Happiness Stan (Small Faces) (LP 3807 - 3808)

Small Faces  Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake (CD, Castle Records, 1968) *****  

Small Faces  Ultimate Collection (2CD, Sanctuary Records, 2003) ***** 

Genre: Pop

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records, HMV

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: After Glow

Gear costume: Lazy Sunday, What'cha Gonna Do About It? (Ultimate Collection)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: I have mentioned their Autumn Stone album before in the blog, but not their celebrated album of 1968 - Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake. Famous for the circular packaging, some classic Small Faces songs and Stanley Unwin's off this planet links between songs.

I think of Small Faces as mostly a singles band, with one exception - Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake. Even this album is weird though, with a variety of styles plus the Happiness Stan story featuring Stanley Unwin.

Amongst all this psychedelic weirdness is some amazing, inspired music. As such, it became the band's crowning achievement.

Where do they all belong? A best of compilation like Ultimate Collection is the best place to start. It's a double CD split between Decca sessions and Intermediate sessions. So, you get stone cold classics all over the place.