Boyce & Hart — It’s All Happening On The Inside

Boyce & Hart’s third album came out in 1969 (it was actually released in Canada in 1968), very soon after their second record. It’s not quite a concept album, but it’s definitely thematic, and hangs together in a way appropriate to the time. If the title sounds a little bit heady, just remember what year it was, and then remember whose hands you’re in. Yeah, they’re gonna touch on a little gospel (“Maybe Somebody Heard”), they’re gonna do a little head-tripping (“It’s all happening / on the inside / get to know yourself / you’ll be surprised what you might find”), they’re gonna do a little social consciousness (“We’re All Going to the Same Place”). Make no mistake, even with grinding covers of “Jumping Jack Flash,” and “Standing In the Shadows of Love,” this is their best album. “Strawberry Girl” is a rocker that should have been covered to death, and should have been the single. As it was the only biggish single from this was “Alice Long,” which is also a great song but a little too pop for the tastes of 1969.

Clearly I bought this at Desert Shore, and clearly I tried to get the price sticker off. I was half-successful.

By the way, in Canada, this was released as “Which One’s Boyce and Which One’s Hart,” which must have been the cover I saw most often, because it’s the name that has always stuck with me.