Sharon Tandy

Following on from The Richard Kent Style, Steve Marriot and The Moments, The Fleur De Lys and The Muleskinners, Acid Jazz return with the fifth in their Rare Mod E.P series of unreleased sixties gems – this time with the first lady of Atlantic, Sharon Tandy.

It’s 1968, England reign supreme and Sandie Shaw is the champion, we’re talking of course about The Eurovision Song Contest. The previous April Ms Shaw had triumphed in Vienna and all eyes were on Swinging London to find another winner on home soil.

Graham Dee and Brian Potter, staff songwriters at Polydor Records, had written the Latin tinged “Walk from here to Mexico”, inspired by the forthcoming Olympic Games and offered it to Sharon Tandy for her next release. Having recorded a demo of the track it was decided instead to enter the song for said song contest but in a cruel twist of fate it was submitted just after the entry deadline and the track was shelved.

Had it made it, the name Sharon Tandy would these days be familiar to all but as it is she remains an enigma, a cult, a legend but the in-crowd know she was one of the greatest white female singers of the 60s. 

The three other tracks featured  are all previously unreleased, “Daughter of The Sun” and “Somebody Speaks Your Name” may be familiar to you but the versions presented here are early studio demos. “Roundabout” was written by Graham Dee and Dennis Lotis, another legend. 

Incidentally England didn’t win the Eurovision Song Contest in 1968, They came second and had to wait another year for Lulu to bring back the silverware.

Released as limited edition 7” vinyl on 16th May.

Here's a video of her at The  Speakeasy in 1968, not a song from the E.P but that's why they call them Rare Mod.