"The Big Hurt" is notable because it featured phasing effects which at that time were rare in popular music; DJ Dick Biondi on WKBW would introduce the record as "Toni Fisher's weird one."
[1] Although Toni Fisher does use the triplet in her performance on the record, she takes liberties with it and often uses some form of duple rhythm.
This "jet plane-like" sound effect may also be familiar to those who have listened to long-distance shortwave radio music broadcasts.
In a 1968 report on sound effects in pop for Beat Instrumental, Crotus Pike wrote that Fisher's hit "was almost phased from start to finish.
He wrote that the effect "turned a fairly ordinary song into a million seller", and also noted the precedent it set for the Small Faces' "Itchycoo Park" and Cat Stevens' "A Bad Night" (both 1967).