“Something in the Air” by Thunderclap Newman

"Something in the Air" was the first single from Thunderclap Newman, the band Pete Townshend of the Who set in motion in 1969 to give Speedy Keen's songs a home. Keen wrote this one and sang it, and it sat at No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart for three weeks in July 1969. Hollywood Dream, the band's one and only album, didn't arrive until more than a year later.

It was an unlikely lash-up: Keen on drums, Townshend's art-college friend Andy "Thunderclap" Newman, a jazz pianist, and Jimmy McCulloch, a 15-year-old guitarist who would later play lead in Paul McCartney and Wings. Townshend produced it and did the string arrangement, and he's on bass too, credited as Bijou Drains. It has since turned up in films, on TV and in ads, and plenty of artists have covered it.

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