“Don’t Make Promises” (1967) – Gary Puckett and the Union Gap * Written by Tim Hardin * 45: * “Woman, Woman” / “Don’t Make Promises” * LP: The Union Gap Featuring Gary Puckett * Produced by Jerry Fuller * Label: Columbia
The costume gimmick didn’t match the sound of Gary Puckett’s group at all: his big casino voice and the records’ bloated arrangements (mostly by Al Capps) catered, with financial savvy, to the other side of the generational divide. Then as now, kids were likely to change the station on parent-friendly hit songs like “Woman, Woman,” “Lady Willpower,” and “Young Girl.” But in the Union Gap’s hands, Tim Hardin’s “Don’t Make Promises,” a song admittedly hard to go wrong with, gets an ideal commercial treatment.