Small Faces

The Small Faces came out of London in 1965 as four sharp-dressed mod kids with a rhythm-and-blues fixation and a singer, Steve Marriott, who could shout like a man twice his size. Ronnie Lane played bass, Kenney Jones drummed and Jimmy Winston handled the keyboards until Ian McLagan took over the organ stool in 1966. Singles like "Whatcha Gonna Do About It", "Sha-La-La-La-Lee" and the tough, pleading "All or Nothing" made them heroes of the mod crowd.

Then 1967 turned them paisley. "Itchycoo Park" floated off on a haze of lazy daydreams, and "Here Come the Nice" and "Tin Soldier" kept the run alive. Their masterstroke was Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake, a concept album that went to number one in Britain and was home to "Lazy Sunday", a jaunty knees-up that sounds like a pub singalong gone slightly cosmic.

Marriott quit in 1969 to start Humble Pie, and the other three carried on as the Faces with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood. When a reissue of "Itchycoo Park" hit the top ten in the mid-'70s the old gang regrouped; Lane soon left again, Rick Wills and later ex-Wings guitarist Jimmy McCulloch came aboard, and after the albums Playmates and 78 in the Shade it was over for good in 1978. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted them alongside the Faces in 2012.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.