Now I've Got a Witness (Like Uncle Phil and Uncle Gene)

England’s Newest Hitmakers

Side 1, Track 5

"Now I've Got a Witness (Like Uncle Phil and Uncle Gene)" (Nanker Phelge) – 2:29

Kids, let me tell you a story about the old days. See, back then, bands would create albums by padding their singles releases with filler. Thank god we don't have to deal with that anymore. This filler often took the form of hastily written instrumentals that, unlike the singles which were usually written by professional songwriters, the band could get a writing credit for – or, in this case, an instrumental of an existing Marvin Gaye song, with the melody removed. Nanker Phelge is a pseudonym used by the band for writing credits of these filler songs.

Aren't you glad I told you all that? Aren't you glad you spent two minutes of your life reading that information rather than wasting your time listening to the track, like I did? I'm already dreading the next track on this album, which also has a Nanker Phelge writing credit.

(BTW, and I’m not sure why anyone would care, but the "Uncle Phil" and "Uncle Gene" of the title are Phil Spector and Gene Pitney, who both got credit for playing something or other on this track. I’d try to find out more about why these two respectable recording artists were in the studio with a bunch of English long-haired louts, but the result just isn’t interesting enough for me to do the legwork.)