Squeeze – "Farfisa Beat" (1980)

Everybody's dancing

To the Farfisa beat

Farfisa was an Italian electronics manufacturer best known for its line of compact electronic organs.  

Farfisa – the name is an acronym for Fabbriche Riunite di Fisarmoniche, which can be translated as “United Factories of Accordions” – began to manufacture electronic organs in 1964.  Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs – whose first big hit, “Woolly Bully,” was released in 1965 – were one of the first bands to record with a Farfisa.  

A vintage Farfisa organ

The Swingin’ Medallions used a Farfisa on “Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love)” in 1966.  

Strawberry Alarm Clock’s Mark Weitz played a Farfisa “Combo Compact” organ on “Incense and Peppermints,” but he later switched to a Vox Continental.

The Vox Continental was also used by the Animals, Dave Clark Five, Doors, Monkees, and many others.

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By the seventies, synthesizers had largely replaced compact organs like the Farfisa on pop records.  But the Farfisa was used by a lot of eighties New Wave groups who were looking for a more retro sound – including the B-52s, Talking Heads, and Squeeze.

Today’s featured song – which I first heard on Steven Lorber’s “Mystic Eyes” radio show in 1980 – uses a Farfisa organ.  It was released as a single in Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland, but not in the UK or the U.S.

“Farfisa Beat” was only one of the great songs on Squeeze’s Argybargy album that  Lorber played.  I immediately went out and bought that album.  (Earlier this year, I sold it to Steven.)

Like almost all of the songs on Argybargy, “Farfisa Beat” was co-written by Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook.  In a 2004 book about Squeeze’s music, Difford had this to say about it: “The song’s crap.”

I beg to differ.

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Click here to listen to “Farfisa Beat.”

Click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon: