Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich

Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich

Sure, their name was much more difficult to remember than the Beatles or the Kinks, but the Salisbury, Wiltshire, U.K.-based quintet Dave Dee, Dozy Beaky, Mick & Tich recorded some similarly catchy British Invasion tunes during the ‘60s as this excellent compilation attests. The party starts with the playfully pedaling “Bend It” followed by the Spanish matador-themed “Don Juan” with its barbed melodies grappling underneath rhythmic castanets and the clever implementation of bullfighting horns. The 1966 fuzz-guitar-laden garage-rocker “Hold Tight” may be the band’s most recognizable hit (if not their catchiest), having reached number four on the U.K. singles chart two years before the band revived their Spanish fetish for “The Legend of Xanadu," landing them a number- one hit. “Last Night In Soho” made good use of the violin bow on the electric-guitar strings à la Eddie Phillips from the Creation, though they also incorporated a real string section for dynamic depth. “Snake In the Grass” flirted with minimal psychedelic trappings, but the song’s sunny bubblegum melodies kept things from sounding inaccessibly trippy.

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