Sensational '70's Tune for Tuesday, June 23rd, '09

Bubblegum music's early cash-in attempt on the first stirrings of reggae, Bobby Bloom's "Montego Bay" is lousy reggae (it sounds like those involved had been told what Jamaican pop music sounded like, but they hadn't actually heard any of the records) but entertaining bubblegum. Bloom, who has a far more soulful and commanding voice than one might expect from his earlier hits as a songwriter, like Tommy James' "Mony Mony" and the 1910 Fruitgum Company's "Indian Giver," puts over the tale of a tropical paradise convincingly, over a rather bizarre arrangement of handclaps, whistling and an inappropriate but oddly effective drum part that sounds like somebody hitting a car's hubcaps with drumsticks in a rough approximation of steel drums. Never mind that Jamaican records didn't use steel drums anyway. The record's unconventional ending -- an a cappella riff on "Oh What A Beautiful Morning" that Bloom sings alone before the record trails off into silence -- is gimmicky but effective, much like the rest of the song.

And, here's the full version that's very hard to find: