The Small Faces were one of the great British rock bands of the 1960s. Formed in London in 1965, they started out rooted in R&B, soul and the mod scene, led by the distinctive, powerful voice of Steve Marriott, with Ronnie Lane on bass, Kenney Jones on drums and Ian McLagan on keyboards. They had a string of British hits, including All or Nothing, before moving into more adventurous psychedelic territory.
“Itchycoo Park” was released in August 1967, right in the middle of the psychedelic/Summer of Love era. It was written primarily by Ronnie Lane, with Steve Marriott, and became their biggest international hit:
- 🇬🇧 #3 in Britain
- 🇺🇸 #16 in the United States
- 🇨🇦 #1 in Canada
What makes the record particularly interesting is its dreamy, psychedelic production. It uses an early form of flanging/phase-shifting, which gives parts of the recording that swirling, almost underwater quality. For 1967, that was a pretty innovative studio effect.
The lyrics describe escaping to a magical, beautiful place—“Itchycoo Park”—but there is clearly a druggy, psychedelic undertone to the song. The famous references to getting “high” were sufficiently obvious that the band sometimes offered more innocent explanations, such as playing truant and going off to a childhood playground.
And there is a fun mystery surrounding the name. Nobody seems to have settled definitively on exactly which real place was “Itchycoo Park.” Various East London parks have been proposed, including Little Ilford Park and Valentine’s Park. Steve Marriott himself apparently identified Valentine’s Park at one point, while other accounts point toward places around Manor Park and Ilford.
The song is a terrific example of what made the Small Faces special: a hard-driving R&B/mod band suddenly making something whimsical, psychedelic and beautifully English, without losing the energy of a rock-and-roll group. It also points toward the even more ambitious music they would make on Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake the following year.