The British Invasion was a decidedly male dominated invasion force of groups, ho wever, there were smaller cadre's

of male duos and solo artists. The Duo's in th e stable of Brit acts including Peter and Gordon and Chad and Jeremy as the most notable. It was the Simon and Garfunkle factor of lilting harmonies and perfect pitch that propelled these two-somes to the top of the charts. Peter Asher and Gordon Waller hit big with hits like "Please Lock Me Away" and others that seeme d to float effortlessly and lyrically with beatiful harmonies. The Asher name ma y also be familiar as Peter's sister, Jane Asher was the girlfriend at the time of Paul McCartney. Chad and Jeremy neither of which had a sister that dated a Be atle, rocketed to the top of the pop charts with "That Was Yesterday and Yesterd ay's Gone," among others. Sunshine came softly to the Sunshine Superman, who in a live version of Mellow Y ellow admitted he was mad about Safron and also 14 year old girls! Donovan Leitc h emerged from the British folk scene and brought a "folk you" attitude to the m usic charts on both sides of the Atlantic. He was generally compared to Bob Dyla n, but there were too many differences, including the fact that Dylan sang about politics and social injustice, whereas Donovan gave us a working manual to Wear Our Love Like Heaven. Dylan was Cold War Doom and Gloom while Donovan was more optimistic and concerne d with the innerself, peace and tranquility. Dylan favored working class jeans, workmans cap and boots, while Donovan wore cascading robes and sandals and liter ally wore flowers in his hair. Donovan, was a Scotsman, who took folk and blended it with psychedelia, a touch of jazz and pop, and packaged it for the record buy masses. His rise to fame dur ing the British Invasion rocketed after an appearace on Ready, Steady, Go, the B rit version of Bandstand. He now had entre' to the top of the pop mountain and q uickly became good friends with fellow folkie Joan Baez, Brian Jones of the Roll ing Stones and the Beatles. In fact, Donovan taught John Lennon a finger picking guitar style in the late Sixties. Eventually by the 70's and 80's, long after the British Invasion had lost it's l uster, the hipster and the hippie were replaced by the East Coast punks and and the West Coast grunge. Donovan simply faded away to borrow a phrase from General Douglas McArthur...Dylan and Donovan comparison? Well even now it's hard to put the two together. I have many t-shirts with Dylan's image emblazoned on them..b ut have yet to find even one with Donovan..wearing his love like heaven and chas ing down 14 yar old girls. The male solo acts included a ponytailed Welsh parody of the ultimate Lounge Liz ard, Tom Jones who gyrated his way into the hearts of the female species around the globe. He made a hairy chest and tight pants with frontal bulge sexy, probab ly inducing mastabutory activity among his female fans. These same women would o rgasmically toss their underwear on the stage whenever in the front row of one o f his concerts. It is still under investigation as to whether these female fans brought an extra pair along to toss or if they secretely removed them while seat ing and bouncing in their seats. Personally, this would have piqued my own curio sity and attention with all the fervor of a peeping Tom. Lesser known but quirky solo acts included Ian Whitcomb, an enigma as mysterious as the builders of the pyramids. Originally a member of one of Britains numerou s skiffle bands in 1957, he then formed a rock and roll band in 1959. Attending college in Dublin, Ireland he formed one of Irelands first blues bands, Bluesvil le in the early 60's, but he eventually went solo by 1965 with his hit "You Turn Me On" a raucous tune that including manic piano playing riffs and heavy breath ing with Ian pumping hard with 'huh, huh, huh, that's my song!" He was a hot com modity and appeared on pop TV shows in the US such as Shindig, Hollywood A Go-Go and yes, American Bandstand! Clark Caved finally when he saw the writing on the

wall and decided to cash in..better late than never Dicko, eh? Whitcomb toured as the opening act with the Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, and Kinks. But where were the Birds, or in English, not Brit mod pop, the girls? We had the Ronettes, the Crystals, the Supremes, and a ton of solo female acts blasting th e charts on this side of the Atlantic. The British Invasion did have a female si de to it that was as sexy as a pair of see through knickers and a large pair of knockers...taek for example..Busty Dusty Springfield!