Yellow Balloon
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| "Yellow Balloon" | |
|---|---|
 Cover of the 1967 French single | |
| Single by The Yellow Balloon | |
| from the album The Yellow Balloon | |
| B-side | "Noollab Wolley" |
| Released | February 1967 |
| Genre | |
| Length | 2:16 |
| Label | Canterbury |
| Songwriter | Gary Zekley |
| Producer | Yodar Critch |
"Yellow Balloon" was a song by The Yellow Balloon, included on the group's 1967 self-titled album. It was classified as being in the sunshine pop genre.
In late 1966, when Dean Torrence of Jan & Dean needed some songs for a new album, he enlisted the help of Gary Zekley, a talented Los Angeles singer/songwriter/producer Torrence had worked with previously. One of the songs Zekley gave Torrence was called "Yellow Balloon" and Torrence went on to record it. In the Torrence version, The last two lines in the bridge section of the song did not exist until after the recording was done. Those two lines from the bridge section were used in the Yellow Balloon's version of the song. The added lyrics are: "I know the sky's gonna get lighter/The sun's gonna shine a little brighter". The song is noted for its key change from F to G. The song is also noted for its change of time signature from 4/4 to 6/8 in the wordless verse with the "BA BAs", until it reverts to the 4/4 rhythm for the final repeated chorus, before the fade-out of the song.
Zekley was proud of the song, but was unenthused about Torrence's recording, so Zekley shopped the song to different labels. Among those whom Zekley visited was Ken Handler of Canterbury Records, who was very excited about the song and immediately set about having it recorded. Handler brought in noteworthy studio vocalists and musicians to add circular keyboard lines and a slight tremolo effect on the guitar. Mike Post played 12-string guitar.[3][4]