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| "Kites Are Fun" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by The Free Design | ||||
| from the album Kites are Fun | ||||
| B-side | "The Proper Ornaments" | |||
| Released | 1967 | |||
| Genre | Soft pop | |||
| Length | 2:41 | |||
| Label | Project 3 | |||
| Songwriter(s) |
| |||
| Producer(s) | Enoch Light | |||
| The Free Design singles chronology | ||||
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"Kites Are Fun" is a song by American group The Free Design from their debut studio album by the same name.
"Kites Are Fun" is a 2-minute-41-second soft pop song switching between the keys of E major and A major, with a tempo of 138 beats per minute. The vocals range from F#3 to B4. The song is carried by instruments such as acoustic guitar, tambourines, bass guitar, soft drums and a flute.
The song, written by Chris Dedrick and produced by Enoch Light, uses kites to symbolize youth, innocence and memories, describing a group of children, presumably the Dedrick siblings, running, laughing and flying kites in a field far away from their parents because the parents don't realize that kites are fun.
On the B-side is a song titled "The Proper Ornaments."
A writer for Billboard magazine called it an "interesting rhythm item by a unique pop group," said it had "some of the feel" of previous sunshine pop hits from 1966 and 1967 such as "Yellow Balloon" by The Yellow Balloon and "Up, Up and Away" by The 5th Dimension. [1] A writer for Cashbox magazine described it as a "cute, bright and breezy glider with punchy lyrics — an easy-drifting ballad in the modern pop style," and compared the B-side to music from Spanky and Our Gang. [2] PopMatters writer Dylan Nelson wrote "There's something, aside from the haze of '60s sentimentalism that makes the song sort of trippy. Perhaps it’s the very notion of bringing such sophisticated arrangements and such polished sounds to a song so simplistic and childish that feels paradoxically radical." [3]
"Kites Are Fun" cracked the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart (an extension of the Hot 100) at number 114 at the end of 1967, [4] as well as number 33 on the adult contemporary chart, [5] becoming the group's only charting song.
"Reflections" is a 1967 song recorded by American soul music group The Supremes for the Motown label. The single release was the first Supremes record credited to "Diana Ross and the Supremes", and the song was one of the last Motown hits to be written and produced by Holland–Dozier–Holland before they left the label.
"Back in My Arms Again" is a 1965 song recorded by The Supremes for the Motown label.
"Love Child" is a 1968 song released by the Motown label for Diana Ross & the Supremes. The second single and title track from their album Love Child, it became the Supremes' 11th number-one single in the United States, where it sold 500,000 copies in its first week and 2 million copies by year's end.
"Up the Ladder to the Roof" is a 1970 hit single recorded by The Supremes for the Motown label. It was the first Supremes single to feature new lead singer Jean Terrell in place of Diana Ross, who officially left the group for a solo career two weeks before the recording of this song in January 1970. This song also marks a number of other firsts: it is the first Supremes single since "The Happening" in 1967 to be released under the name "The Supremes" instead of "Diana Ross & The Supremes", the first Supremes single solely produced by Norman Whitfield associate Frank Wilson, and the first Supremes single to make the United Kingdom Top 10 since "Reflections" in 1967.
The Winning Hand is a collaborative compilation album by Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and Brenda Lee. It was released on November 1, 1982, by Monument Records. The album was produced by Fred Foster, founder and chairman of the board of Monument, and contains some newly-recorded material as well as catalog material with new instrumental tracks. The album spawned two singles, the Parton and Nelson duet "Everything's Beautiful " and "You're Gonna Love Yourself in the Morning" by Lee and Nelson. The album also inspired a television special of the same name hosted by Johnny Cash, who had written the album's liner notes. The special featuring all four performers aired in over 150 markets in March and April 1985.
"Love Is Here and Now You're Gone" is a 1967 song recorded by the Supremes for the Motown label.
The Free Design was a Delevan, New York–based vocal group, whose music can be described as sunshine pop and baroque pop. Though they did not achieve much commercial recognition during their main recording career, their work later influenced bands including Stereolab, Cornelius, Pizzicato Five, Beck and The High Llamas.
