V/a / He And She - Soft Sounds For Gentle People Vol. 5

Pet Records

The fifth installment in the Soft Sound For Gentle People series features twenty-two far-out pop psych duos from the late ’60s. It pretty much began with Sonny and Cher. When the teener template of Paul and Paula and Dick and Deedee got superimposed on the hip set, a new genre was born. The success of co-ed pairings like Mimi and Richard and Nino and April had coffee house folkies shacking up in droves and soon every town had it’s own dynamic duo. There were variations too. Paul and Mary found their Peter. John Phillips had two chicks so he had to find another Papa. But the sound was what made it, the call and response, the traded verses—love stories acted out over twelve-strings ringin’, like shaggy-topped Romeos and Juliets in tight slacks and pilgrim belts. You’ve heard some of the reissues—the Blackburns and Snows, the Jims and Jeans—their stories and music made public again after years in obscurity. Now hear the ones who didn’t quite crack the radio charts, at least not for long. The ones whose songs remain unsung. Heroes and heroines in the nightclubs and studio booths. Reaching out in the darkness, and the sunshine too. In love and touching forever. She and He. He and She.

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