1963 Frank Ifield: The Wayward Wind

A much covered country standard, Ifield's 'The Wayward Wind' is confused to the point of schizophrenia, as if he knew the tide was turning to leave his own brand of yodel based entertainment high and dry but didn't know which shore to swim to for the best. The basic tune is retained and Frank reins in the yodelling but it's re-cast with a uptempo arrangement that hits the ground running and comes laced with lashings of rolling harmonica blasts that sound a little bit Merseysound, a little bit folk but absolutely like nothing country. Ifield too manages to sing in a high key that drives a coach and horses through the wistful lyric yet with a deep tone of a poor man's Frankie Laine that adds an unwelcome layer of mock drama to what started off as a party (Laine would record it himself in 1968 but in a suitably sombre arrangement). The result is a mess of a recording that doesn't sound so much like Ifield's last roll of the dice, but of him rolling several dice at once and hoping at least some of them land snake eyes up. But none do I'm afraid and this particular wind blows straight over me.