"Why Do Fools Fall in Love" is a song by American rock and roll band Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers that was released on January 10, 1956. It reached No. 1 on the R&B chart, No. 6 on Billboard's Pop Singles chart, and No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart in July. Many renditions of the song by other artists have also been hit records in the U.S., including versions by the Diamonds, the Beach Boys, and Diana Ross.
Kites Are Fun is the first album by The Free Design, released in 1967. The group was signed to the Project 3 label after a demo recording that was completed with the assistance of the band's father.
"Send Me an Angel" is a song by the German rock band Scorpions, recorded for their 11th studio album, Crazy World (1990). The song was composed by Rudolf Schenker, written by Klaus Meine, and produced by Keith Olsen and the band. It was released as the album's fourth and final single in September 1991. Along with "Wind of Change", the song became the album's signature track, reaching number 44 on Billboard Hot 100 Chart on 25 January 1992, number 8 on the Mainstream Rock Chart on 19 October 1991, and high chart positions in many European countries.
"More Love" is a 1967 hit single recorded by the American soul group The Miracles for Motown Records' Tamla label. The single, included on the group's 1967 album Make It Happen, later reissued in 1970 as The Tears of a Clown. Kim Carnes's 1980 cover of the song reached the Top 10 of Billboard's Adult Contemporary and Hot 100 charts.
"The Happening" is a 1967 song recorded by Motown artists The Supremes. It served as the theme song of the 1967 Columbia Pictures film The Happening, and was released as a single by Motown at the time of the film's release that spring. While the movie flopped, the song peaked at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart in May, becoming The Supremes' tenth number 1 single in the United States, peaking in the top 10 on the UK Singles Chart at number 6, and in the top 5 in the Australian Pop Chart and in the Dutch Pop Chart.
"Forever Came Today" is a 1968 song written and produced by the Motown collective of Holland–Dozier–Holland, and was first made into a hit as a single for Diana Ross & the Supremes in early 1968. A disco version of the song was released as a single seven years later by Motown group the Jackson 5.
"Touch" is a soft ballad written by Pamela Sawyer and Frank Wilson, who also produced it as a single for Motown recording group The Supremes, who issued it as a single in 1971.
...Sing for Very Important People is a 1970 album by The Free Design. It was the band's fifth album. The album was a children's album, inspired in part by Peter, Paul and Mary's album Peter, Paul and Mommy of the previous year. ...Sing for Very Important People included a combination of original songs, covers, and a number of songs that had appeared on the band's previous albums: "Bubbles", "Daniel Dolphin" and "Kites Are Fun". "Little Cowboy" was written by Art Dedrick, father of most of the band's members.
"We'll Never Have to Say Goodbye Again" is a song by Jeffrey Comanor from the album A Rumor in His Own Time, which debuted in September 1976. Written by Comanor, the song describes a couple who spend a night together, one which the narrator wishes would "never end". Both the song, which Epic Records released as a single, and album failed to chart.
"Here We Go Again" is a country music standard written by Don Lanier and Red Steagall that first became notable as a rhythm and blues single by Ray Charles from his 1967 album Ray Charles Invites You to Listen. It was produced by Joe Adams for ABC Records/Tangerine Records. To date, this version of the song has been the biggest commercial success, spending twelve consecutive weeks on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at number 15.
"My Pledge of Love" is a song written and performed by singer-songwriter Joe Stafford, Jr. of the American rhythm-and-blues band Joe Jeffrey Group. It was released in April 1969, as the group's first single, and was produced by Jerry Meyers and Alan Klein. It appeared on the group's only album My Pledge of Love, which was released in 1974.
My Elusive Dreams is a studio album by American country artists David Houston and Tammy Wynette. It was released on Epic Records in August 1967 and contained ten tracks. It was the duo's first and only collaborative album together. My Elusive Dreams contained mostly duets between Houston and Wynette. The album was named for the title track, which topped the American country songs chart in 1967. Another single titled "It's All Over" also became a commercially-successful country song. The album received positive reviews following its release.
"An Open Letter to My Teenage Son" is a spoken-word song performed by American WMAX radio newscaster Victor Lundberg. Released in September 1967, the song was written by Robert R. Thompson and produced by Jack Tracy. The recording of Lundberg's vocals is played over "Battle Hymn of the Republic." It features on Lundberg's only album, "An Open Letter."