IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED
“I Love You” was a great British Invasion influenced song by the San Jose based group, People. This song gets filed in my “restored” category. I heard it on the radio recently and said to myself “Damn, I like that song and haven’t heard it for years!” So I present it to you today.
It was written by Chris White, who was the bass player for The Zombies. In fact, it was originally released by The Zombies in 1965 as the B-side to “Whenever You’re Ready.” Coincidentally, the cover version by People was also intended as the B-side to their single “Somebody Tell Me My Name.” But the DJs, audience and record buyers felt differently about it and pushed the B-side onto the charts.
“I Love You” reached #14 in the US in mid-1968. Wow, 50 years ago!
Larry Norman, often credited as a pioneer in the genre of Christian Rock, was a lead singer in People.
Hopefully you have the same reaction as I when you hear this song.
Enjoy… until next week.
Interesting that this song made it to #14 nationally. I checked the New York surveys of the time and it never got a sniff of the Top 40, which made me feel better since I only knew the Zombies version much later when their Greatest Hits album was released. Therefore it was a bigger regional hit somewhere, in those days when there were still regional hits. I wonder where.