"Kites" is a ballad written by Hal Hackady and

Lee Pockriss Lee Julian Pockriss (January 20, 1924 – November 14, 2011) was an American songwriter who wrote many well-known popular songs and several scores for films and Broadway shows, mainly during the 1960s and 1970s. Early life and career Born in ...

. It was first recorded by

the Rooftop Singers The Rooftop Singers were an American country folk-singing trio in the early 1960s, best known for the hit " Walk Right In". The group was composed of Erik Darling and Bill Svanoe (vocals, guitar) with former jazz singer Lynne Taylor (vocals). ...

as their last single in 1967. The song then became a hit for Simon Dupree and the Big Sound, a group of the Shulman brothers, who went on to form the

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. I ...

band

Gentle Giant Gentle Giant were a British progressive rock band active between 1970 and 1980. The band were known for the complexity and sophistication of their music and for the varied musical skills of their members. All of the band members were multi-inst ...

. Their first releases had not been successful and they looked to their manager, John King, for inspiration. He suggested "Kites", which he had obtained from Robbins' Music. It was not their preferred style but King insisted. The song was recorded at

Abbey Road ''Abbey Road'' is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It is the last album the group started recording, although '' Let It Be'' was the last album completed before the band's break-up in April 1970. It was mostly ...

using unconventional instruments such as a wind machine and included a spoken interlude in Chinese, composed of "sweet nothings" and performed by the actress

Jacqui Chan Jacqueline "Jacqui" Chan (born 1939) is a Chinese-Trinidadian dancer, actress and singer. Early life Chan was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago to a Chinese mother and a Chinese-Russian father. Her parents had both migrated to British ...

, a friend of the band. The spoken words are in Mandarin, a language which she did not usually speak. One translation is: "I love you, I love you, My love is very strong. It flies high like a kite before the wind, Please do not let go of the string." The single reached number 8 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in late 1967 and, as an example of the early

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound effects and recording te ...

style, it has since appeared on many compilations, especially those themed around psychedelia. Music historian Paul Stump called it "one of the first pop singles to employ a bank of keyboards simultaneously for melodic and colouristic purposes". The specific keyboards featured are

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, and

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist ...

References

External links

Simon Dupree & The Big Sound
1967 songs 1967 singles Songs written by Lee Pockriss The Cyrkle songs Parlophone singles Macaronic songs {{1960s-rock-song-stub