THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
Our July 4th Spectacular starts off with the Redcoats — a garage band from Jersey (the English Channel island? Fuhgeddaboudit. I’m talkin’ the State of Springsteen and the Sopranos!). They wanted to — and did — write wonderful Beatlesque songs! Next, from one of Paul Revere and the Raiders’ first singles, we have the “Midnite Ride” of, of course, Paul Revere! The Redcoats only wished they had gotten that much publicity back in the day. Finally, Mitch Ryder gives us classic blue eyed soul with “Liberty” — his Liberty from producer Bob Crewe!
881) The Redcoats — “Sing a Song”
You can’t help but smiling listening to this innocent McCartneyesque song filled with “Hey Jude”-like words of encouragement.
As to the Redcoats (see #650), Chris Bishop tells us that:
John Sprit decided to form a band in imitation of the Beatles, based around his songwriting. With . . . John on drums and his friend Mike Burke on lead guitar, they spotted Zach and Randy Bocelle of Absecon, NJ at an audition, and brought them in to fill the ‘roles’ of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, respectively, on rhythm guitar, bass and lead vocals. After intensive rehearsals in John Sprit’s family home in Wildwood, NJ, the Redcoats signed with Laurie for a 45 in the style of Herman’s Hermits, “The Dum Dum Song” / “Love Unreturned”, which did fairly well on a local level. It was released in October, 1965.
https://garagehangover.com/statesiders/
Richie Unterberger adds that:
[They] were an extremely Beatlesque band that formed in Wildwood, NJ, in 1964. Just one single . . . was released on a small New York label. However, those two tracks and ten other songs were issued on Meet the Redcoats! Finally [in 2001]. Comprised wholly of original material, the material is pretty fair pseudo-Beatles in both their Merseybeat and Magical Mystery Tour phases, not to mention their Revolver and Beatles for Sale ones, too.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/redcoats-mn0001777865
In ‘66, the band (by then going by the Sidekicks) had a #55 hit with “Suspicions”.
109) Paul Revere and the Raiders — “Midnite Ride”
No, not the ‘66 album, the ‘61 B-side telling it like it was, rockabilly style! Um, no offense meant to my English friends.
William Ruhlmann tells us of the Raiders’ first album (including an alternate version of “Midnite Ride”) that:
Gardena Records issued Paul Revere & the Raiders’ debut album in the wake of the Top 40 success of the instrumental “Like, Long Hair,” and much of it is in the same vein as the single, which is a boogie-woogie arrangement of Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C-Sharp Minor.” Pianist and bandleader Paul Revere and saxophonist (and occasional vocalist) Mark Lindsay lead the instrumental attack . . . . It’s lively, if basic music, but offers little hint that the group would go on to make polished pop/rock in a few years.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/like-long-hair-mw0000478716
Of the Raiders’ early history Michael Jack Kirby writes that:
Of all the acts that sprang up out of the Pacific Northwest during rock and roll’s early years, Paul Revere and the Raiders were the most fun-loving of the bunch, possessing the ability to excite an audience and make them cry out for more. . . . Paul Revere Dick spent most of his early life in Caldwell, Idaho, about 30 miles east of Boise, while . . . Mark Lindsay . . . moved to the same area and began singing at age 15 with a local band, Freddy Chapman and the Idaho Playboys. . . . Revere had worked as a barber at age 18 and by 1958 he owned a small walk-up/drive-thru burger restaurant in Caldwell called Reed & Bell Root Beer, which he kept running even after his music career had kicked in. Lindsay had a job as a baker but walked out after meeting and singing for Paul one night at the Elks Lodge in Caldwell. Both were fans of Jerry Lee Lewis . . . . Paul and Mark joined forces in a band called The Downbeats, performing mostly instrumentals and gaining a word-of-mouth reputation in Southern Idaho and parts of Washington and Oregon. In 1960, after recording some songs in a local studio and shopping the tapes around, they got a bite from John Guss, the owner of a small L.A.-based label, Gardena Records, who suggested taking advantage of Revere’s given name, which the two had previously considered. They thought Night Riders sounded good but settled on the Raiders . . . and promoted themselves as “the wildest sound for miles around.” . . . They began working in Los Angeles with Gary Paxton (fresh off his “Alley-Oop” chart-topper); the idea of arranging classics as rock numbers was further explored with “Like, Long Hair,” based on Sergei Rachmaninoff’s 1892 “Prelude in C-Sharp Minor.” This third single hit the national charts and entered the top 40 in April 1961. Paul was drafted by the Army, leaving Mark and the band to go out on performance dates as Paul Revere’s Raiders, though only for a short time as Paul was designated a conscientious objector. Paul and Mark cut their first album (Like, LONG Hair) with studio musicians . . . . Portland, Oregon was the group’s home base . . . . Top 40 deejay Roger Hart of KISN, a Vancouver, Washington station that broadcast from downtown Portland and made “91-derful” the most popular spot on the radio dial, began promoting their local appearances on his show, which guaranteed packed houses. Roger became fast friends with all the Raiders and wound up as their full-time manager. The band’s shows have since become the stuff of legends; the guys worked out choreographed steps that the crowd would mimic, Lindsay blew sax while hanging from the rafters if the building’s interior design allowed for it, and Paul lit his piano on fire more than a few times. Musicianship was hot and tight and people rocked out at their shows. It was not unlike the kind of mania Jerry Lee had become famous for.
