Thomas and Richard Frost — “Where Did Yesterday Go”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — March 27, 2023

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

775) Thomas and Richard Frost — “Where Did Yesterday Go”

Thomas and Richard Frost (actually Thomas and Richard Martin) recorded one of the greatest “lost” album of the ’60’s, the psychedelic classic Visualize (see #209, 211, 247, 385, 595). Here is another stellar cut. Patrick finds it “the kind of song I dream of finding, an early morning soft pop gem lost in a hazy shuffle” (https://johnkatsmc5.tumblr.com/post/163800724834/thomas-and-richard-frost-visualize-1969-70-us) and Michael White calls it a “timeless number one[] from a better revisionist past”. (https://johnkatsmc5.tumblr.com/post/163800724834/thomas-and-richard-frost-visualize-1969-70-us)

Alec Palao says that“[t]he unreleased album Visualize . . . taken with its attendant singles . . . is a sparkling and heartwarming gem of late 1960s pop”. (http://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2013/12/thomas-and-richard-frost-visualize-1969.html?m=1 (https://johnkatsmc5.tumblr.com/post/163800724834/thomas-and-richard-frost-visualize-1969-70-us). Palao gives some background:

[T]he thundering mod sound of the Martins power trio Powder; whose own LP, recorded while the group was based in Los Angeles and employed as Sonny & Cher’s road band, remained frustratingly unissued, and indeed acted as a precursor to the creation of the masterpiece [Visualize]. [A]fter the Powder debacle, the Martins returned to northern California to lick their wounds and demo some more introspective material. . . . [Their] innate . . . pop sensibility lingered in new compositions like “She’s Got Love” [see #211]. It was to be the latter tune that caught the ear of promo man John Antoon, who signed the Martins to his . . . publishing imprint, assumed managerial duties and got the duo signed to Imperial Records under the nom de disque Thomas & Richard Frost. As a single, the simple, catchy “She’s Got Love” was to achieve a modicum of success as a turntable hit, reaching only the lower half of the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1969, but with strong regional airplay across the country, upon the back of which the Frosts were able to tour. Back in LA, Rich and Tom made the scene with their pals Rodney Bingenheimer and Frank Zinn, enjoying a brief but eye-opening spell as bona fide pop stars. Plans were big for the Frosts, with a full, lavishly orchestrated, album release, but it was all to fall apart as the follow-up singles stiffed and parent label Liberty/UA decided to wind down Imperial.

The proceedings are imbued with the Zeitgeist of Los Angeles in its last throes of pop innocence, and the Martins heart-on-their-sleeve Anglophilic sensitivity is less derivative then remarkably refreshing, with superbly recorded arrangements that any late 1960s pop fan will cherish.

http://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2013/12/thomas-and-richard-frost-visualize-1969.html?m=1

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