We were watching "It's a Bikini World" (1966) on TV, truly one of the 1960s most inspired and subversive youth films. Stephanie Rothman directed a cheapo cast including Bobby Pickett, Tommy Kirk (in two roles, hip and square) and the one and only Deborah Walley, and in true BEACH PARTY fashion the film manages to incorporate many great pop acts of the day. This one has Eric Burdon singing "We've Got to Get Out of This Place," the Castaways with their catchy "Liar Liar" number, and many more, a few of which have cerainly not stood the test of time, yet such is the energy of "It's a Bikini World" that viewers forgive all sins. Anyhow the Toys appeared and my heart went right out the window. I had almost forgotten about them, but when they sang their second hit "Attack" in the film a whole era came back. The lead singer Barbara Harris is, to make a long story short, among the half dozen most distinctive voices of the century.
I can see why, or so it is said, the Supremes felt threatened when "A Lover's Concerto" hit the airwaves in the autumn of 1965, and had their songwriters attempt to imitate the successful Toys formula, which to my ears melds together the falsetto and horns sound of the Four Seasons with a gospel "realness." White America, I suppose, felt reassured at hearing that "A Lover's Concerto" took its melody from a Bach piece, as though to reiterate that in a time of seething social change and anger, black people were appreciating the dead white males and their "timeless" music. Anyhow the Supremes hit right back with "I Hear a Symphony" but if you ask me, it's not half as good as the song it seeked to ape. And when the Toys released "Attack" a few months later they launched one of the strangest and most incandescent pop records of all time.
"All's fair in love and war," sing the Toys, and the real message seems to be, "All's fair in pop." Barbara Harris tries to wrap herself around the lilting, twisty, difficult melody, but she's no perfectionist, for I imagine that to properly sing the octave climbing melody of "Attack" you would have to record it one note at a time, the way Dusty Springfield was said to record. Harris attacks the tune as though her life depended on it, and if her hold on some of the notes seems slippery, it's all the more beautiful because you feel something is at risk. Yes, she's straining, and in "It's a Bikini World" even her miming looks uncomfortable, but if you think Tina Turner sang "River Deep Mountain High" with conviction, you're talking pallid imitation of Barbara Harris in ATTACK! River Deep and Attack also share a similar lyrical mise-en-scene, the singer talking about a love that has lasted through childhood, a love that time has made stronger than time itself, a sinewy vine that simply cannot be severed or cleaved. The other Toys provide suitable support, they're lovely, but really the song belongs body and soul to the lead singer, and eternal star, Barbara Harris (not the white actress whom I also like).