Track Listing

1. Walk Away Renee
2. I Haven't Got The Nerve
3. Pretty Ballerina
4. She May Call You Up Tonight
5. I've Got Something On My Mind
6. Barterers And Their Wives
7. Let Go Of You Girl
8. What Do You Know
9. Evening Gown
10. Lazy Day
11. Shadows Breaking Over My Head
12. Ivy Ivy
13. Men Are Building Sand
14. Desiree
15. Dark Is The Bark
16. My Friend Today
17. Sing Little Bird Song
18. And Suddenly
19. Goodbye Holly
20. In The Morning Light
21. Bryant Hotel
22. Give The Man A Hand
23. Nice To See You
24. There's Gonna Be A Storm
25. Pedestal
26. Myrah

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #81059 in Music
• Released on: 1999-10-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

CD Description
THERE'S GONNA BE A STORM is classically influenced melodic 60s pop at its most gorgeous. The Left Banke was led by keyboardist/ songwriter Michael Browne, whose main influences were the British Invasion (Beatles, Zombies) and the Baroque (his father was a prominent New York City orchestral musician). The band's secret weapon, however, was Steve Martin, whose haunting near falsetto vocal style can bear comparison with the Zombies' great Colin Blunstone.
Although the group is principally remembered for their two big hits--the widelycovered "Walk Away Renee" and "Pretty Ballerina"--the reality is they had a lot of top grade material. The two-CD set THERE'S GONNA BE A STORM collects just about everything the group recorded, including "Desiree", the utterly haunting over-the-top masterpiece whose commercial failure essentially ended the group's career (in its day-- 1967--it was reputedlythe most expensive single record ever produced).

Customer Reviews

A necessary piece of the 60's art puzzle is found here
Not very succesful in the 60's, The Left Banke are today one of the most loved and underated gems of that decade. They were a group of teenagers, with an extraordinary skill in writing melodies, who met two middle-aged producers that knew everything about orchestrations. The result? A collection of perfect songs, most of them full of emotion, that penetrate deep inside. All their first album, and most of their second, is sensitive, full of armonies, surprises, songs with a two or three melodic lines... all touching, written to become a part of everybody's life emotional soundtrack. Maybe in their last days they forgot the art of writing a three minute emotional tragedy and worked too much on arrangements (like Millenium)... But what they had done already is hardly unforgetable.

Self Destructors
From the remnants of 2 1964 groups the Castels and the Morticians the Left Banke were born after first being known as the Magic Plants.In a case of having the right connections the father of one of the band had a production company and encouraged his son to go into music mainly because of the British Invasion which had opened endless possibilities for Americans.
Musically the Left Banke were not a garage band as such but regarded as closer to chamber pop-a name probably coined to fit their ethic- because their music took in strands of baroque music.
Though known as psychedelic its because of this-the same sounds influenced the Stones and the Beatles by 1965.
Walk away Renee was the first single and the biggest,spawning many covers.
After a hit follow up the problems started as the band began to crack at the seams leading to 2 different Left Bankes at one stage and confusion at radio stations.
A contingent of Left Bankes managed to make 3 albums and more singles but like most of the new breed of American band influenced by the British Invasion they didn't last into the 70s with various members going their seperate ways and into other bands.

mistake in description, not a 2Cd set.
In the description it says it's a 2CD set. Think this is wrong. I have only seen it as single CD. That said, this is a great CD which should be reissued and become available for a normal price again.