"Green Circles" is a song by English rock bandSmall Faces first recorded in 1966. While not issued as a single in the United Kingdom, it was originally intended as the B-Side of "Here Come the Nice", their first single release on Immediate Records, this release was cancelled and the B-Side was replaced with "Talk to You." It remains one of the group's most well known and influential songs, and showcases the group's venture into psychedelic music, which would be prevalent in their later work, such as on "Itchycoo Park", "Lazy Sunday" and Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake.
Song profile
The song was written by Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane and Michael O'Sullivan, it was recorded on 13 December 1966 at IBC Studios at a session attended by Melody Maker journalist Nick Jones. The group resumed further work added at Olympic Studios on 28 February 1967, Olympic Studios was the same studio the band recorded most of their tracks while signed to Immediate. It was the last track on side one of the band's second studio albumSmall Faces and features Ronnie Lane on lead vocals. The song got its release in the US on the albumThere Are But Four Small Faces in December 1967. The inspiration for the lyrics came after Michael O'Sullivan, a friend of the group, lived at their residence for a while. He is therefore listed as a writer for the song and became the only person not in the group to receive songwriting credits on the album. Set in B-flat major, the song is described as highly psychedelic, and it is about the topic of being visited by a enlightened stranger. The recording engineers for the track are John Pantry, Glyn Johns and George Chkiantz, who was responsible for the flanging effect both heard on this song, and later on "Itchycoo Park". Johns and Chkiantz were also featured as the recording engineers on most tracks of the album. Small Faces made appearance on Beat-Club on 23 September 1967, in which they mimed the song, along with "Itchycoo Park". Earlier versions can be found on the Here ComesThe Nice boxset.
The 1968 song "Hurdy Gurdy Man" by Donovan may have taken inspiration from the song, the similarity is in the melody of the descending verse, the odd vocal delivery, and the topic of being visited by an stranger. In 2012, Donovan revealed that he had become friends with Small Faces in 1965.
British pop duoTwice as Much covered the track for their second studio album That's All in 1968.
