The Buckinghams: Foreign Policy (1969)

Very few today would even remember the MOR group the Buckinghams from the late Sixties. Their big hit was Kind of Drag ("when your baby don't love you") -- although Hey Baby ("they're playing our song") got a little radio mileage.

The Chicago-based Buckinghams (and think about that location in the late Sixties) were a close-harmony group like the the Ivy League out of Britain at the same time . . .  but being American at the time of the Vietnam war they also had something to say. Hence Foreign Policy written by their producer James William Guercio -- who also managed the careers of Chicago (the band) and Blood Sweat and Tears.

With a sample from a JFK speech, the Buckinghams were doing history as it (almost) happened.

Theirs was a short career (although there have been the inevitable reformations since they broke up on late '68) but they managed to a get out a Greatest Hits -- and oddly enough that is where Foreign Policy (which wasn't a hit) appears.

Clearly they wanted this to be out there in the world -- so let's oblige them all over again. Interesting one, prog-rock with politics.

For more one-offs, oddities or songs with an interesting backstory see From the Vaults.