Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! / Off the Charts: 60s Rock Revelations😊

The Beatniks — “Alligator Hat”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 28, 2026

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

1,958) The Beatniks — “Alligator Hat”

Exuberant and sometimes downright crazy garage rock . . . from São Paulo, Brazil! It is indeed heavenly — thanks, Saint Paul! This “gritty, fuzzy [’68] soul-rock with a powerful studly vocal (and weird breaks for bird-call-like a cappella chanting) . . . certainly counts as the[ band’s] best recorded effort” (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/outside-chance-mw0001895537), a “rip-roaring, mad performance full of silly singing and all the better for it . . . ca[tching] that raw, in-your-face fuzz sound . . . that perfectly exemplifies the naive, reckless abandon of the late 60s.” (Rich Aftersabbath, https://aftersabbath.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-day-after-sabbath-84-liberdade.html)

The hilarious thing is that the number is based on “Waiting for You”, a song (with both instrumental and vocal versions) by the cheesy Belgian organist André Brasseur! In fact, Rich Aftersabbath says it “is clearly the exact same composition, released a year previous” . (https://aftersabbath.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-day-after-sabbath-84-liberdade.html) Well, the Beatniks found its zany soul.

Bethania Lauschner tells us about the Beatniks:

[They] were born in Sao Paulo, Brasil . . . in 1962 actually, when they were still known as The Hits, a 5-piece of rock’n’roll and twist. . . . In 1965, The Beatniks were officially born. At first they were strongly influenced by Beatlemania, they were soon noticed by Roberto Carlos [see #1,506, 1,638], [host] of the most famous [Brazilian] music TV program of that time, called . . . Jovem Guarda. . . . Their set usually included covers of Turtles, Kinks, Them and later Jimi Hendrix. At the same time the band would show up on TV, play during the Sunday happenings in Sao Paulo, tour the whole country . . . backing the singer Silvinha as well as performing in the TV show O Bom . . . .

https://www.discogs.com/artist/2666386-Beatniks-3

The liner notes to the Beatniks’ CD anthology Antologia (1968-1978) — I think — adds (courtesy of Google Translate):

[They] pursued a diverse range of aesthetic approaches—singing in English or Portuguese, or simply driven by the prevailing circumstances of the time. . . . [w]ith a lifespan stretching from 1965 until its conclusion in the early 1980s . . . . [In the 70’s they turned to hard rock and s]ome say that could be the Portuguese Black Sabbath. Since 1976 the band embarks on a style “progressive”, very close to each Yes, Genesis, or in Portugal, Tantra.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s94gOzVQkfA

Here is André Brasseur (instrumental). For more on André, go to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Brasseur.

Here is André (vocal):

Here is a kind of weird bio of the Beatniks on YouTube (in English):

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The Baby — “Michael Blues”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 27, 2026

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

1,957) The Baby — “Michael Blues”

Here’s a delightful music hall romp, a “lighthearted blues/pop hybrid, the sort of thing that feels like it wants to be a discarded McCartney song” (jhendrix110, https://rateyourmusic.com/music-review/jhendrix110/the-baby/heartbreaker-michael-blues/224622582) from the Sutherland brothers (Gavin and Ian) and Christopher Kemp and John Wright, all formerly of the New Generation (see #1,792). Not that there’s anything wrong with that! Hey, I’d love to be a discarded McCartney song, even one Paul only ever sang in the shower.

Vernon Joynson tells us all things Sutherland:

[The New Generation] scored a minor hit with “Smokey Blues Away” and the flip side “She’s A Soldier Boy”. . . . The brothers signed to Island in 1972 and recorded two albums of melodic folk-based pop. . . . They . . . wrote and recorded as their second single “Sailing”, which . . . became a million-selling record for Rod Stewart. Their second album was made with the help of session musicians and their search for a permanent backing group resulted in them amalgamating with Quiver in 1973 to form The Sutherland Brothers and Quiver. . . . Their first album . . . was well received and they had a US hit with their first 45 “You Got Me Anyway”. . . . When Rod Stewart achieved his massive hit with “Sailing” the band was signed by CBS and soon registered a Top 5 hit with the wimpy pop ditty “Arms of Mary”. They also enjoyed two hit albums . . . .

