It's up for debate whether the title of best British Invasion band never to really make it stateside belongs to the Zombies or the Small Faces, but Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones, and Jimmy Winston (later replaced by Ian McLagan)--whose band name combines a reference to their short stature with Mod slang for "trendsetter"--certainly enjoy a critical reputation and lasting influence far out of proportion to their commercial success. Their career can be divided into two parts according to their record label at the time: Decca (1965-67) finds the sartorially sharp quartet majoring in amphetamine-fuelled R&B aimed directly at mod dance floors. Especially ace are their debut 45, "What'cha Gonna Do About It," its pivotal riff cheekily pilfered from the Solomon Burke soul shouter "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love," and the organ-propelled instrumental "Grow Your Own," which melds sonic savagery to a Booker T. & the MGs groove. Immediate (1967-69) sees the band develop their unique brand of Cockney music-hall psych, best exemplified by the proto Brit-pop anthem "Lazy Sunday" and their brilliantly bonkers concept album Ogden's Nut Gone Flake, not to mention their largest U.S. hit, "Itchycoo Park"--the first British record to make use of phasing or flanging. They never left R&B behind, of course, as that record's followup "Tin Soldier" demonstrates, and after the band's split in 1969 both factions would follow that course: Marriott in Humble Pie with Peter Frampton and Lane, Jones, and McLagan in the no-longer-small Faces with Rod Stewart and Ron Wood. The band would reunite sans Lane in 1977 for two lackluster albums, Playmates and 78 in the Shade, but it is entirely on their 1960s output that the Small Faces' formidable reputation rests.
