THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
905) Tony Rivers and the Castaways — “Mr. Sun”
Here’s a really neat unreleased in the ‘60s UK pop psych nugget with a total Beach Boys vibe. Maybe if it were named “The Warmth of Mr. Sun” . . .
David Wells writes that in 1967 “the new lineup of the Castaways that [Rivers had] assembled broke away that autumn to form Grapefruit with George Alexander. Before the split, though, they had recorded a handful of extremely high quality demos, including an outstanding new Rivers song called “Mr. Sun.” (Let’s Go Down and Blow Our Minds: The British Psychedelic Sounds of 1967 CD comp)
Bruce Eder tells us more about TR&C:
Led by Tony Rivers, this group started out doing R&B-based material in the early ’60s. Originally signed to EMI’s Columbia label, they covered songs by Jackie Wilson in their early days, and had a special penchant for recording songs from American artists, regardless of the idiom. As the decade progressed, they moved into more of a pop and harmony based sound, recording songs like “She” and, in 1966, a single of their version of the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows.” They jumped to Parlophone later that year, and then Immediate, where they stayed for one single, “Girl Don’t Tell” b/w “Girl From Salt Lake City,” then released a single through Polydor. They split up in 1968 when Rivers, with Ray Brown and Kenny Rowe, formed Harmony Grass, a more overtly psychedelic outfit.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/tony-rivers-the-castaways-mn0001341073/biography
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