Small faces

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Small Faces 1965
Small faces
General information
origin London , England
Genre (s) Rock , Mod , Psychedelic Rock , Rhythm and Blues , Pop-Rock
founding 1965, 1975
resolution 1969, 1978
Website thesmallfaces.com
Founding members
Steve Marriott († 1991)
Keyboard, electric guitar, vocals
Jimmy Winston
Bass , vocals
Ronnie Lane († 1997)
Drums , vocals
Kenney Jones
Last occupation
Vocals, electric guitar, keyboard
Steve Marriott († 1991)
Bass, vocals
Rick wills
Keyboard, electric guitar, vocals
Ian McLagan († 2014)
Drums, vocals
Kenney Jones
Electric guitar, vocals
Jimmy McCulloch († 1979)

Small Faces (also The Small Faces ) was a British rock band formed in 1965 that originally played rhythm and blues and soul . The band's musical focus later developed into a mixture of psychedelic pop and hard rock . The complete works of the group is not extensive, but includes some rock classics as All or Nothing , Tin Soldier , Itchycoo Park , Lazy Sunday and Afterglow of Your Love and the concept album Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake (1968).

The name refers on the one hand to the colloquial meaning of face in the sense of "type", on the other hand to the fact that the band members were rather small; the name means something like "the little guys".

The time at Decca Records: 1965 to 1967

The founding line-up, consisting of singer and guitarist Steve Marriott , bassist Ronnie "Plonk" Lane , drummer Kenney Jones and keyboardist Jimmy Winston , came together in 1965 and quickly attracted the attention of the London scene through the charismatic front man Marriott. Through their first manager Don Arden , Decca Records signed the band and released their first single What'cha Gonna Do About It (with the guitar riff of Solomon Burke's Everybody Needs Somebody to Love ) in August 1965 , which reached number 14 on the UK charts. The successor, I've Got Mine , published in November, however, did not bring the desired success. Because of constant disagreements with Marriott, Winston had to leave the band and was replaced by Ian McLagan .

The third single Sha-La-La-La-Lee , written by Kenny Lynch for the band, was released in January 1966. It became their second chart success. As the year progressed, the small faces became favorites of the mods . The single Hey Girl was released in May, followed five days later by the first album Small Faces , on which Jimmy Winston could still be heard in part. In addition to the first two hits, rockier band and more poppy Lynch material, it contained a cover version of Sam Cooke's Shake . The piece You Need Loving plagiarized, later Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love , openly by Willie Dixon written 1962 Muddy Waters -Single You Need Love . The album came in third on the charts. In August 1966, the single All or Nothing reached the top of the charts.

In November 1966, the Christmas single My Mind's Eye was released, which was based on the Gloria in excelsis Deo . It was a demo recording that was released by Don Arden and Decca without the band's knowledge. Despite the song's good chart placement, the band then switched to the Immediate Records label of former Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham . The first single recorded for Immediate I Can't Make It was released in March 1967 for contractual reasons by Decca. They did not reach the Top Twenty because the band refused to promote themselves. At the end of May and beginning of June, Decca added the single-flop Patterns and a second album entitled From the Beginning , which was a mixture of singles, cover songs and first psychedelic attempts.

The time at Immediate Records: 1967 to 1969

The “real” second album, as the debut Small Faces was called , was released in July 1967 on Immediate Records and consisted without exception of original compositions by Marriott and Lane. The work was released as There Are but Four Small Faces in the United States the following year , with some pieces being replaced by A- and B-sides of singles. To this day, it is overshadowed by its much better-known successor. Like the single Here Come the Nice , which was released at the same time as the album, it reached number 12 in the UK charts. Further single hits followed in August with Itchycoo Park and in December with Tin Soldier .

In April 1968, the song Lazy Sunday of the forthcoming fourth album was released as a single by Immediate against the will of the band. The title, intended as an album filler, became the band's biggest hit. The accompanying concept album Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake was released in May 1968. Praised by music critics, the album was number 1 on the British LP charts for six weeks, was the most successful British album in 1968 and was awarded a gold record .

