Something in the Air

Hey there, Zoo Freaks, the Zoo Crew is spinning "Something in the Air" by Thunderclap Newman off that Hollywood Dream album, and this one still hits like a lightning bolt out of nowhere. Speedy Keen wrote and sang it, the same cat who penned "Armenia City in the Sky" for The Who Sell Out. He was driving a truck at the time and told ZigZag years later it was just a reflection of what he was seeing around him. He knocked it out about two months before they recorded it and put it out as a joke. Pete Townshend, who put the whole band together, heard the demo and fell for the melody and Speedy's thin reedy voice. Townshend helped shape it, adding the key change, the strings, and slowing the tempo a bit so it had that lift. He produced the track, arranged those strings, and played bass under the name Bijou Drains because he was deep into Tommy at the same time. The three guys who became the band met for the first time in Townshend's little home studio upstairs in Twickenham, a room that used to be a bathroom with a couple of Revox machines and a Bechstein piano. They cut "Something in the Air" along with "Accidents" and another tune that day. Originally it was called Revolution, but they changed it so it wouldn't get mixed up with the Beatles song. It shot to number one in the UK for three weeks in the summer of 1969, knocking the Beatles off the top and holding off Elvis. Nobody planned for that. The band was just a one-off idea at first, and suddenly the whole world went crazy around them.

Andy Newman, the pianist the band was named after, explained later that school friends called him Thunderclap because his playing style was clumsy and reminded them of a lightning bolt, though they didn't put it that politely. The label had a deadline and couldn't settle on a name, so they went with his nickname after tossing around ideas like Freaks, which was Newman's personal favorite. Speedy once said they were the best worst band and they died but they died in style. Townshend has called the whole thing a great adventure he tries to relive often. He wrote that creativity and even hit records can be more about play than work, and that the tragedy is there was only one Thunderclap Newman album, that beautiful Hollywood Dream, recorded entirely in his home studio in a room meant to be a small bathroom. The song itself has those lines that sneak in something sharper than pure peace and love. Call out the instigators. Lock up the streets and houses. Hand out the arms and ammo, we're gonna blast our way through here. Keen said it was hard to live up to because it wasn't done under any pressure, and getting that same feel for another single proved tough once everyone knew they had to deliver. The track showed up in movies like The Magic Christian with that wild free money scene, and it helped push the single to number 37 in the States. Covers came later from folks like Tom Petty, but the original still carries that odd, soaring charm from Jimmy McCulloch's guitar, Newman's piano solo, and Speedy's falsetto.

The whole band started because Townshend wanted to showcase Speedy Keen's songwriting. Keen was his friend and driver, the headband-wearing hippie who had a knack for catchy, crazy pop songs. Townshend knew Andy Newman from art college days back in 1963, where Newman enchanted him with his jazz piano playing and even advised him on building a home studio. Newman was a GPO telephone engineer, a self-taught Dixieland and improvisational player who smoked a pipe and had never really performed for an audience before. For guitar, Townshend brought in fifteen-year-old Jimmy McCulloch from Glasgow, a wunderkind who would later play with Paul McCartney and Wings. Kit Lambert pushed Townshend to put the three of them together as one project instead of separate albums, since Townshend was busy with Tommy and family. Newman had reservations about leaving his steady post office job and pension, so Track Records matched that to get him on board. They recorded at Townshend's place, and the single hit while he was out on the road. The success surprised everyone, and they ended up touring with added players like Jim Avery on bass and Jack McCulloch on drums. The album Hollywood Dream came out in 1970, critically loved as one of the finest and most bizarre of its era by folks like Nik Cohn, but the band didn't last long after that. They were three very different people who didn't always click personally, and the live pressure after the hit was a lot. Speedy went on to produce the first Motorhead album and work with Johnny Thunders. Jimmy McCulloch had success with Wings but died young in 1979. Newman released a solo album called Rainbow and later revived a version of the band with Josh Townshend and others around 2010 before he passed in 2016. Townshend has said if he hadn't come into Jimmy's life he might still be around, but the music they made together remains something special.

That Hollywood Dream album captures the whole strange magic, with tracks like Wilhelmina that show off McCulloch's guitar work and Newman's quirky piano. It peaked modestly on the charts but has held up as a lost classic for fans who dig the deep cuts and the freeform spirit. The Zoo Crew loves digging into these stories from the interviews and the way the band came together almost by accident in that little studio. You can dig more about the band and the song on their official site at thunderclapnewman.com, and check the Facebook page at Thunderclap Newman where they have shared history on the classic single and the lineup. No big active Instagram or X accounts out there for the band these days, and fan groups are quiet, but the music keeps circulating among those who remember. Keep listening here on THE ZOO, where we spin the deep cuts and the stories behind them for all you Zoo Freaks. This track still feels like it has that something special in the air, the kind that makes you want to crank it up and let the piano and guitar carry you along. Speedy's voice cuts through with that invitation to join forces, and Townshend's production gives it the lift that turned a casual idea into a number one. The members went their separate ways after the album, but the record they left behind stands as proof that putting oddball talents together can create something that lasts longer than the band itself. Andy Newman stayed true to his jazz roots and the eccentric style that earned him the nickname, while the young McCulloch brought fire from the start. It is the kind of tale that fits right in with the freeform album rock we love spinning, full of backstories and the real people behind the hits. So sit back, let it play, and remember how a truck driver, a telephone engineer, and a teenage guitarist got thrown together by a Who guitarist and somehow made history with one perfect single and one wild album.