THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,955) The Sunshine Company — “Just Beyond Your Smile”
Here is “pure sunny SoCal pop” by the aptly named Sunshine Company (see #691, 1,717), written by Roger Nichols and Beach Boys lyricist Tony Asher and later released by Roger Nichols & The Small Circle of Friends (see #631, 828, 1,054, 1,332).
Matthew Greenwald (writing about Roger Nichols & The Small Circle of Friends’ version) says:
Led by an unusual . . . slide acoustic guitar riff, [it] juxtaposes usual string arrangements, rock/soul percussion, and a sterling MOR pop melody to create a unique slice of ’60s pop. As with many of the songs on Roger Nichols and a Small Circle of Friends, this song has a great sense of buoyancy, but this may be one of the finest. As usual, Tony Asher’s lyrics are both romantic and literate, mirroring the positive, life-affirming outlook in the music.
https://www.allmusic.com/song/just-beyond-your-smile-mt0011854901
Hate to say it, but I like the Sunshine Company’s version much more (and I am a huge Roger Nichols’ fan). Call me a Company man!
Richie Unterberger tells us of the Sunshine Company:
[T]heir music, with the requisite exquisite multi-part male-female harmonies, buoyant optimism, and luxuriant late-1960s L.A. studio production[, exemplifies sunshine pop]. Look a little under the surface, though, and you find tinges of eccentric melancholy that set them apart . . . . Like many of the Southern Californian pop harmony groups of the second half of the 1960s — the Mamas and the Papas [see #1,734] being the most famous example — the Sunshine Company’s roots were not in pop, but in folk. Guitarist/keyboardist Maury Manseau, guitarist Larry Sims, singer Mary Nance, and drummer Merle Brigante met as [college] students . . . . [They] moved in a circle of acoustic-oriented singer-songwriters based a little south of L.A. . . . After a club gig . . . Nitty Gritty Dirt Band manager Bill McEuen . . . went backstage and offered future Sunshine Company members a chance to record a song he had in mind. . . . on top of a track that had already been recorded for the tune. The song was “Up, Up and Away,” and it would have been their first single had the Fifth Dimension not released their own version, which soared into the Top Ten in the summer of 1967. . . . McEuen brought them another song to record vocals onto, “Happy.” . . . [which] peaked at #50. . . . Their next single, a cover of Steve Gillette’s “Back on the Street Again,” became their biggest hit, making #36, and going a lot higher on L.A. radio charts. . . . Much of their material may have been pure sunny SoCal pop . . . . [b]ut their real heart lay closer to rootsy singer-songwriter folk . . . . “It was a struggle with Imperial, because they kind of wanted to carbon-copy ‘Happy’ over and over,” confesses Manseau. “We didn’t like a lot of the pop, bouncy material they brought us. . . . []It reflects this ongoing fight we had with the record company[.] . . . We had to give a lot to get a few things on that we liked.[“] . . . Comments Saraceno, “I felt that folk [music] as they knew it wouldn’t happen. I felt that with the Sunshine Company, as a producer, you had to launch them with sort of a gimmick record. I said, ‘Look, let’s get a hit and then invite the public into your world after you’re popular,’ and they agreed to that. Then we started doing what they liked to do.” Saraceno, who calls them the “most talented group I’ve ever worked with or seen,” puts a lot of blame on their failure to go further on the record company politics that had kiboshed the release of “Up, Up and Away” — “they really got screwed.” . . . Manseau recalls Bill Graham introducing the Sunshine Company at a San Francisco show at the Fillmore with the words, “I know that San Francisco audiences haven’t really warmed to this group. But I think it’s one of the few good things that ever came out of L.A.”
http://therockasteria.blogspot.com/2014/12/sunshine-company-sunshine-company-1967.html
RNSCF’s sole album one of the great lost albums of the 60’s, except that people could have bought it, they just didn’t! Yeah, you know who you are. Matthew Greenwald tells us:
[Roger Nichols and the Small Circle of Friends is a] true sleeper in the context of California pop. . . .The album is a lot of things at once. Soft pop, a smattering of rock, and a heavy dose of easy listening.The group itself has a great vocal blend. Nichols is joined by Murray MacLeod and his sister, Melinda.The three voices combined create a wonderful, soft sheen, equally effective on the ballads . . . and uptempo numbers . . . . Superbly produced . . . the album unfortunately didn’t do very well at the time of its release, which is an incredible injustice.The music, though, holds up extremely well today, and is an authentic slice of California pop. Delicious.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/roger-nichols-the-small-circle-of-friends-mw0000758583
Patrick Lundborg adds:
Mr Nichols and friends present a groovy smorgasbord of late 60’s pop music . . . . The album is full of candy-coated treats such as soft rock, psych pop and commercial pop. . . . Their sound is soft rock-based with a strong emphasis on imaginative male & female vocal arrangements that may include spicy touches of ethnic beats, lush strings and perky horn mixes. . . . There are many other bands from this period with a similar pop sound, but Nichols and friends had more talent and a healthy budget allowing to record with a top-notched production crew at a state of the art studio.
The Acid Archives, 2nd Ed.
Ed Hogan tells us of Nichols:
Recruited to U.C.L.A. on a basketball scholarship . . . . [he was] confronted to make a choice between music or basketball by his coach . . . . Nichols chose music. . . . After he left college . . . . [o]n weekends, he worked in clubs with his group . . . . Around 1965, the group was signed to a recording contract by Liberty Records. . . . With the label for eight months without having a record released, Nichols called A&M Records expressing interest in playing some demos for label co-owner Herb Alpert. . . . [N]ichols wrote an instrumental for Alpert that he promptly recorded a week after hearing it. Though Roger Nichols and a Small Circle of Friends wasn’t a big seller, Albert urged A&M publishing company head . . . to sign Nichols as a songwriter to their company. [The label] introduced [him] to lyricist Paul Williams [see #24, 1,300] . . . . The duo wrote together for four years, resulting in lots of album cuts, B-sides, even A-sides, but no hits. An advertising executive approached a friend of Nichols asking for help with an under-budget commercial project for Crocker Bank. . . . Hoping to capture the youth market . . . Nichols and Williams were given the slogan, “You’ve got a long way to and go and we’d like to help you get there.” They had just ten days to create a song, essentially a jingle. Waiting until the last day . . . Nichols . . . wrote the basic verse melody in a half hour. . . . Richard Carpenter . . . heard the jingle on a TV commercial . . . . [T]he Carpenters recorded the song [as] “We’ve Only Just Begun” . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/roger-nichols-mn0001353156/biography
Here are Roger Nichols & The Small Circle of Friends:
Here are Jackie Trent & Tony Hatch:
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