The Tapestry of Delights Revisited

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The Zephyrs — “There’s Something About You”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 26, 2026

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

1,956) The Zephyrs — “There’s Something About You”

Forget about “That Thing You Do”, cause “There’s Something About You”, a “Killer overlooked Organ Driven” (SAXONWAX, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMz2OBW9vpA) British beat number that “sounds kind of like an excellent lost Mindbenders [see #496, 1,253] track in its straight-ahead, up-beat, mainstream British Invasion attack”. (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/zephyrazation-mw0001352274) The Zephyrs got to perform it in Primitive London, that infamous ’65 exploito flick! Take that and stuff it in a box of chocolates, Tom Hanks!

Richie Unterberger says of the Zephyrs:

The obscure British Invasion band the Zephyrs released half-a-dozen singles between 1963 and 1965 without any notable success; the only one to make the U.K. charts, “She’s Lost You,” topped out at a mere Number 48 [with today’s song the B-side]. They were a decent group, though, mixing Merseybeat and R&B influences in different ratios, with an organ that made them a little similar to some other mid-1960s British rock bands with a mildly blues-jazz organ, like the Untamed. They also worked with a couple of important figures of British ’60s rock, those being producer Shel Talmy (far more famous for producing the Who [see #548, 833, 976, 1,912] and the Kinks [see #100, 381, 417, 450, 508, 529, 606, 623, 753, 865, 978, 1,043, 1,108, 1,330, 1,451, 1,591, 1,697, 1,784, 1,907] in the same period) and then-session guitarist Jimmy Page [see #110, 589] (who played on some of their tracks, including their best, a ferocious cover of Bo Diddley’s [see #1,326] “I Can Tell”). Other than that fleeting chart appearance, though, their highest-profile achievement was appearing as Slash Wildly & the Cut-Throats in the 1965 film Be My Guest, in which they played their single “She Laughed.” . . . Vinegar Joe, a ’70s British band that included guitarist Pete Gage, who had played (but not recorded) with the Zephyrs [and wrote today’s song].

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-zephyrs-mn0002293914#biography

As to Primitive London, the British Film Institute writes:

“Certain elements are clearly staged, so it’s neither fully documentary nor drama, but none the worse for it as the excellent camerawork captures den after den of iniquity, nailing the seedy atmosphere of late night London.” Phelim O’Neill, The Guardian, 2009 The sensational follow-up to Arnold Louis Miller and Stanley Long’s genre-defining British ‘mondo’ films West End Jungle (1961) and London in the Raw (1964), Primitive London sets out to reflect society’s decay through a sideshow spectacle of 60s London depravity – and managed to outdo its predecessors. Primitive London is a bizarre hotchpotch of loosely linked and entirely disconnected sequences. Here, we confront mods, rockers and beatniks at the Ace Café, cut some rug with obscure beat band The Zephyrs and goggle at sordid wife-swapping parties as we discover a pre-permissive Britain still trying to move on from the post-war depression of the 1950s. The film is an entertaining period piece, most interesting precisely because it provides an unusual counterpoint to the prevailing myth of ‘Swinging Sixties’ London.

https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/11c0431d-9fb3-582c-9358-3f2a854fb388/primitive-london (emphasis added)

Here they are on Primitive London (and performing “I Can Tell” on Ready Steady Go!):

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The Sunshine Company — “Just Beyond Your Smile”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 25, 2026

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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The Wailers — “Out of Our Tree”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 24, 2026

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

1,954) The Wailers — “Out of Our Tree”

This ’65 garage stomper by the Tacoma, Washington legends the Wailers is “beyond cool . . . KING TONE, baby! All fuzzed-up and everywhere to go-go! Play this loud, kids!” (mickeymousebiker1, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFtUgTn3_KM)

Mike Stax writes that:

With their raw, stompin’, R&B-based rock ‘n’ roll, the Wailers practically invented the Northwest rock sound [in the late 50’s] . . . . [“Tree”] perfectly captured the primal, hard-drivin’ energy of [that] sound. The track mauls the listener with an assault of thunderous drums, pummeling fuzz guitar (doubled by the organ), and soulful, screaming vocals on par with the best of the Sonics [see #230-31, 1,477] — almost as if the masters had taken a lesson from their apprentices.

liner notes to the CD comp Nuggets (Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968)

Billy Miller adds:

“Out of Our Tree” was a late inning Wailers monster single, steeped in the full throttled sound that the Sonics were hammering out. “It was strange,” remarks Sonics’ sax man Rob Lind, “because when we started, all we wanted to do was sound like the Wailers and later on the Wailers started to sound like the Sonics!”

liner notes to the CD comp Livewire!!!

