Last week, I swung by the inimitable Popsheep, heard this song, and was so immediately into it that I leapt over to eBay and (luckily) managed to score a sealed vinyl copy. I am so incredibly happy that this sort of thing can still happen to me.

::: Cross Country - Just A Thought :::

Of course the catch here is that it’s not a new record. Pretty damn old, actually: it’s an obscure one-off release from 1973. At first, I wasn’t able to find out much of anything about the album (though there was this generous bit from XGau’s Consumer Guide: “Move over, Arthur, Hurley & Gottlieb–these guys make Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young sound like Crosby & Young. Grade: D“).

But in the end, just a bit more research turned up some deeper info: Cross Country are actually none other than the mother-effing Tokens (maybe you’ve heard their ‘61 hit? A little something called “The Lion Sleeps Tonight?”), minus one member. This was a final, early 70’s-style swan song from the band, before they lapsed into inactivity for nearly 20 years (though they returned in the late 80’s in their “classic” Doo Wop incarnation, The Tokens).

I haven’t received the LP just, so I can’t make a call, but I’ve got the feeling that this record’s gonna fall somewhere between Nilsson Schmilsson and I Am The Cosmos, and that would be just fine by me.