Anything You Choose

Anything You Choose: Spanky and Our Gang and the Close of the '60s Pop Era

Spanky and Our Gang were a Chicago-based folk-pop vocal group that found considerable commercial success in the middle years of the 1960s before the decade's rapidly shifting musical fashions began to limit their chart reach. The group was built around the commanding presence of Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane, whose warm, distinctive contralto voice gave the ensemble its most recognizable element. McFarlane was joined by Nigel Pickering, Malcolm Hale, Kenny Hodges, and Oz Bach in the group's classic lineup, with various personnel changes occurring over the course of their recording career.

The group had achieved their commercial peak with a series of Top 40 hits between 1967 and 1968, including "Sunday Will Never Be the Same," which reached number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967, and "Lazy Day" and "Like to Get to Know You," both of which also performed strongly on the chart. These successes established Spanky and Our Gang as one of the more commercially viable acts in the soft pop and sunshine pop genres that flourished alongside the harder rock sounds of the era. Their label home was Mercury Records, one of the major independent labels that had been a significant force in American popular music throughout the 1950s and into the rock era.

Recording and Release of "Anything You Choose"

"Anything You Choose" was released in early 1969, representing one of the group's later commercial efforts as both the 1960s pop era and the group's own commercial momentum were winding down. The song was recorded for Mercury Records and produced within the framework that had shaped the group's earlier hits: close vocal harmonies, melodic accessibility, and the warmth of arrangement that characterized the soft pop tradition. By 1969, however, the commercial landscape had shifted considerably, with psychedelic rock, progressive rock, and the harder sounds emerging from the American counterculture occupying increasing space on both the chart and in critical discourse.

The production of "Anything You Choose" maintained the group's characteristic sound even as it incorporated some of the more contemporary orchestral and arrangement touches that were becoming prevalent in late-1960s pop. Spanky McFarlane's vocal remained the most distinctive element, her voice carrying a maturity and emotional resonance that set the group's recordings apart from lighter pop contemporaries. The song was written in the tradition of the romantic declaration, offering a statement of unconditional commitment that suited McFarlane's expressive delivery.

Billboard Hot 100 Performance

The single debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on February 15, 1969, entering at position 95. Its chart journey was brief: the following week it moved to 88, and then to its peak of number 86 during the week of March 1, 1969. The song spent only 3 weeks on the chart in total, one of the shorter runs in the group's commercial history and a reflection of the more competitive and fragmented chart environment of early 1969.

The modest performance of the single relative to the group's mid-decade successes was part of a broader pattern for many pop acts of the mid-1960s who found the late-decade market increasingly difficult to navigate. The Hot 100 in early 1969 was populated by a diverse array of musical styles and artists, from Sly and the Family Stone to Tommy James and the Shondells, and the space for the gentle folk-pop harmonies that Spanky and Our Gang specialized in was narrowing.

The Group's Legacy and Historical Position

Spanky and Our Gang occupied a specific and historically important niche in the American pop landscape of the 1960s. They were part of the folk revival tradition that had migrated from the coffee-house circuit into mainstream commercial pop, bringing with them an emphasis on vocal craft and melodic sophistication that distinguished their work from the rawer ends of the rock spectrum. Elaine McFarlane's voice, in particular, is recognized by historians of the period as one of the more distinctive and expressive of the era, and the group's best recordings hold up well as examples of professional pop craft at a high level of execution.

"Anything You Choose" is a relatively minor entry in their catalog, but it documents the group at a transition point, still capable of reaching the chart but working against a commercial tide that was increasingly flowing away from their particular strengths. Mercury Records continued to promote the group through the period, and McFarlane would go on to perform and record in various contexts for decades after the group's commercial run concluded.