Eddie Addenberry - Captain Jones (1972)

Now here's a pop obscurity so melodic you'd be forgiven for thinking it was Mike Batt under an alias.  Eddie Addenberry (real name Eddie Adamberry) penned his fair share of pop tunes during the 1970's along with songwriting partner Tony Craig, but they never did score the big hit they deserved.

'Captain Jones' is a killer slice of toytown pop with lush early seventies production provided by Mike Batt. With some tasteful phasing in the choruses, ever so faint fuzz guitar buzzing away in the background and ELO-esque orchestration. It was recorded at Lansdowne Studios, London and was backed by the prime session men of the day, Chris Spedding, Ray Cooper, Herbie Flowers and Clem Cattini to name a few. I first heard this on a home made compilation called 'Famous Like My Dad - An Intended Tribute To 1970's UK Males' which was put on the It's Psych forum (whatever happened to It's Psych?) a few years back and has since been officially comped on the equally fab 'Tea & Symphony' CD. Strangely, both comps credit the song to 'Eddie Addenbury', just to make things even more confusing. I was lucky enough to pick up a copy of the single at the bargain price of £1 a couple of months ago and excitedly flipped the disc over to reveal another great Adamberry/Craig composition 'The Land of Milk and Honey', not quite as good as the A side, but a nice melodic tune nonetheless.

Eddie Adamberry

According to Tony Craig's website the single received some Radio 1 airplay at the time, notably on Tony Blackburn's breakfast show but failed to impress the listening public who much preferred Gilbert O'Sullivan's Clair which was number one at the time. Adamberry and Craig continue to write and record to this day and I recommend you to check out their website here as there are plenty more pop nuggets for you to discover, many dating back to the early seventies.

For now though, dig this...