Here’s one you might not remember from the title but probably will once you hear it. Today’s classic song of the day is “Things I’d Like to Say” by a group called New Colony Six. Released in October of 1968, this single peaked at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100, #13 on the Cash Box Top 100, and #17 on Billboard’s Easy Listening chart.
New Colony Six was a group from Chicago that formed all the way back in 1964, when the members were all students at St. Patrick’s High School on Chicago’s northwest side. Some members of the group shared an apartment with members of Paul Revere & the Raiders and, in fact, originally wore pseudo-colonial uniforms like the other group.
Initially a garage rock band, New Colony Six had a local Chicago hit with the single “I Confess.” After they got a contract with Mercury Records, their new label steered them more towards the soft rock side of things, which led to their big hit, “Things I’d Like to Say.” That song was written by bandmembers Ronnie Rice and Les Kummel. They had a few more very minor hits after that, none breaking into the top forty, then broke up in 1974.
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, a fairly rare performance by New Colony Six on the April 3, 1969, episode of The Mike Douglas Show. They’d ditched the uniforms by this point in time.
