Larry Steele, “Daylight Losing Time”

Haven’t seen this one elsewhere on the web – Larry Steele’s original recording of his goofball shuffle classic “Daylight Losing Time”. Larry cut this during a brief stint in the mid-60s when he was tied in with Aubrey Mayhew, and it came out on Pickwick’s Hilltop label, the imprint Mayhew used before he formed Little Darlin’. Most Hilltop releases were reissues of tracks of sketchy origin, licensed from folks like Four Star’s Bill McCall, destined for bargain bins; but for a brief window, Mayhew used it to put out new singles intended to compete on the erstwhile C&W charts. This is one of those, and it’s a fine one. The lyric is a little silly in its high-concept way, but I still think it’s effective. Larry’s a good singer, and the steel playing is great, even if it is too far back in the mix. Steele went on to release a rash of 45s on K-Ark in the second half of the 60s, some solid C&W and others in a poppier, rockier vein. He later revisited this tune on his own Air Stream label in the early 1970s, which was a smart move on his part. That version actually scraped the charts and sold a bit, so it is a lot easier to find. But here it is, his first stab at cutting it…enjoy!