The Small Faces issued their greatest 45 in late August of 1967. The disc "Itchycoo Park / I'm Only Dreaming" was one of the early psychedelic 45 to use "phasing", and for many radio listeners and record buyers it really did provide the audio experience of a trip. The phasing on the Small Faces 45 always reminded me of an earlier record by The Count Five called "Psychotic Reaction", which also used phasing but to achieve a slightly different effect.
The Small Faces record was pressed and distributed in Canada under an agreement with Columbia Records of Canada Limited that was struck in mid-1967. The label was PINK !!! While the Immediate label had been founded by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog-Oldham in England in 1965 as an independent label, a few of the earlier Immediate UK titles had been issued in Canada in 1966 by arrangement with MGM in the USA and Quality Records in Canada. These included releases by Chris Farlowe and a duo called Twice As Much.
"Phasing" of course had been used much earlier in the early 1950s on records by electronics wizard Les Paul, and then in 1959 on Tony Fisher's "The Big Hurt". But this time "phasing" was used to make the Small Faces record sound psychedelic, and it totally worked. It made the Park named "Itchycoo" sound like a magical place to go to in order to get "high". The August / September 1967 release would prove to be the biggest hit for the Small Faces in Canada, although the group would go on to issue several more excellent 45s on the Immediate label in Canada. Lazy Sunday is another excellent record by them for example and managed to make a dent on some Canadian charts.
Other great artists on the label in the 1967-1969 period were The Nice, Chris Farlowe, P.P. Arnold, John Mayall, Amen Corner, Duncan Browne, and The Hill. The Canadian releases generally mirrored the releases of Immediate records by Columbia in the USA but the Canadian releases did not come with custom Immediate sleeves like the US releases. The Canadian 45s were issued in the stock bright orange and white Columbia sleeves. Also there were no white label promo 45 releases like there were in the US. The Canadian pink Immediate labels normally carried the text MADE IN CANADA.
By 1969, however, the label was running into problems and the deal with Columbia ended. Some further releases by Humble Pie and The Nice were issued in Canada by Capitol. The single "Natural Born Woman" will appeal to Beatles fans as it sounds a lot like "Get Back" from the same period.
The history of the Immediate label in Canada is very interesting indeed and we are pleased to add the detailed Immediate records history and discography for Canada to our Discographies pages.