Younger Than Yesterday

This is, obviously, apropos of nothing at all, but I just heard this record for the first time last Friday and I am a) absolutely bowled over and b) pissed that nobody ever told me about it before.

From 1965, please enjoy oddly underrated singer/songwriter Jackie DeShannon, backed by the original Byrds(!), and her "Splendor in the Grass."





Okay, the band performance is a little sloppy, but the song itself is ineffably touching, and the minute David Crosby comes in with that unmistakable low harmony I just lose it. DeShannon eventually released another much slicker version of the song, and there were a couple of covers by other artists -- there's one on YouTube by an L.A. band called The Boys that gives it the full Mamas and Papas treatment -- but the understatement of this one is moving and sweet in a way that the others just don't get near.

[h/t Andy "Folk-Rock" Pasternack]