Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich - "The Legend of Xanadu"

Histories of sixties pop music always pretty much skirt over the likes of the Dave Dee gang, preferring instead to perpetrate the myth that everyone was sitting around listening to 'Hendrix' in a pair of purple loon pants smoking pot, getting worked up about the Vietnam war.

This stuff is the real sound of the 'swinging sixties' or whatever, along with similarly cutting edge acts like Herman's Hermits. The stuff that the milkmen were whisting and the stuff that was pumping through the giant wooden speakers on the factory floor. It's the aural equivalent of a Carry On film. Check the cover of "The Loos of England" for further proof.

Note the subtle hierarchy going on with this band. Frontman Dee gets to use his proper name, rather than some playground nickname derived from the size of his conk. They also look like they've been assembled to make the average-looking Dee appear more attractive than he actually is.

While The Beatles were droning on about revolutions and holes in the Albert Hall, Dave Dee and the gang were producing infinitely more innovative paeans to the capital of the Mongol empire, complete with genuine whip-cracking.

Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Titch - The Legend of Xanadu