| "Handbags and Gladrags" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Stateside (Australia) record cover | ||||
| Single by Chris Farlowe | ||||
| B-side | "Everyone Makes a Mistake" | |||
| Released | 17 November 1967 | |||
| Recorded | Early 1967 | |||
| Genre | Rhythm and blues, blue-eyed soul | |||
| Length | 3:30 | |||
| Label | Immediate | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Mike d'Abo | |||
| Producer(s) | Mike d'Abo | |||
| Chris Farlowe singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Handbags and Gladrags" is a song written in 1967 by Mike d'Abo, who was then the lead singer of Manfred Mann. D'Abo describes the song as "saying to a teenage girl that the way to happiness is not through being trendy. There are deeper values."[1]
The first released version of the song was by Chris Farlowe in 1967, followed by Love Affair on their The Everlasting Love Affair album in 1968, and later interpretations by Rod Stewart (1969) and Stereophonics (2001) were also commercially successful. An arrangement by Big George was the theme for The Office starting in July 2001.
The demo tape of the original version of the song was discovered in 2004 in a closet belonging to bassist Mo Foster. It was amongst a collection of studio recordings d'Abo had recorded in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The collection was eventually released in 2004, on the Angel Air label, under the title Hidden Gems & Treasured Friends.[2]
- ^ Goodman, Chris (9 February 2003). "From Gladrags to Riches". Sunday Express. Express Newspapers. p. 66.
- ^ "Hidden Gems & Treasured Friends". Angel Air Records. Retrieved 7 June 2009.