Coverinfo

Songinfo

"Pretty Flamingo" is a song written by Mark Barkan, which became a hit in 1966 when Manfred Mann's recording of it was released as a single. The speaker describes a woman—whom "all of the guys call [...] 'Flamingo', 'cause her hair glows like the sun and her eyes can light the sky"—for whom the singer has fallen, and his plans to win her affection. The recording features future Cream bassist Jack Bruce, who briefly joined the band in 1965. The original demo of the song was recorded by noted New York City vocalist Jimmy Radcliffe stylized for The Drifters, but songwriter Mark Barkan was dissatisfied with the overly produced results and had Radcliffe recut the song with a pared-down arrangement.

Other cover versions

• The Everly Brothers
• Gene Pitney 
• Rod Stewart 

1975-12-31 - TOWER THEATER, UPPER DARBY, PHILADELPHIA

 

Intro to the song : 

 

"it was like, it was the New Year’s night, just like tonight except it was about...except it was about...about four years ago, you know, four or five years ago...and...it was late, it was about, it was about ten o’clock, you know, and uh...had the gas-station next door to my house was open all night, there was, there was people hanging out in there all the time...me and Steve, there was this big, all my life, I spent 18 years of my life with this big Sinclair sign right, right, blaring in my front window, you know, and there’s like, there’s like...me and Steve were sitting out there that night on my porch, you know...and we was trying to figure out what we were gonna do...nobody invited us to any parties, if we were gonna get dressed up, you know, if we, if we were gonna get fancy and go to a club or something and, uh, we couldn’t decide and all of a sudden across the street, came walking down the street, came, like, this girl, she had feathers all in her hair, she was dressed all, she was dressed in red and she was like just, you know, was out of sight ... I said “Steven, look at that girl,” he said (Steve: “I’m looking, Boss”) he said he was looking and we sat there...I said “Steven...that’s a nice classy looking girl, right?...a classy looking girl, must be going to a classy looking party in a classy house and being that we are classy guys  we (crowd cheers) we should follow, you know” so we did, right, we fell in love with this girl we didn’t know and we followed her, we followed her down the street...we watched, we walked about ten blocks...pulled down this fancy street in town and she walked into this house, you know, and the guys opened the doors and you could see the fellas with the tuxedos on, right, and she walked in, we stood out there, it was about ten degrees, you know...and we’re trying to see in the window, you know...so, uh...we’re standing there, it’s cold, we’re waiting for her to come out or something…so I said “Steve, listen...won’t you go up on the porch...knock on the door, right, tell ‘em that, like, that like, like you’re the Mayor’s son or something, right” (chuckles) see, that was, that was, that was cool to him so, so he went up on the porch, knocked on the door, somebody pulled up the shade...then put the shade back down...so I snuck over, peeked in the window, right, and there she was sitting on the couch with this slick looking guy, you know, and they was all crowding around, it was about, about quarter to twelve, and we stood out there, I said “Steve, Steve, I’m in love, I got to find out what this girl’s name is”…but the fact that I could go on with this story and tell you that I did find out…and that we broke into the house and knocked everybody down, picked her up and ran down the street (crowd cheers) but…but…the real story is we gave up and went home, you see, so we never (chuckles) but anyway, we had a name for her…all the guys on my block called her Flamingo… Clarence…I’ll be walking with her and we’ll be talking…about important things…be like on cloud nine…you know how it is when you just meet somebody…I will…and when she walks, she brightens up my neighbourhood…  Audience participation time…(Band: “Sha la la, Pretty Flamingo”)…I’m gonna find her…I will…gonna find her…I’m gonna find her… I’m gonna find her…I’m gonna find her…oh yeah, I will…I’m gonna find her…I know…gonna find her…and when I do…and when I do… and when I do…and when I do…and when I do…Stevie, you know, when I do…I’m probably gonna let her walk right on by…Pretty Flamingo..."