“Pretty Ballerina” (The Left Banke)

You probably know the Left Banke from their huge hit, “Walk Away Renee.” It’s a great tune but it wasn’t the group’s only hit. They followed up that one with another single, “Pretty Ballerina,” which is today’s classic song of the day. This baroque pop tune entered the charts in January of 1967 and went to #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #12 on the Cash Box Top 100.

Like “Walk Away Renee,” Left Banker Michael Brown wrote “Pretty Ballerina” about a girl on whom he had a major league crush, one Renée Fladen. Ms. Fladen, a budding ballerina, was at the time the girlfriend of the group’s bass player, Tom Finn, and thus inaccessible to Mr. Brown. Too bad, but this infatuation inspired three pretty good tunes (“Walk Away Renee,” “Pretty Ballerina,” and the lesser-known but still terrific “She May Call You Up Tonight”).

“Pretty Ballerina” was a fairly sophisticated composition with an equally sophisticated arrangement. It wasn’t your typical guitar/bass/drums garage band affair; the track featured an oboe solo and a string quartet, in addition to the typical rock band rhythm section. That chamber music orchestration helped define the baroque pop genre and gave the recording its unique sound.

The song “Pretty Ballerina” was sophisticated enough to catch the attention of legendary conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein. On the CBS television special, Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution, Bernstein commented that the song was “the perfect example of what rock music could be.” He pointed out that “this tune is built, not in the usual major or minor scale, but in a combination of the Lydian and Mixolydian modes. Imagine that.” Yes indeed, imagine that—a Lydian mode tune composed by a 17 year-old rock and roller. You don’t hear that every day.

Michael Brown and Renée Fladen never did get together. Ms. Fladen (now known as Renée Fladen-Kamm), became a respected classical vocalist and vocal coach, known for her recordings of medieval music as the vocal director of the Berkeley-based Sherwood Consort. Mr. Brown stayed in the music business but didn’t have any other big hits; he passed away in 2015, at the age of 65.

And here’s today’s daily bonus video of the day, the complete April 25, 1967, broadcast of Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution. Leonard Bernstein discusses “Pretty Ballerina” at about the 8:10 mark.