46: THE SMALL FACES
Here Come The Nice/ Talk To You
(Immediate, 1967)

I COULD have chosen just about any Small Faces single for this list, to be honest.

I love them all unreservedly, and I'm already kicking myself gently but firmly for not opting for the hymnal glory of Afterglow Of Your Love, the bruising mod soul of Tin Soldier or the chipper pop psych of Itchycoo Park.

However, for the moment I've opted for Here Come The Nice because its opening bars always make me feel warm, contented and well disposed towards my fellow man - a combination which, I'm ashamed to say, comes along less and less these days.

In early 1967, The Small Faces jumped ship from the staid "old school" environs of Decca Records to join the hip and happening roster of Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate label.

Immediate, arguably the most iconic 1960s independent label, was always destined for glorious failure without a firm hand on the financial tiller. However, in its early days its laissez-faire outlook and youthful exuberance allowed some wonderful music out of the traps and on to the airwaves.

Here Come The Nice was a rather overt paean to amphetamines, the drug of choice for up-all-night ravers like The Small Faces and their equally wired fan base. To the band's larkish delight, the single escaped censorship by dint of the fact that the nation's arbiters of taste simply didn't seem to know what the song was quite blatantly on about.

At this point in their career, The Small Faces were just irresistible. Psychedelics had blunted the harsher edges of their ever-irreverent personalities and drawn them closer together, giggling uncontrollably while entering a creative renaissance which would eventually lead them to 1968's joyfully bendy "concept" album of sorts, Ogden's Nut Gone Flake.

Prior to The Small Faces, no one had really figured out that Sam Cooke and Max Miller could occupy a common ground, but in their best work Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan and Kenny Jones combined a genuine knack for teasing out the subtle nuances of deep soul with a swaggering, cuff-round-the-ear impishness - and it worked beautifully.