"Concrete and Clay" is a 1965 #1 hit single recorded by the UK pop group Unit 4 + 2: the song was written by group members Tommy Moeller and Brian Parker.
Recorded with the help of session musicians and featuring ("+2") Russ Ballard and Bob Henrit, "Concrete and Clay" details the indestructible love of the singer and his lover:
"The sidewalks in the street, the concrete and the clay
Beneath my feet begins to crumble, but love will never die
Because we'll see the mountains tumble, before we say goodbye"
The arrangement has a pronounced Latin influence, using acoustic guitars and a baion beat. These distinctive elements helped boost "Concrete and Clay" to the #1 position on the UK Singles Chart dated 10 April 1965.
American record producer Bob Crewe, best known for his work with the Four Seasons, had heard the Unit 4 + 2 hit version of "Concrete and Clay" while on a UK junket: Crewe resultantly had a cover version of "Concrete and Clay" cut by Eddie Rambeau, a staffwriter at Crewe's music publishing firm, this version being the inaugural release for Crewe's own DynoVoice Records. Although the Rambeau version's release predated the US release of the Unit 4 + 2 version by one week, both these "Concrete and Clay" singles debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 dated 8 May 1965 at respectively #96 (Unit 4 + 2) and #98 (Rambeau) with both singles making an essentially equal chart ascent over the next four weeks. The Hot 100 dated 29 May 1965 then showed the Unit 4 + 2 version making its Top 40 debut with an eleven position ascent to #38 while the Rambeau version showed signs of stalling with a six position ascent to #45. The subsequent Hot 100 - that dated 5 June 1965 - showed the Rambeau version ascending into the Top 40 at #35 while the Unit 4 + 2 version rose to #29; however on the Hot 100 dated 12 June 1965 the Rambeau version remained at #35 while the Unit 4 + 2 version ascended one a single position to #28 and both singles dropped off the Hot 100 over the next three weeks.
The success of "Concrete and Clay" in 1965 resulted in international cover versions that same year, with renderings in Swedish - "Du för mig" recorded by Lill Lindfors; in Finnish - "Tunti Vain" recorded by Johnny; in French - "Comment Elle-Fait" recorded by Richard Anthony; and in German - "Ein Fremder kam vorbei" recorded by Horst Wiegand.
Featured on albums by Gary Lewis and the Playboys (A Session with Gary Lewis and the Playboys/ 1965) and Cliff Richard (Kinda Latin/ 1966), "Concrete and Clay" was remade by Randy Edelman for his 1976 album release Farewell Fairbanks which otherwise comprised Edelman originals: issued as a single Edelman's "Concrete and Clay" became a UK hit reaching #11 in March 1976.
In 1986 a remake of "Concrete and Clay" by Martin Plaza (Mental as Anything) reached #2 in Australia; that same year Hong Kong Syndikat reached #26 in Germany with a remake of "Concrete and Clay" which reached #12 in France in 1987. Former Dexys Midnight Runners singer Kevin Rowland released a version of "Concrete and Clay" in 1999. Pete Byrne also covered it on his 2001 solo album The Real Illusion. They Might Be Giants attempted a version of "Concrete and Clay" in 1990: the uncompleted track was released as an MP3 in 2001.
The 1967 album Music to Watch Girls By by the Bob Crewe Generation features instrumental versions of several several Bob Crewe produced hits, including "Concrete and Clay".
The song also appeared in the motion picture Rushmore and was included on its accompanying soundtrack album. "Concrete and Clay" also featured in a Signal White NOW toothpaste commercial.
In 28 October 2011 a new version of "Concrete And Clay" was released on the Chance MUSIC record label based in Sydney Australia. First new version by original singer and co-writer Tommy Moeller in 47 years since his original "Concrete And Clay" version in 1964.
The Tommy Moeller Time album is dedicated to "Concrete And Clay" co-writer Brian Parker (1939 - 2001) and includes three other songs by Tommy Moeller and Brian Parker. The cover of Time shows Tommy Moeller at age 19 when he first sang Concrete And Clay, and in 2011 when a new version by Chance MUSIC was released.
Famous quotes containing the words concrete and, concrete and/or clay:
“A doctor, like anyone else who has to deal with human beings, each of them unique, cannot be a scientist; he is either, like the surgeon, a craftsman, or, like the physician and the psychologist, an artist.... This means that in order to be a good doctor a man must also have a good character, that is to say, whatever weaknesses and foibles he may have, he must love his fellow human beings in the concrete and desire their good before his own.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“Don’t feel guilty if you don’t immediately love your stepchildren as you do your own, or as much as you think you should. Everyone needs time to adjust to the new family, adults included. There is no such thing as an “instant parent.”
Actually, no concrete object lies outside of the poetic sphere as long as the poet knows how to use the object properly.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“He is in the tailor mending my pantsuit.
He is in Boston, raised up by the skyscrapers.
He is in the bird, that shameless flyer.
He is in the potter who makes clay into a kiss.
Heaven replies:
Not so! Not so!”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)