Hole in My Shoe

1967 single by Traffic

"Hole in My Shoe"

Single by Traffic

B-side

"Smiling Phases" (Capaldi, Winwood, Wood)

Released

August 1967

Genre

Psychedelic pop^[1]^[2]

Length

2:52

Label

Island WIP 6017
United Artists UA 50218

Songwriter(s)

Dave Mason

Producer(s)

Jimmy Miller

Traffic singles chronology

"Paper Sun"
(1967)

"Hole in My Shoe"
(1967)

"Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush"
(1967)

"Hole in My Shoe" is a song by English rock band Traffic featuring a spoken-word midsection by Chris Blackwell's stepdaughter, Francine Heimann, in which she tells a little story about a giant albatross. It was released as a single in 1967 and reached number 2 in the UK Singles Chart,^[3] number 22 in the German charts,^[4] and number 4 in Canada.^[5] Composed by guitarist Dave Mason, it was disliked by the other three members of the group who felt that it did not represent the band's musical or lyrical style.^[6]

Personnel

Musicians

Jim Capaldi – drums, backing vocals
Dave Mason – lead vocals, guitar, Mellotron, sitar
Steve Winwood – Hammond organ, bass guitar, piano, backing vocals
Chris Wood – flute, backing vocals
Francine Heimann – spoken word (uncredited)

Technical

Eddie Kramer – engineer
Jimmy Miller – producer

Cover version

In July 1984, Nigel Planer, who played Neil in the BBC sitcom The Young Ones , recorded a cover version of the song, which reached the same number 2 peak as the original.^[7] It also peaked at number 29 in Australia.^[8] His version featured Barbara Gaskin on backing vocals and was produced by Dave Stewart.^[9]

References

^ Stanley, Bob (13 September 2013). "The Golden Road: San Francisco and Psychedelia". Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop. Faber & Faber. p. 231. ISBN 978-0-571-28198-5.
^ Segretto, Mike (2022). "1967". 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Minute - A Critical Trip Through the Rock LP Era, 1955–1999. Backbeat. pp. 157–158. ISBN 9781493064601.
^ Traffic in the UK Charts Archived 2011-11-20 at the Wayback Machine, The Official Charts. Retrieved August 9, 2011.
^ "Chartverfolgung / Traffic / Single". Music Line (in German). Germany: Media Control Charts. Archived from the original on 23 October 2013. Retrieved 26 October 2011.
^ "RPM Top 100 Singles - November 4, 1967" (PDF).
^ Black, Johnny (May 1997). Feature: Steve Winwood Archived 2011-09-28 at the Wayback Machine, Mojo.
^ "UK Charts - neil". www.officialcharts.com. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
^ "Top 100 End of Year AMR Charts - 1980s". australian-charts.com. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
^ "Neil - Hole in my shoe". www.discogs.com. 1984. Retrieved 30 May 2014.