Label: Polydor
Year of Release: 1966
Roman Polanski's strange gangster flick "Cul-de-sac" caused a fair share of rumbles on its release in 1966. Portraying two individuals on the run backed into a corner, holed down with a couple in a peculiar relationship, it also features a bald Donald Pleasance delivering an uneasy performance.
The theme tune to the film itself is unusually and unexpectedly threadbare, sounding like one of Joe Meek's unused 3am demos polished up with an orchestra behind his back. While the film itself may have been respectfully reviewed, the title track clearly wouldn't have made a good single or momento of anyone's cinema visit.
Enter Chris Parmenter, Polydor's house producer who had been behind work such as The Longboatmen's "Take Her Anytime" and The Cymeron's "I Can See You". Somebody at the label obviously thought he could turn the theme into something harder edged, and indeed he did - those Meekish keyboard whines are still intact, but the track is given firmer footing and considerably more welly. It wasn't enough to impress the public who clearly felt they didn't need an audio souvenir of Donald Pleasance wearing a nightie and some lipstick, but it's a cool, modish piece of work.
The dodgy B-side title "Donkey Feel" has always fascinated me, and is obviously another instrumental, this time a feel-good clip-clopping Carnaby ditty which is probably still ripe to be used on a soundtrack somewhere.
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