As to the LP, Patrick Lundborg writes:

The Wailers came roaring back with what must rank as their best album, Out of Our Tree. Close in sound and structure to the classic first two LPs by their disciples the Sonics, the Tacoma elders rock out magnificently in a successful marriage between their trademark greaser sound and the wild side of the moptop.

The Acid Archives, 2nd Edition

As to the Wailers, Richie Unterberger tells us:

The historical importance of the Wailers is undeniable. They were one of the very first, if not the first, of the American garage bands. Backing Rockin’ Robin Roberts, they revamped an obscure R&B song called “Louie Louie” into a 1961 local hit that served as the prototype for the countless subsequent versions of the most popular garage song of the ’60s. And their stomping, hard-nosed R&B/rock fusion inspired the Sonics, who took the Wailers’ raunch to unimaginable extremes. While they anticipated the British Invasion bands with their brash, self-contained sound, their inability to write first-rate original material [What, “Out of Our Tree” was an original!], as well as their rather outdated sax and organ-driven frat rock, put them in a distinctly lower echelon.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-wailers-mn0000487012#biography

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Bruno Nicolai and Edda dell’Orso — “Sguardi Teneri”/”Tender Gazes”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 23, 2026

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

1,953) Bruno Nicolai and Edda dell’Orso — “Sguardi Teneri”/”Tender Gazes”

Bruno Nicolai (Ennio Morricone’s go-to conductor) and “the voice” Edda dell’Orso (see #1,871) team up for this ethereal bossa nova from the ’69 Italian flick Femmine Insaziabili/Insatiable Women. “I’m frozen in place by this beautiful melody; words fail me to describe how gorgeous this song is.” (jorgedominguez8067, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdYYfRuMwbo)

Quartet Records revels in Nicolai’s sountrack:

Directed by Alberto de Martino, [1969’s Femmine Insaziabili/Insatiable Women] is about a journalist who is hot on the trail of investigating his friend’s mysterious death in a car accident. The journey takes him to funerals, orgies and interviews with some of the most beautiful women of Italian cinema (such as Luciana Paluzzi and Romina Power), all of whom have flashbacks to sexual escapades. After working along with Ennio Morricone [see #1,737] on previous engagements . . . Bruno Nicolai went solo with this De Martino effort . . . . Made up of groovy, funky instrumentals, psychedelic organ pieces and Edda Dell’Orso’s vocalism, it is simply one of the catchiest scores from the composer’s filmography.

https://quartetrecords.com/product/femmine-insaziabili-2-cd/

Jonman492000 joins the revel:

[Femmine Insaziabili is] probably one of Bruno Nicolai’s finest soundtracks. . . . The composer utilising the unmistakable aural talents of Edda Dell Orso who’s marvellous vocalising is used throughout the score giving it an even more attractive and haunting quality. Yes it is true to say that one can make comparisons between the work of Nicolai and also the work of Morricone and it has to be said that both composers were particularly busy and creative at this time in their respective careers, but FEMMINE INSAZIABLI has to it an aura and a musical presence that to be truthful is far superior to much of what Morricone penned at this time, Nicolai’s themes seem to be more developed and a lot more melodic, the composer arranging and orchestrating the core themes from the score differently throughout to create a veritable smorgasbord of rich and attractive compositions that combine to create a soundtrack which when listened to away from the images still remains entertaining. . . . Nicolai’s score opens with the driving and vivacious sounding title song I WANT IT ALL, performed by Lara Saint Paul with backing vocals by Edda and driving melodic strings that are melodic but upbeat. . . . The remainder of Nicolai’s score is fairly upbeat and has to it a busy almost big band sound in places, with brass and percussion creating luxurious sounding themes and motifs. Then there is the softer and far more easy listening side to the work, with strings and light percussion combining with organ and Edda exquisite voice the composer adding to this interesting and original sounds and trills etc that accompany and embellish the central thematic material. . . . The score for FEMMINE INSAZIABILI is simply glorious . . . .

