Page Ten - Boutique/ Colour Talk

Larry Page's men toot and tinkle their way through a Carnaby instro

Label: Decca

Year of Release: 1965

If you have a five pound note burning a hole in your wallet, the Larry Page Orchestra put out some fantastic easy listening arrangements of modern pop hits in the sixties, most of which are now very affordably available on CD. One such track, "Zabadak", eventually found its way on to the Reeves and Mortimer series "Bang Bang" as the perfect accompaniment to arguably one of their most surreal sketches. The rest of the LPO's work (let's call them that, nobody will get confused) is usually cocktail lounge sophistry of a relatively similar calibre.

Way before the budget was stretched to an orchestra and before the Page One label was a twinkle in Larry's eye, the ten-piece Page Ten group existed and their purpose was broadly similar. Their output was always meant to be more significant than this solitary 45, but both sides show a keenness to put a quality spin on the sunnier aspects of easy listening. "Boutique" is, as the name suggests, music to swing your handbag to while parading around the West End looking for threads, while "Colour Talk" is bit parts "University Challenge" theme and the sound you might hear in the background of a radio commercial seeking to appeal to hip young bachelors. 

In common with a lot of singles of this ilk, it sold unconvincingly; this kind of music always performed better when spread across twelve inches of 33rpm vinyl, selling favourably in department stores to people seeking dinner party backing music, not teens with Dansettes searching for three minute thrills. It hasn't even really been a footnote in Larry Page's career since and you'll be hard pressed to find anyone who has heard it, or acknowledges it, but that my dear friends is what "Left and to the Back" is here for. 

Page's management and production successes with The Troggs, The Kinks and The Page One label barely need covering here, but his fifties singing career as Larry Page the Teenage Rage might be worth a visit on here one day.

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