Windy

Over the weekend, the Andrew Clark radio show played the old Association hit "Windy". And then this morning, the Rush Limbaugh show was doing a Cindy Sheehan parody ("Cindy") based on the song.

OK, I'll admit to it. I really, really like that song. Complex vocal harmonies not unlike what Brian Wilson was doing in the Beach Boys or John Phillips was in the Mamas and the Papas, and a bouncy, melodic tune. Sunny and upbeat in the mid-Sixties way. What can I say? A pop classic.

I'd always assumed that the group's style had grown from their being in glee club back in high school, as it had that sort of sound, but this Association page says differently, that their music was derived from folk. I might have it backward then; maybe glee clubs adopted songs like this because they were so amenable to the structure of harmony singing glee clubs use.

Anyway, there you go. Revile and humiliate me as you wish. I might as well also note that I like their other huge hit "Cherish." Generally I detest slow songs (wake me up when they're over) but I like this one for the same reason I like "Windy": soaring harmonies.

Where are the soaring harmony groups working in rock today?