Here’s a ’60s band I’ve never heard of before, a female-fronted outfit with the disappointingly humdrum name of Smith, with their solitary hit single – a cover of Baby It’s You.

A blues-rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1969, they featured Gayle McCormick, a classic blonde California girl whose soulful vocals stood out in a sound built around the Hammond B-3 organ of Larry Moss.

I do, of course, know the actual song – by Burt Bacharach and Hal David – but from its original 1961 version by The Shirelles.

But I would never have guessed that despite being a hit for The Shirelles and appearing on The Beatles’ debut album, this was the most successful version.

Written by Bacharach and David (and Luther Dixon, under the pseudonym Barney Williams), Smith’s version reached No.5 in the US charts late that year.

This, as far as I can tell, was their only hit but it was a big one, selling more than a million copies between July and October 1969.

It went on to appear on their debut album, A Group Called Smith and found a new lease of life nearly 40 years later when Quentin Tarantino unearthed it and used it in his film Death Proof.

Their only other claim to fame is their version of The Weight, which appeared in the film Easy Rider, albeit only because the film-makers could not get the rights to the original version by The Band.

As well as their cover of a Beatles cover, A Band Called Smith includes two Rolling Stones songs (The Last Time and Let’s Spend The Night Together) done in blue-eyed soul arrangements.

There are plenty of fuzzed out guitars and some country touches, but the band – McCormick and four male members – unwisely chose to share the lead vocals around, depriving them of what is surely their USB – McCormick’s powerful soulful voice.