Song Of The Day 2/19/2015: Pickettywitch - "That Same Old Feeling"

None of the Puns I Came Up With For "Pye" Felt Right: Pickettywitch’s “That Same Old Feeling” is the most successful single we’re going to hear this week. It got to #5 on the British charts and established Polly Browne, whose surname was often misspelled Brown, as one of England’s most fetching ’70s singers. She was always a cool presence. Sort of like Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie combined in one person. She also had that laid-back, just-rolled-out-of-bed loopiness of Sheryl Crow. We could psychoanalyze her forever – or, based on that description, maybe we should all psychoanalyze me.

Browne had some input on the charts in the 1970’s, but this song was the only one that made much headway under the Pickettywitch moniker. She formed a duo called Sweet Dreams, who hit with a cover of ABBA’s “Honey Honey.” She split that scene and went solo with her only song to hit in America, “Up In a Puff of Smoke.” This was one of the songs featured on that ’70s mixtape I made a couple weeks ago. There’s some agreeable stuff on her career-spanning compilation. Browne was also part of one of the most blatant publicity stunts of the era when the papers started reporting her completely fake engagement to BBC television presenter Jimmy Savile. She thought the ruse was to boost sales of her single at the time. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to Polly, Savile was angling to cover up something much more nefarious. Yuck.

“That Same Old Feeling” was written by the songwriting team of Macaulay/Macleod. Tony Macaulay has a bunch of big hits to his credit: “Build Me Up Buttercup,” “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes),” “(Last Night) I Didn’t Get to Sleep At All,” “Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling,” and let’s not forget “Don’t Give Up On Us” which catapulted David “Hutch” Soul to one-hit immortality. I don’t have immediate information on what the Macleod part of that equation did on his own, but I’m sure it was vital to the entire organization.