AN INVITATION TO CRY
Oddly enough, the last several times that I have listened to Nuggets, the song by The Magicians, “An Invitation to Cry” has really stood out as a highlight. It is a clever idea for a song that has happened to a lot of people: getting an invitation to the wedding of a former girlfriend.
Songwriter and drummer Alan Gordon was playing in an inter-racial Greenwich Village band called Tex and the Chex; other members included Mike Appel (guitar) – who was later the manager for Bruce Springsteen early in the Boss’s career – and Everett Jacobs (bass). Gordon had co-written “An Invitation to Cry” with Jimmy Woods (who was not in the band), and Tex and the Chex had recorded the song. They were discovered by record producers Bob Wyld and Art Polhemus; the producers wanted a stronger vocalist, so they brought in Garry Bonner. The band later dubbed themselves the Magicians.
The resulting recording (released in October 1965) was described by Richie Unterberger as “superb moody pop/rock with a touch of blue-eyed soul, enhanced by an imaginative production highlighting ominous distorted guitar riffs, graceful tempo shifts, accomplished vocal harmonies, and Bonner’s anguished lead vocal”. Most of their songs though are not as psychedelic but are more mellow pop/rock.
The Magicians released three more singles on Columbia Records in 1966 and 1967, but none of them – including “An Invitation to Cry” – cracked the Top 100. (Same with Mouse and the Traps though – they released even more singles, and their biggest hit “A Public Execution” got only to #125 nationally – so that doesn’t mean a thing to me).
(December 2011)
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Items: An Invitation to Cry
