The Wikipedia says that "Heart Full Of Soul" made it to number 9 on the chart, but I don’t remember ever hearing it on New York radio. Then again, it was released on June 9th, and shortly thereafter I went to camp. No, upon reflection, I didn’t go to Camp Laurelwood until August. How come I don’t know this track?

Actually, I do. It was a cover on Gary Lewis & the Playboys’ album "She’s Just My Style".

I was an album kind of guy. Even back to my single digits. I remember buying the full length "Ruff & Reddy" LP, from the beginning I was a COLLECTOR! My mother bought us some singles, like "Big Girls Don’t Cry", but after the Beatles hit, I was only into full-lengths. They were a better deal. I mean if I liked the band anyway…

"She’s Just My Style" was not Gary Lewis’ first hit. That was "This Diamond Ring". Which cowriter Al Kooper originally saw as an R&B number, hear him do it how he envisioned it live. But Al came around to appreciating Gary’s take when the record ascended the chart! And I didn’t buy that album, but I did buy its follow-up, "A Session With Gary Lewis And The Playboys", for it was clear he was not a one hit wonder, I liked "Count Me In" and "Save Your Heart For Me". But, Gary didn’t have quite enough original material, he filled out his discs with covers, hits of the day. That’s how I became enraptured with "Run For Your Life", via Gary’s take, on "She’s Just My Style".

Oh, I knew "Down In The Boondocks" and "You Didn’t Have To Be So Nice", its compatriots on side two… But I didn’t buy "Rubber Soul" when it came out. No hits. And I had a limited amount of money in my pocket. But "Run For Your Life" was the opening cut on the second side, the closer was "Heart Full Of Soul".

A great song can be done by anyone. Unlike today’s rhythm wonders, in the sixties you could pick up a guitar and play the hits of the day in your living room. Written by one Graham Gouldman, "Heart Full Of Soul" has a certain magic. But Gary Lewis’ version doesn’t hold a candle to the original. It’s the same song, but it’s a completely different RECORD! The Yardbirds take is the Holy Grail.

On one hand, the original "Heart Full Of Soul" sounds like the American West. An introspective number made for a long, late night drive across the vast plains. But, it has this black and white darkness like so many of the British Invasion records. Southern California records evidenced sunshine, English discs evidenced darkness.

The reason we cannot forget the classic sixties tracks is because they lacked nothing. "Heart Full Of Soul" not only has a great verse and chorus, sung rapturously, there’s a magical element that sounds as fresh today as it did forty years ago, Jeff Beck’s guitar.

Once upon a time, fuzztone was new. The pure distortion contained in "Heart Full Of Soul", and its chart compatriot "Satisfaction", represented the rule-challenging, limitless mind-set of the baby boom generation. We wouldn’t be held back, and if we pissed off our elders along the way, so be it. Best friends with our parents, like mothers and daughters today? IMPOSSIBLE!

But it’s not only the fuzzbox, Beck’s pure solo in the middle is an aural journey. A mini movie. In the center of this not quite three minute ditty is an entire western, your mind is set free to explore.

But let’s not underestimate Keith Relf. The way he sings both casually and intensely. He means it, but he sings almost like he doesn’t care. Until the chorus. There’s a sneer in the verses, but warmth in the chorus. This is not the rock star who loves ’em and leaves ’em, this is the boy in a man’s body who sidles up to you and doesn’t want to be forgotten, who pines for you after you’ve dumped him.

Listening to the oldies stations you oftentimes have a hint of recognition, but ultimately hit the button. You remember, but you don’t want to hear the record. It either wasn’t that good, too dated, not special enough, or you’ve just heard it too damn many times. But then there are numbers that act like a medicated stent, when you hear them a passageway is instantly cut back to the era when they first hit. You can see your whole life in reflection, from today to adolescence. With the detritus of victories and failures not normally in the front of your brain in high relief.

Maybe it wouldn’t have played as well during the daytime. But "Heart Full Of Soul" sounded like one of the best records ever cut when it poured out of my car speakers late last night, broadcast from Washington, D.C. to me via XM’s Sixties on Six.