Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

By 1969, Boris Gardiner's voice was once again his main instrument, after recording A Thousand Teardrops with the Rhythm Aces in 1960 and then getting more into instruments (primarily the bass guitar) after that unit broke up.

By 1967, he had formed his own band and started doing solo recordings, including Oh My Commanding Wife and Groovy Kind of Love. However, the song that really took him into the big times, hitting the top of the charts, came from cooler climes.

"Luther Dixon, who used to work for Federal, he was an American. He brought the song to me and asked me what I thought," Gardiner said.

The song was So Nice to Be With You on the flip side of a Monkees record.

Fully arranged

"We played it. It sounded like a good song, but it wasn't done properly," Gardiner said. The potential was there, so "I took it and fully arranged it with strings and horns. Real live strings. I had learnt to write music and arrange in Carlos Malcolm's band".

So Nice To Be With You was recorded at the then Federal Studios, drummer Tony Bennett and saxophonist Glen DaCosta two of the musicians who played on the track, and Marjorie Whylie among the harmony vocalists.

Gardiner's touch turned out to be 'so nice'. As he puts it, "It turned out really good. It is still alive today."

So Nice To Be With You hit the top of the charts about six weeks after it was released. "It sounded that good. It sounded pretty new. We weren't doing arrangements like that at the time, a full band arrangement, and it was accepted by the public," Gardiner said.

And, fittingly, So Nice To Be With You became the title song of Boris Gardiner's debut album, also in 1969.