Heathcliffe - Hollybush and Mistletoe/ My World

Label: Tangerine

Year of Release: 1968

Tangerine was a tiny and short-lived label, issuing a mere thirteen singles between 1968-69, of which this was the first. While some of their output by Adam and Dee and Jasmin-T had faintly psychedelic leanings, this opening salvo was a rich old slice of easy listening. No great surprises there - as the success of Engelbert Humperdinck made clear to everyone, the gentler side of popular music still had a massive audience at this time, and was often a better gamble for new independent labels than the latest fashionable sounds.

Heathcliffe - whoever he may be - takes on both these tracks with a deep, rich voice and almost sounds like a British Bing in places. The A-side is a Christmas track which didn't sell amazingly well, but clearly sold enough copies to not be especially rare these days, while the flip is a sentimental but very specific and appropriate wedding song. 

Both sides were in the safe hands of the arranger Alan Hawkshaw, but don't go expecting anything wigged out or organ-driven here. This is gentle, smooth and unobjectionable stuff.