This milestone for the band also became a millstone, as the musicians were unable to adequately bring the work to the stage. It was only performed once in its entirety, live in the studio for the BBC television program Color Me Pop . In addition, the single The Universal , which was added in June, took a disappointing 16th place and was panned by criticism . Marriott was increasingly frustrated about being neglected as a songwriter and constantly being categorized in the "pop corner", as well as about the band's inability to play more sophisticated material at concerts.

The Small Faces finally broke up in early 1969 when Marriott decided to join Peter Frampton's newly formed blues rock band Humble Pie . The unofficial last single Afterglow (Of Your Love) was released as “Legacy” in March 1969 and the equally unofficial compilation The Autumn Stone in November . In addition to the hits in new mixes, the double album also contained seven new pieces, some of which were still unfinished, and three live recordings.

Continuation with the band name Faces : 1970 to 1975

The remaining three musicians hired singer Rod Stewart and guitarist Ron Wood from the newly disbanded first Jeff Beck Group . From then on , they called themselves Faces , eventually acted as Stewart's backing band and broke up in 1975. Ronnie Lane left the band in 1973 and released several singles and albums with Slim Chance .

Reunion: 1976 to 1978

In 1975 the Faces and Humble Pie broke up. The following year, the former Small Faces members met again on the occasion of ( playback ) video recordings for the re-released Itchycoo Park . The title promptly hit the charts again. They then decided to re-record songs, but Lane left the project during the first rehearsal for no reason. What none of the other members knew: Ronnie Lane showed the first symptoms of multiple sclerosis , which his colleagues wrongly interpreted as a result of excessive alcohol consumption. As a result, the ex-Humble Pie and Roxy Music bassist Rick Wills was hired as a replacement. The two unsuccessful Small Faces albums Playmates (1977) and '78 in the Shade (1978) were created for Atlantic Records .

Activities since 1979

Kenney Jones replaced Keith Moon, who died in 1978, in The Who in 1979 and was a permanent member of the band until the late 1980s. Steve Marriott made recordings with the reunited Humble Pie from 1980 to 1982. As a solo artist, at the end of the decade he performed nearly 200 concerts a year. On April 20, 1991, at the age of 44, he died in his sleep in a smoldering fire caused by a cigarette in his country house in Essex , England . Ronnie Lane's further career was strongly influenced by his illness. After fighting MS for almost twenty years, he died on June 4, 1997 at the age of 51 of complications from pneumonia. Ian McLagan became a session musician and worked with Bonnie Raitt , the Rolling Stones , Bob Dylan on his Germany tour (including a concert in Cologne on June 16, 1984) Bootleg "Drunken Farmerboy" and David Lindley . He died on December 3, 2014 at the age of 69 from complications from a stroke that he suffered the day before.

Discography

Studio albums

year Title
music label
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes)
Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1966 Small Faces (1966)
Decca 4790
- - - UK3 (25 weeks)
UK
-
First published: May 2, 1966
Producers: Ian Samwell, Kenny Lynch, Don Arden
1967 From the Beginning
Decca 4879
- - - UK17 (5 weeks)
UK
-
First published June 5, 1967
Producers: Steve Marriott , Ronnie Lane
Small Faces (1967) (UK) /
There Are but Four Small Faces (US)
Immediate 008/52 002
- - - UK12 (16 weeks)
UK
US178 (3 weeks)
US
First published: June 19, 1967 (UK) /
March 7, 1968 (US)
Producers: Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane
1968 Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake
Immediate 52008
DE6 (16 weeks)
DE
- - UK1
gold
gold

(19 weeks)UK
US159 (15 weeks)
US
First published: May 24, 1968
Producers: Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More studio albums

Live album

Compilations

year Title
music label
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes)
Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1972 Early Faces
Pride 0001
- - - - US176 (10 weeks)
US
First published: July 1972
Producer: Michael Viner
1996 The Decca Anthology 1965-1967
Deram 844 583-2
- - - UK66 (1 week)
UK
-
First release: April 29, 1996
double album
2003 Ultimate Collection
Sanctuary Records 004
- - - UK24
gold
gold

(4 weeks)UK
-
First release: May 26th, 2003
double album
2020 The Ultimate Collection
- - - UK58 (1 week)
UK
-
with humble pie

