Song of the Day 6/22: Tommy James and the Shondells, “Crystal Blue Persuasion”

I don’t know if its the daily headline shitstorm or the mild summer weather, but all I want to listen to lately is laid-back tunes from the ’60s. And you can’t get much more laid-back than this.

The voluble James has told various stories about the song’s genesis — sometimes it was inspired by the title of a fan’s poem, others by the Book of Revelation — but back in the day lots of people, including prominent critic Dave Marsh, were convinced it was about speed, possibly because diet pills dubbed “robin’s eggs” were popular at the time. The claim never made much sense given the song’s laid-back vibe, but that didn’t stop a “Breaking Bad” episode from using it over a meth-cooking montage.

James originally wanted to give the song to a band he discovered called Alive ‘N Kickin’, but Morris Levy, the mobbed-up head of Roulette Records, told him he wasn’t giving away what sounded like a hit. (James instead gave them “Tighter, Tighter,” which became that band’s lone hit). But once he and the band recorded it, he decided the arrangement had obscured the song. He told Songfacts,

When we got it into the studio, we just overproduced it, plain and simple. We got it done and listened to it and we said, “That’s not the song we wrote.” I spent the next month or so going in the studio every week pulling stuff out and putting stuff in, trying to make it work. Finally, in about four weeks, we had pulled out the drums completely. We took out all the guitars except for my rhythm guitar on tremolo, and Eddie [Gray] had a little flamenco guitar part that he played. One keyboard, just kind of a trickling Hammond organ. And a bongo drum. And that was it. About 80 percent of the instruments on there, we had to pull out. We let it breathe.”

Traces of other instruments remain — horns pop through occasionally — but the spare arrangement, as on the Rascals’ “Groovin’,” is what gives the song its relaxing, blissful effect. Levy was right about the tune’s potential — it was No. 12 on the year-end chart though it never reached No. 1. It spent 3 weeks at No. 2, stuck behind “In the Year 2525.” It seems people preferred apocalyptic predictions of doom to peace, good and brotherhood, just like today, but look at which song stood the test of time.

Lots of people have covered the song, including Wesley Stace, better known as John Wesley Harding, who included a live version on his 1991 LP “The Name Above the Title.”