The Hydrogen Jukebox: "Anyway I Can"

Spinning a proto-power pop gem from the late 60s Cleveland group The Choir.

Dropping another song into the Hydrogen Jukebox today, and it’s another power pop-adjacent track (I promise every one of these songs won’t fit into this category).

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon, in his stellar essay “Tragic Magic: Reflections On Power Pop Occasioned by the release of Keep Your Eye on the Sky (Rhino Records, 2009),” writes the following about my beloved genre:

“[A]n astonishing amount of effort and genius and chops has been expended by the practitioners of power pop to create a large number of equally well-crafted, tightly played, buoyant- yet-wrenching surefire hit songs that went nowhere, moved no units, never made it out of the band’s hometown, or came heartbreakingly close to Hugeness before sinking”

Like its sibling genre garage rock, power pop lends itself to the excellent compilation filled with many different bands who’ve all put out at least one absolutely knockout song. Because of its roots in early-to-mid 60s rock and roll that was driven by the single, power pop doesn’t lend itself to the album format.

I’ve often imagined how, if The Oneders Wonders in That Thing You Do! were a real group that they’d have the best song on Nuggets or Poptopia. They’re not quite one-hit wonders because the songs don’t quite break through to that national level of ubiquity, but the group’s will produce at least one single that you find yourself listening to over and over.

You also get bands breaking up and reforming as different groups, and thus bands only putting out one album (or only a couple of singles) before they split up (and then form as a different group with a slightly different lineup). This churn makes it tough to produce an entire album, but still makes it possible to get out that killer single destined to be bought up and passed around in their home city.

One of the seemingly infinite examples of this kind of thing comes from a late 60s group called The Choir and a song entitled “Anyway I Can”

Since this is from the late 60s, it’s more proto-power pop than the actual thing. But The Choir, a band from Cleveland, featured Dave Smalley, Wally Bryson, and Jim Bonfanti, all of whom would go on to be a part of the seminal and foundational power pop group The Raspberries (along with singer Eric Carmen). But, in what seems like a classic power pop move, only Bonfanti is playing on this song in this iteration of the band (which was penned by Phil Giallombardo).

There’s also something decidedly… insular about the power pop world. The members rotate between different groups and will be in multiple bands throughout their career (Bryson would go on to be a member of Fotomaker, who put out an important track, "Where Have You Been All My Life”).

You can hear that Beatles-esque appreciation for the melody “Anyway I Can,” particularly in the song’s chorus. The power of the song, what makes it fit amongst other power pop tracks, is Bonfanti’s drumming. It’s a sneak preview of what Bonfanti will bring to Raspberries tracks like “Go All The Way” and “I Wanna Be With You.”

There’s also a decidely baroque pop element to this song. The Left Banke’s “Walk Away Renee” is used as a comparison, but I hear more of “I’ve Got Something on My Mind”

Honestly, I could probably cook up a whole jukebox worth of songs like this, but I’ll try to take us in a new direction for the next song in this series. But, until then, enjoy “Anyway I Can” by The Choir.