NORMA TANEGA - I Don’t Think It Will Hurt If You Smile (Reissue) - LP - Vinyl [JAN 31]

LP - Black Vinyl.  

Norma Tanega is best-known for her single ‘Walkin’ My Cat Named Dog’ which became an unlikely international hit in 1966. It not only brought her into the spotlight, but to the UK where she toured, appeared on TV and started a long-term relationship with Dusty Springfield.

Tanega would later move to the UK to live with Springfield. Still a musical force she signed to the UK arm of RCA-Victor and in 1971 released a single ‘Nothing Much Is Happening Today’ / ‘Antarctic Rose’ and an album called I Don’t Think It Will Hurt If You Smile. Neither sold strongly and splitting up with Springfield, Tanega returned to America.

In recent years original copies of I Don’t Think It Will Hurt If You Smile have become highly sought after by collectors of folk and psychedelic folk and change hands for up to £400. The album has, until now, never been reissued on vinyl.

Produced by Don Paul, Tanega worked in the studio with multi-instrumentalist Mike Moran and the results were an amazing confection. ‘Nothing Much Is Happening Today’ might have been an unlikely single but today sounds like an earworm especially when halfway through it sounds like Pink Floyd are backing Tanega. ‘What More In The World Could Anyone Be Looking For’ appears in two versions – one lushly arranged and the other presented as simple folk song. Both are winners. ‘A Goodbye Song’ is a small treasure box about losing love. The album is glued together by a number of short instrumentals from harpsichord pieces to strummed magnificence.

All told I Don’t Think It Will Hurt If You Smile is a lost classic.

The CD edition contains four bonus tracks. With liner-notes by Bob Stanley.

Tracklist: 

Side A
1        Now Is The Time
2        Beautiful Things
3        Illusion
4        Cowfold
5        Magic Day
6        Hampton Court
7        What More In This World Could Anyone Be Living For (Version 2)

Side B
1        Clapham Junction
2        Elephants Angels and Roses
3        Antarctic Rose
4        Stranger
5        Barrel Organ Blues (Instrumental)
6        Nothing Much Is Happening Today
7        What More In This World Could Anyone Be Living For (Version 1)
8        Upper Osterley
9        A Goodbye Song