Black is Black Los Bravos 1966-69 (Magic Records, 2003)
Hear it today in: Beulah, Saturday Looks Good to Me, Elliott Smith

Spains Los Bravos earned the rare honor of being one of the very few non-British, non-U.S. groups to conquer the Billboard Top 200 in the 1960s, when their smash Black is Black went to #4 in 1966. German-born Mike Kogels tortured lead vocal on the song led many to believe it was a Gene Pitney track which Pitney himself also thought, for a brief time but the tight, muscular instrumental track hinted at a well-rehearsed stage group rather than a collective of studio players. Despite the success of their first single, Los Bravos couldnt manage a return to the U.S. charts; in Britain, they scored a minor hit with their follow up I Dont Care, then faded into obscurity. That is, to the listening public.

Though probably regarded as inessential by most listeners due to their pop-boilerplate subject matter and garage band posturing, Los Bravos and producer Ivor Raymonde perfected a hybrid pop-rock sound that utilized parts of Motowns Tamla beat interspersed with generous horns, chimes, strings, vibraphone and glockenspiel and xylophone, and plenty of tambourines and maracas. The result came out much like a revisionist take on Phil Spectors Wall of Sound, only with a seasoned rock band and not a girl group at the core of the sonic swirl.

The retrospective Black is Black Los Bravos 1966-69 covers more ground than the titles brief timeline implies. The imported disc contains the entirety of 1966s Black is Black (including the B-sides of all the bands singles from the album) as well as bonus tracks from 1969s Bring a Little Lovin. The songwriting credits reveal a diversity of material including efforts from The Brothers Gibb (Bee Gees if youre nasty) and George Young, whose kid brothers Malcolm and Angus brought us AC/DC. Black is Black leads the set off, and pop genius ensues through mellower numbers like Make it Easy for Me, the cacophony of horns and whistles in Stop That Girl, and Tarantino-film-fodder ballad Two Kinds of Lovers. Kogels strong vocal presence is supported by agile melodies courtesy of guitarist Tony Martinez and organist Manuel Fernandez, while rock-solid bass player Miguel Danus holds down the bottom end in impressive form. Pablo Sanllehi remains one of rocks great forgotten drummers, keeping faultless time and running off inventive fills to keep the rhythm moving.

While Black is Black found the group accused fairly rightly of lifting the whole-step/half-step/whole-step piano figure from the intro of Sugar Pie Honey Bunch (I Cant Help Myself), the lasting irony is that many of Los Bravos most distinctive hooks were themselves appropriated by sly musicians long after most people stopped listening to the Spanish quintet. If you feel strangely familiar with some of Los Bravos songs, despite their obscurity, consider just a few examples: the bridge lick played by Martinez in I Want a Name became the lead guitar melody in ELOs Strange Magic, and his chorus runs in Stop That Girl showed up in Dont Forget About Me on the legendary Dusty In Memphis album. Exile borrowed the rhythm track from Just Hanging On, wrote a new lead guitar part, and turned it into Kiss You All Over in 1978. Perhaps most famously, Kansas Dust in the Wind quite literally loops the intro of Dirty Street with an altered fingerpicking pattern on acoustic guitar throughout their anthemic meditation on mortality.

Though Los Bravos surprising influence on pop and indie pop remains a proud touchstone of their legacy, the songs themselves impress in a kitsch-thats-really-good way. Many top British songwriters worked with the groups producers and so, as with Americas Monkees, what seems like superficial bubblegum actually houses intelligent lyricism in addition to outstanding instrumentation. In a period of reverb- and compression-heavy tracking, producers Raymonde and Alain Mihauld preferred clarity and a bass-heavy mix, which foretold of modern rock production templates; the 24-bit remastering on this compilation highlights the slickness and power of the technique. If you can get over Kogels pitched Tom Jones-meets-Peter Noone voice and the very obvious Spanish accents in the bands backup vocals, Black is Black could assume a place in your music collection alongside the Beatles Rubber Soul era work or (if youre into it) Neil Diamonds rough but promising early albums as well as retro-flavored indie pop like Saturday Looks Good to Me or Beulah. Its always good to know where youve been before you figure out where to go next.



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