had at home... > Read more

EVA CASSIDY; TIMELESS VOICE: The songbird gone

EVA CASSIDY; TIMELESS VOICE: The songbird gone

She may have sold more than 10 million albums, but when she died of cancer in '96 at just 33, Eva Cassidy was virtually unknown outside of small circle who had seen her playing in clubs around... > Read more