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More compilations

  • 1969: The Autumn Stone (double album; Immediate)
  • 1976: Magic Moments (Immediate 1008)
  • 1995: The Best of Small Faces (Summit) (UK:silversilver)

Singles

year Title
album
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)
Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US USTemplate: chart table / maintenance / charts non-existent
1965 Whatcha Gonna Do About It
Small Faces
- - - UK14 (12 weeks)
UK
-
First published: August 6, 1965
Authors: Ian Samwell, Brian Potter
1966 Sha-La-La-La-Lee
Small Faces
DE15 (12 weeks)
DE
- - UK3 (11 weeks)
UK
-
First published: January 1966
Authors: Kenny Lynch, Mort Shuman
Hey girl
from the beginning
- - - UK10 (9 weeks)
UK
-
First published: May 6, 1966
Authors: Ronnie Lane , Steve Marriott
All or Nothing
From the Beginning
DE17 (6 weeks)
DE
- - UK1 (12 weeks)
UK
-
First published: August 5, 1966
Authors: Ronnie Lane, Steve Marriott
My Mind's Eye
From the Beginning
DE24 (2 weeks)
DE
- - UK4 (11 weeks)
UK
-
First published: November 11, 1966
Authors: Ronnie Lane, Steve Marriott
1967 I can't make it - - - UK26 (7 weeks)
UK
-
First published: March 3, 1967
Authors: Ronnie Lane, Steve Marriott
Here Come the Nice
There Are but Four Small Faces
DE24 (6 weeks)
DE
- - UK12 (9 weeks)
UK
-
First published: June 2, 1967
Authors: Ronnie Lane, Steve Marriott
Itchycoo Park
There Are but Four Small Faces
DE17 (4 weeks)
DE
- - UK3 (14 weeks)
UK
US16 (17 weeks)
US
First published: August 4, 1967
Authors: Ronnie Lane, Steve Marriott
Tin Soldier
There Are but Four Small Faces
DE7 (14 weeks)
DE
- CH7 (5 weeks)
CH
UK9 (12 weeks)
UK
US73 (5 weeks)
US
First published: December 1, 1967
Authors: Ronnie Lane, Steve Marriott
1968 Lazy Sunday
Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake
DE2 (16 weeks)
DE
AT1 (16 weeks)
AT
CH2 (11 weeks)
CH
UK2 (11 weeks)
UK
-
First published: April 5, 1968
Authors: Ronnie Lane, Steve Marriott
The Universal
The Autumn Stone
DE35 (4 weeks)
DE
AT15 (4 weeks)
AT
- UK16 (11 weeks)
UK
-
First published: June 29, 1968
Authors: Ronnie Lane, Steve Marriott
1969 Afterglow of Your Love
The Autumn Stone
- AT14 (4 weeks)
AT
- UK36 (1 week)
UK
-
First published: March 7, 1969
Authors: Ronnie Lane, Steve Marriott
1975 Itchycoo Park (Reissue)
Magic Moments
- - - UK9 (11 weeks)
UK
-
First published: November 28, 1975
1976 Lazy Sunday (Reissue)
Magic Moments
- - - UK39 (5 weeks)
UK
-
First published: March 19, 1976
2005 Don't Burst My Bubble - - - UK93 (1 week)
UK
-
First published: February 28, 2005
Authors: Ronnie Lane, Steve Marriott
Split single with Come Home Baby
by Rod Stewart and PP Arnold

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More singles

  • 1965: I've Got Mine (release: November 5th)
  • 1967: Patterns (release: May 26th)
  • 1977: Lookin 'for a Love (release: August 5th)
  • 1977: Stand by Me (Stand by You) (release: November 18th)
  • 1978: Filthy Rich (release: July 21)

Cover versions of other bands

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Small Faces Documentary
  2. a b c Chart sources: Singles Albums DE US1 US2
  3. Small Faces in the Official UK Charts (English)
  4. a b c gold / platinum databases: UK
  5. Musikexpress Sounds, 10/1993, p. 32.

Web links

Commons : Small Faces  - collection of images, videos and audio files