4 August, 1967.

Why yes, the weekend has arrived and this just feels like the perfect start to a sunny Saturday. Okay, the fun in the sun is of the gardening kind, I won’t be blowing my mind and instead of ducks I’m feeding cats, but hey, the sentiment is still sort of the same. It’s the weekend, leave work responsibilities ’till next week and just chill.

Written by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane, founding members of the Small Faces, this was a non album release for the band in the UK, although it did feature on the US album There Are But Four Small Faces.

The song was initially banned by the BBC for it’s use of drug references, just the word ‘high’ was enough for Auntie to get her knickers in a knot back then. In response, the band came up with the story that Itchycoo Park was a piece of waste ground where they used to go as kids when they were bunking off school. The BBC believed them and the ban was quickly lifted.

So where is Itchycoo Park? Well, according to some, it was based on Little Ilford Park in Manor Park, East London and Itchycoo was a slang name for the stinging nettles that grew there. In an interview though, Steve Marriott claimed it was actually Valentine’s Park in Ilford where they would get stung by wasps, hence the name Itchycoo Park.

On its release this gave the band their first, and only, top twenty hit in the US when it reached number sixteen on the chart there. Worldwide it reached the top ten in six countries, including number one in Canada and New Zealand. Here in the UK it spent fourteen weeks on the chart and peaked at number three.