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YMMV / The Small Faces

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  • Americans Hate Tingle: One of the most infamous examples from The British Invasion. They had six Top 10 hits in their native Britain, with "Itchycoo Park" even making the Top 10 twice (#3 in its original 1967 issue, then #9 in a Christmas 1975 reissue). Meanwhile, in America "Itchycoo Park" was their only Top 40 hit, getting to #16 in Billboard. A lot of this came down to the band not being able to do much touring in the States because of work visa issues (partly because of restrictions deliberately targeting less successful British bands, and compounded when Ian McLagan got busted for drug possession). But oddly, the two later offshoot bands, Faces and Humble Pie, both did extremely well in America.
  • Signature Song: "Itchycoo Park," though the band would likely have preferred it to be "Tin Soldier." Both songs oddly overshadow their only UK #1, "All or Nothing".
  • Stuck in Their Shadow: Ronnie Lane, who had contributed greatly to the catalogue as well as essentially coming up with the idea for the "Happiness Stan" storyline on Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake, was largely overshadowed by the larger-than-life persona of Steve Marriott. This continued into the Faces, where Lane remained a lesser-known member than Rod Stewart and Ron Wood, despite writing many of the band's best-loved songs. And later his solo work was, and continues to be, very highly regarded by those who listened to it, but was not particularly successful (which was perhaps affected in part by the onset of Multiple Sclerosis, which prevented Lane from touring).

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