I honestly know nothing about the group The Fortunes, other than they took horrible publicity photos (trust me, I searched). Wikipedia, however, tells me that they were an "English harmony beat group", which I didn't even know was a thing. "60's on 6" on SiriusXM likes to play a certain song by the band a lot, and I find myself dialing up the volume every time. It's not that I don't remember the song from when it was a hit in 1965; it's just that I barely paid any attention to it.
Music, when one reaches a certain age, fails to surprise or inspire. We've frankly heard it all. Our biggest thrill is rediscovering songs we'd once ignored or failed to appreciate at the time.
The reason I like this song is because its arrangement is different from the standard pop songs of the sixties. I am a sixties pop fan ~ people can apply all the significance they want to the songs of the seminal artists, but they're all in the end just songs. John Lennon actually slept in the bath ~ it wasn't a metaphor for anything. I never looked to pop music for deep meaning; I looked to it for fun. Shoot me.
I realize this is the original recording transposed over a band performance, but I like the original and I like seeing a team of kids earnestly performing their first hit:
You may be surprised, as I was, that The Fortunes had more than one hit. I will say, however, that between '65 and '71 they must have had some personnel changes. This next song (of which there is no live performance to be found) has a completely different lead singer and a completely different sound. I think I subconsciously attributed it to the Four Seasons, because the lead singer sounds eerily like Frankie Valli. Regardless, I like this song and always have:
The Fortunes also had the distinction of recording a Coca-Cola jingle in 1969. Watching this, I suspect the lady had a little more than Coke in that glass ~ she's enjoying it a bit too much ~ but life was like that in the sixties; everybody knew, but nobody told.
It seems, sadly, that no one is left from the original Fortunes.
That doesn't mean smart music should be forgotten.
