Your forgotten late-60s pop song of the day is “Something in the Air,” by the group called Thunderclap Newman. It was a minor hit during the summer months of 1969, hitting #37 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the UK Singles chart. It’s a dreamy little ditty, all about the revolution being here. (In fact, the song was initially titled “Revolution” but renamed so as not to invoke confusion with the Beatles’ tune of the same name.)
Thunderclap Newman, the group, was named after Andy “Thunderclap” Newman, the group’s piano player. The group also consisted of Speedy Keen, who played drums and sang lead, and Jimmy McCulloch on guitar. Playing bass on this recording is friend of the band Pete Townsend, under the pseudonym of Bijou Drains.
The band was put together by Mr. Townsend to showcase the writing talents of Mr. Keen, who had previously written “Armenia City in the Sky” for The Who Sell Out album. Mr. Keen wrote “Something in the Air,” and Mr. Townsend produced the single and did the string arrangement, too.
The song itself is interesting for its quasi-psychedelic arrangement and its numerous key changes, which all sound very natural. It starts out in E major, modulates to F# major in the second verse, and then to C major for Mr. Newman’s barrelhouse piano solo in the bridge. Following that, the song goes back up to Ab major for the final verse. Unusual but pretty cool.
The band Thunderclap Newman, as it were, recorded one album and released a handful of singles, but “Something in the Air” was the only thing that stuck. To support the single, the band played a few live gigs, without Mr. Townsend but augmented by some other musicians, disbanding in April of 1971.
Jimmy McCulloch went on to play guitar for Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles band, Wings, and died of heroin-induced cardiac arrest in 1979, just 26 years old. Speedy Keen did a little recording on his own and produced Motorhead’s first album, but left the music industry in the late ’70s; he died of heart failure in 2002, aged 56. Thunderclap Newman (the person) recorded a solo album in 1971 then dropped out of the music industry completely until 2005, when he reformed Thunderclap Newman (the band) with a bunch of ringers; he passed away in 2016, aged 73. Bijou Drain, otherwise known as Pete Townsend, is still alive and kicking and performing with Roger Daltry as part of the Who.
