In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well—some inspired by a weekly theme and some not, but always songs worth hearing. This week, we’re picking songs about the day of the week the story runs.
The Minders were one of many, many bands associated with the Elephant 6 collective that seemed to have a fleeting shot at a bigger audience—and then largely disappeared. For this band—based in Colorado, but led by a Brit named Martyn Leaper—the almost-hit was the title track to 1998’s Hooray For Tuesday, an ode to no one’s favorite day of the week. It was bands like The Minders that were responsible for the collective’s association with ’60s pop: “Hooray For Tuesday” is pretty massively indebted to bands like The Creation and The Zombies, though with a nonchalant air that was pervasive in the indie world at the time. The song is a sparkling, classic-sound little earworm that starts with a cutesy little Sgt. Pepper-esque march before dropping into its slightly psychedelic chorus and far more engaged verses. (And there’s tambourine, of course. Gotta have tambourine for this kind of song.) It’s certainly nothing revolutionary—it might have been in 1967, but not 1997—but it’s got that special something that elevates it. Elliott Smith toured with The Minders—they were pals, and even did a Zombies cover together—and later on, he took to covering “Hooray For Tuesday” in concert. He couldn’t muster the jangle of the original, but he brought something new with a stripped-down version.