https://www.waybackattack.com/reverepaulandtheraiders.html
882) Mitch Ryder — “Liberty”
Truly great blue eyed soul from the Motor City’s Mitch Ryder (see #818). This was “Mitch’s favorite cut . . . his musical declaration of independence from [his producer] Bob Crewe.” (Gary Johnson, https://michiganrockandrolllegends.com/index.php/mrrl-hall-of-fame/276-mitch-ryder-the-detroit-wheels)
Ryder has been inducted into the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame (https://rbhalloffamemarksms.com/inductees/) and not the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, started out singing “with a local Black quartet dubbed the Peps as a teen, but suffered so much racial harassment that he soon left the group”. (Jason Ankeny, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mitch-ryder-mn0000483270/biography) By the way, the harassment was from white audiences. Ryder recalls that:
The only difficulty we had was with the white audiences. The black audiences seemed to embrace it. I don’t know how it worked, but I remember really distinctly, a really nice lady coming up to me and saying, “Oh, you sing so pretty … and you’re so light.” I’m going, “Ooh, light? Lady, you don’t know the half of it.”
http://www.popcultureclassics.com/mitch_ryder.html
The song is from Ryder’s ’69 album The Detroit-Memphis Experiment. Joe Viglione writes that:
Mitch Ryder’s voice is in great shape as Steve Cropper takes over the production reigns from industry legend Bob Crewe. . . . [T]he music is truly the voice from Detroit meeting the sound of Memphis. . . . There is a maturity to Mitch Ryder’s voice here — his performance on this disc perhaps a cross between the early hits and the ballads Crewe had him singing later on. It is very, well, refined for this rock/blues combo. . . . Booker T & the MGs featuring Mitch Ryder, which is what this record is, simply delivers a no-nonsense one-two punch of good music. . . . It is great music, but there was no business person to deliver a hit single from this excellent collection. Maybe if someone with Bob Crewe’s drive had supervised the work . . . there would be a greater appreciation for this landmark recording. . . . [T]hat’s what this is, the great undiscovered Mitch Ryder party album.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-detroit-memphis-experiment-mw0000748568
Ryder recalls:
[T]he choice they gave me was [Booker T & the MGs in Memphis] or Jeff Barry in L.A. I said, “Hmm, I’ll go South.” Which, in more ways than one, I guess I did. The whole country then was going psychedelic and here I am, with still some name power, and I decide to do an R&B album. [Laughs].
http://www.popcultureclassics.com/mitch_ryder.html
As to Ryder, Jason Ankeny writes that:
The unsung heart and soul of the Motor City rock & roll scene, Mitch Ryder was simply one of the most powerful vocalists to rise to fame in the ’60s, a full-bodied rock belter who was also one of the most credible blue-eyed soul men of his generation. He first made a nationwide impression fronting Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, whose fiery R&B attack boasted a gritty passion and incendiary energy matched by few artists on either side of the color line. After exploding onto the charts in 1966 and 1967 with singles like “Jenny Take a Ride” and “Devil with a Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly,” Ryder went solo on the advice of producer Bob Crewe, though albums like 1967’s What Now My Love and 1969’s The Detroit-Memphis Experiment [disagree!] lacked the fire of the Detroit Wheels hits and didn’t fare as well on the charts. . . . Born William Levise, . . [he] form[ed] his own combo, Billy Lee & the Rivieras. While opening for the Dave Clark Five during a 1965 date, the Rivieras came to the attention of producer Bob Crewe, who immediately signed the group and, according to legend, rechristened the singer Mitch Ryder after randomly selecting the name from a phone book. Backed by the peerless Detroit Wheels — Ryder reached the Top Ten in early 1966 with “Jenny Take a Ride”; the single, a frenzied combination of Little Richard’s “Jenny Jenny” and Chuck Willis’ “C.C. Rider,” remains one of the quintessential moments in blue-eyed soul, its breathless intensity setting the tone for the remainder of the band’s output. [They] . . . scor[ed] their biggest hit that autumn with the Top Five smash “Devil with a Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly.” “Sock It to Me Baby!” followed in early 1967, but at Crewe’s insistence, Ryder soon split from the rest of the band to mount a solo career. The move proved disastrous — outside of the Top 30 entry “What Now My Love,” the hits quickly and permanently dried up. . . . [Ryder] return[ed] home [with] a new seven-piece hard rock band known simply as Detroit. The group’s lone LP, a self-titled effort issued in 1971, remains a minor classic, yielding a major FM radio hit with its cover of Lou Reed’s “Rock and Roll” that was praised by Reed himself.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mitch-ryder-mn0000483270/biography
As to Ryder’s beef with Crewe, Gary Johnson tells us:
Despite selling roughly six million records for Crewe’s label, Ryder had only been paid a $15,000 advance and one royalty check for $1,000. Mitch was very unhappy with the way he felt Crewe had treated him financially. But after Crewe learned of Ryder’s displeasure, he threatened that if Mitch tried to leave him, Crewe would see to it that Ryder “died musically”. Mitch and Crewe did part ways later in 1968 after Ryder took him to court to recover the royalties he believed Crewe owed him. Although Mitch lost his case, their partnership was irreparably damaged. Crewe sold Ryder’s contract to the Paramount label as a result.
https://michiganrockandrolllegends.com/index.php/mrrl-hall-of-fame/276-mitch-ryder-the-detroit-wheels
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