Pic-Nic was a Spanish teenage folk-pop and sunshine pop band formed in Barcelona in the mid-to-late 1960s, composed of lead singer Jeanette, guitarists Toti Soler and Al Cárdenas, drummer Jordi Barangé and bassist Isidoro "Doro" de Mentaberry.
After releasing a four-song extended play for the label Edigsa in 1966, the Brenner brothers left the band, being replaced by Cárdenas and de Mentaberry.
With this new formation and after signing to major label Hispavox, the group changed its name to Pic-Nic and released their lead single, the Jeanette-penned "Cállate niña", in late 1967.
[2] Jeanette was born in London and spent her childhood in Los Angeles until her parents' 1962 divorce, at which point she moved with her Spanish mother to Barcelona,[4] bringing with her a musical taste for Californian folk rock.
[8][9] In 1966, Brenner's Folk released their first and only extended play (EP) on the Nova Cançó record label Edigsa, which included four songs sung in Catalan: "Daurat oest", "Ho sé", "Clara lluna" and "Amor perdut".
[11] Shortly after the release of their EP, the Brenner family decided to return to Venezuela and the rest of the band replaced them with Al Cárdenas and Isidoro "Doro" de Montaberry.
[7][12] This new iteration of Brenner's Folk was introduced to Madrid-based major label Hispavox thanks to Rafael Turia, a radioman at Barcelona's Radio Juventud that they had befriended and became their band manager.
[23] The band also released the English-language EP Hush, Little Baby, which included versions of the songs that were on their first single, plus adaptations of "No digas nada" ("Blamin's Not Hard To Do") and "Música" ("You Heard My Voice").
[27] Keyboardist Jordi Sabatés does not appear in any of Pic-Nic's releases, as he joined the band in its "second stage", although he did take part in later recording sessions that remain unreleased.
Pic-Nic disbanded abruptly after Jeanette's family forced her to leave the group, as the nuns from her school alerted her mother that she was frequently missing class in order to fulfill her band obligations in Madrid.
[31] According to La Vanguardia, the success of "Cállate niña" was such that it ended up disuniting the group, amid the pressures from the record company that wanted to continue exploiting the same "gold mine" at all costs.
[12] Their last period was characterized by their live performances in a nightclub on the outskirts of Barcelona called Tropical and the development of a more modern sound that foreshadowed the formation of Om.
[8] They began their career as a backing band for other artists, including María del Mar Bonet and Pau Riba, with whom they recorded the album Dioptria in 1970.
[33] Months after Pic-Nic's disbandment, Jeanette graduated high school and soon moved with the Hungarian athlete Laszio Kristofe to Vienna, where they wed and had a daughter.
[34] Jeanette's 1973 debut studio album, Palabras, promesas, included three reworkings of songs originally recorded with Pic-Nic: "Amanecer", "No digas nada" and "Él es distinto a ti".
[35] Pic-Nic is considered an exponent of the California-styled[37] sunshine pop[38] and folk-pop genres that were popular in the United States at that time,[36] and has been defined as "a local reflection of what was heard outside [of Spain] in 1968".
[42] Pepe García Lloret described Pic-Nic's music as "delicious folk-pop, with drips of blues and acid rock, ethereal arrangements and introspective themes.
"[39] Pic-Nic's sound anticipated a style of "hippie pop" that proliferated in Spain in the 1970s, exemplified by groups such as Mi Generación, Solera, Cánovas, Adolfo, Rodrigo y Guzmán, Nuevos Horizontes con José y Manuel, Amigos, Tílburi and Agamenón, among several others.
[44] Most of these songs were written by Jeanette with the aid of Rafael Turia, with a few compositions by Toti Soler and Vytas Brenner, as well as cover versions of other artists.
[7][46] "Cállate niña", a Jeanette composition based on the traditional lullaby "Hush, Little Baby",[18] has been considered the song that best defines the spirit of Pic-Nic's music.
[5] According to Vicente Fabuel, the track "overflows with melody despite its simplicity, and its use of triangle, harmonica and a male backing vocal provide an absolutely ghostly quality.
[52] In 2020, it appeared in an El País list of "15 record gems of Spanish pop-rock released in the sixties", which includes albums that "laid the foundation of pop music in [Spain]".