Here’s one of those songs you can pull out late in an evening when the weeknight dance party begins to get a little tired.  It’s a veritable tonic. Fun to dance to it also strikes people like an epiphany…“Oh I remember this!”

Hailed as the first British band to authentically emulate the Motown Sound, the Foundations were remarkable for their size (eight members), for their ethnic and musical mix and for their diversity in ages. Jamaican Saxophonist Mike Elliot was 38, while local-born drummer Tim Harris was barely 18.

The group came together in Bayswater (London W2) in 1967, practicing in their basement establishment called the Butterfly Club (still can’t figure out if it was on Westbourne Grove or Queensway, but where else would it be?). Well and truly the Butterfly Club was theirs because before they hit it big with a string of hits, in addition to performing nightly, all eight members of the group also managed the club, including the cooking and cleaning.

Legend has it that they’d get to bed at around 7 a.m., sleep until 4 p.m., and again get ready to open at 8 p.m., at times living off the leftovers and barely making enough money to pay the rent. Intriguingly they were eventually forced out by a protection racket and compelled to carry on next door in a dingy, unused mini-cab office.

Written by Mike D’Abo (lead singer of Manfred Mann) and Tony Macaulay (who also brought us “Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes”…another fun song to dance to) and released in 1968, today’s selection reached Number 2 on the UK charts and Number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it stayed for 11 weeks.

 LISTEN TO TODAY’S SELECTION – Tuesday 8 January

Build Me Up Buttercup

 Why do you build me up (Build me up)

Buttercup baby just to

Let me down (Let me down)

And mess me around

And then worst of all (Worst of all)

You never call baby

When you say you will (Say you will)

But I love you still

I need you (I need you)

More than anyone darlin’

You know that I have from the start

So build me up (Build me up)

Buttercup

Don’t break my heart

I’ll be over at ten

You tell me time and again

But you’re late

I wait around and then

I went to the door

I can’t take any more

It’s not you

You let me down again

Baby, Baby

Try to find a little time

And I’ll make you happy

I’ll be home

I’ll be beside the phone

Waiting for you.

 Why do you build me up (Build me up)

Buttercup baby just to

Let me down (Let me down)

And mess me around

And then worst of all (Worst of all)

You never call baby

When you say you will (Say you will)

But I love you still

I need you (I need you)

More than anyone darlin’

You know that I have from the start

So build me up (Build me up)

Buttercup

Don’t break my heart

 To you I’m a toy

But I could be the boy

You adore

If you’d just let me know

Although you’re untrue

I’m attracted to you

All the more

Baby, Baby

Try to find a little time

And I’ll make you happy

I’ll be home

I’ll be beside the phone

Waiting for you.

 Why do you build me up (Build me up)

Buttercup baby just to

Let me down (Let me down)

And mess me around

And then worst of all (Worst of all)

You never call baby

When you say you will (Say you will)

But I love you still

I need you (I need you)

More than anyone darlin’

You know that I have from the start

So build me up (Build me up)

Buttercup

Don’t break my heart…