It's New to Me: Fairytales Can Come True Volume 1 by Various Artists (2007)

Illustration by Blendon Campbell from Florence Barclay's The Rosary, 1909

I have a more-than-casual interest in '60s psych-rock rarities (it's not an addiction!) - upon buying the Nuggets box set several years ago, I became convinced that the best songs ever recorded were all obscure rock singles from the late '60s. Additional compilations I picked up supported my hypothesis, but, inevitably, I reached a point where I was getting diminishing returns. Psychic Circle Records has released a lot of great '60s rock compilations curated by Nick Saloman (of the Bevis Frond), but I found the 5-part We Can Fly series to be a let-down. I wasn't surprised to find that a third of the songs on the compilations were goofy or unmemorable, but I was surprised to find that another third of the tracks were such poor-quality recordings that they were barely listenable. This gave the series a fairly low hit-to-miss ratio, and I was pretty much ready to admit that the well of obscure psych-rock singles was dry. Then I heard Fairytales Can Come True.

The first volume of the Fairytales Can Come True series (also released by Psychic Circle) is my favorite thing I've heard from the label. Subtitled "UK popsike from the late 60's", this 20-song compilation leans more toward harmony-heavy sunshine pop and less of it is hard psych-rock, but it's got some great songs on it. The Searchers' "Umbrella Man" and the title track by San Francisco Earthquake were immediate favorites, but there are no downright-terrible songs here, and there's enough variety that the cloyingly sweet sing-song melodies don't drive you bonkers.

Brian Connell & the Roundsound do a great Sell-Out-era Who impression on "Just Another Wedding Day", and Los Bravos "Bring a Little Lovin'" is almost "Louie Louie"-style frat-rock. Some of the goofiest songs are the best here as well - Gallagher-Lyle's "Trees" is about being so stressed out that you can't even enjoy looking at (you guessed it!) the trees, and Barry Benson's "Cousin Jane" is one of the cutest songs about casual incest that I've heard. And, I should mention, aside from some mild sibilance issues, the sound quality of these recordings is quite good.

My favorite song on the compilation may be the Roulettes' "Help Me to Help Myself". The Roulettes were Adam Faith's backing band, but they released several recordings on their own as well. "Help Me to Help Myself", released on Fontana in 1967, was one of their last before breaking up, and it typifies the try-anything approach that I love in this comp's songs. Starting with a great phased-piano intro, the song features two distinct vocal styles (a whispery falsetto and a more forceful baritone), a horn section, a cool baroque breakdown, and some other bells and whistles that may have seemed like a good idea at the time.

"Help Me to Help Myself" by the Roulettes