Coldest Night of the Year (Twice As Much [with Vashti Bunyan])

21 JANUARY 1966

The English sike-pop duo Twice as Much recorded the gorgeous track ‘Coldest Night of the Year’ with folk singer Vashti Bunyan in 1966, although it was not released as an album track until 1968. Even then the album (‘That’s All’) bombed. This song really deserved much better.

One of the great things about this period in music history is going back to discover the large amount of genuinely good songs that you never hear now because they failed to chart, for one reason or other. Maybe it was bad marketing, bad timing, muddy production, whatever. Songs that, if they were re-recorded by a mainstream artist now, would probably sell a million.

This song was written by Mann and Wiel (‘On Broadway’, ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling’). Vashti’s vocal performance is what makes this recording so good, although she had zero success as an artist until being ‘rediscovered’ in the 2000s.