THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,509) The Haunted — “1-2-5”
Warning: If you are from Canada, read no further! This is the Canada’s greatest garage rock song, and it was a #23 Canadian hit and #2 in Montreal. The song’s a “tough Stonesy number” (Mike Stax, liner notes to the CD comp Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969), a “snotty Stones takeoff” (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/part-one-return-from-the-grave-mw0000946197), “[t]he quintessential 60s garage punk song. Perfect!” (johnanderson8046, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZXkzao9KvA)
Mike Stax tells us of the Haunted (see #532) and the song:
Formed in early 1964, The Haunted was one of Montreal’s top-drawing acts and regularly toured throughout Southern Ontario and Quebec by the following year. In January 1966 they were first-place winners in an eight-hour battle of the bands, collecting as their prize a contract with Quality Records. The band, however, ran into immediate problems with the label, which rejected “125” as their debut release due to its “inappropriate” lyrical content about a liaison with a prostitute. Unbowed, The Haunted submitted a rerecorded version that replaced one of the more risque verses with some new lyrics referring to “a roomful of clowns” and a “line of executives,” a direct swipe at Quality’s censorial staff. Perhaps missing the implied insult, Quality went ahead with the release, issuing it in April 1966 — mistakenly crediting the first pressing to “The Hunted,” in a further display of ineptitude. [It] was an instant hit, reaching CFCF’s #2 spot in May 1966 and peaking at #23 nationally. The follow-up single also charted, but soon afterward singer Bob Burgess quit, and subsequent releases sold in diminishing quantities.
liner notes to the CD comp Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969
The “song that was about ‘a hooker and drugs’, according to [singer] Bob Burgess.” (https://johnkatsmc5.tumblr.com/post/168259299019/the-haunted-the-haunted-1967-mega-rare-canada)
On the Haunted’s LP, the song “was re-recorded with “Bob Burgess”’ rough-hewn amateurism replaced by Johnny Monk’s more textured pipes . . . . but with its listless tempo and with Burgess’ spry vocal swapped for Monk’s muffled pipes, its effect is more a dull lethargy than snotty punk”. (https://johnkatsmc5.tumblr.com/post/168259299019/the-haunted-the-haunted-1967-mega-rare-canada)
Richie Unterberger adds:
One of Canada’s most popular homegrown rock groups in the ’60s, though they made no inroads to the rest of North America. From the English-speaking community of Montreal, the group was very explicit in their desire to emulate the Rolling Stones and most of their 1966-1968 singles (as well as their sole LP, from 1967) were in a raunchy R&B/blues-rock style. As songwriters their range was pretty limited, and much of their material consisted of covers or thin rewrites of popular blues riffs.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-haunted-mn0001469476#biography
The band’s website notes that:
[Guitarist and band founder] Juergen Peter recounts that: “We were the most sought after and highest paid Canadian band for many years. When I folded the band in 1971, I had to cancel a whole year of advance bookings and it cost me a fortune in lawyer’s fees to get out of some of them.”
Here is the unexpurgated version of the song, released on Amy Records in the U.S.:
On TV:
Here is the LP version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yKZI573G-w
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