https://jonman492000.wordpress.com/2014/12/15/femmine-insaziabili/

Bill Farrar writes of Bruno Nicolai:

Bruno Nicolai is a forgotten man of Italian cinematic history. A long-time collaborator and right hand man for Ennio Morricone, he helped put his stamp on some of the most iconic soundtracks in the history of film. But as Morricone’s stature has grown over the years, Bruno has faded into relative obscurity mostly due to the fact that he worked in Italian genre films with no real crossover appeal . . . . But those who know his work know soundtracks that can be lush, beautiful, driving, suspenseful, discordant and jarring. Bruno Nicolai was his own man. Like just about every collaborative effort in the history of film, Nicolai and Morricone’s relationship soured to the point where not only did they stop collaborating, but in the end Ennio didn’t even show up to Nicola’s funeral. Rumours surrounding the split centered around money and credit for who did what on certain soundtracks. . . . After the split, Nicolai continued to have a long career spanning the entirety of Italian genre film from sexy comedies, gritty police thrillers, spaghetti westerns, gialli (Italian horror films, the singular of which is giallo) . . . .

https://www.moviejawn.com/home/2017/7/6/wnvqp1dynfg6etjb6ckyqljknm8odp?srsltid=AfmBOoofnW24IY4G-buhXA3_1AacQYcvm613s4clVqtkz-RPl2Hbjzv7

Wikipedia adds:

Bruno Nicolai was an Italian film music composer, orchestra director, conductor, pianist and musical editor, most active in the 1960s through the 1980s. While studying piano and composition . . . he befriended Ennio Morricone and formed a long working relationship, with Nicolai eventually conducting for and co-scoring films with Morricone. Morricone noted in an interview discussing the Dollars Trilogy, “I chose a great musician and friend to be my conductor: Bruno Nicolai, who conducted almost every score of mine from that point on until 1974.” Nicolai also scored a number of giallo exploitation films and wrote many scores for director Jesus Franco. Nicolai frequently collaborated with Morricone, conducting many of his scores, including those for Sergio Leone’s For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). . . . Their partnership eventually ended due to disagreements over credit attribution. His work was featured in the Quentin Tarantino films Kill Bill: Volume 2 and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Beyond his work with Morricone, Nicolai established himself as a distinguished composer, scoring over 100 films and numerous television productions. . . . Nicolai’s compositions are characterised by their rich orchestration and innovative use of instruments, including bells, anvils, and whips, elements that became synonymous with the spaghetti western sound. He also explored various musical styles, from classical to avant-garde, and was known for his work in library music . . . .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Nicolai

As to Edda dell’Orso, the King of Fuh writes:

Since the mid-1960s, Edda Dell’Orso has provided haunting wordless vocals to a large number of film scores by Ennio Morricone and other prominent, mostly Italian composers of those times; Piero Piccioni, Bruno Nicolai, Roberto Pregadio and Luis Bacalov. But her name is synonymous with Morricone and in particular, the soundtracks of the original spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, such as A Fistful of Dollars, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and Once Upon A Time In The West, where her dramatic voice was deployed as an instrument for the first time and to revolutionary effect. The singer’s sensuous and often playful vocals help provide tense atmospheres and dreamy moods to these soundtracks, as well as to the scores for Leone’s A Fistful Of Dynamite, composer Piccioni’s lovely music for the film Scacco Alla Regina, and Spanish composer Anton Garcia Abril’s strange but highly effective score for the offbeat 1967 sci-fi drama 4-3-2-1 Morte!, that with Edda’s assistance somehow successfully helps blend an atonal chamber orchestra with a go-go beat and cartoon jazz. In the 1970s, Edda contributed to two films by Italian shock horror director Dario Argento, including L’uccello Dalle Plume di Cristallo (The Bird With Crystal Plumage), and then in 1976 collaborated with the Italian progressive instrumental group Goblin (often used by Argento as well) for Perche Si Uccidono?“(Why Do They Kill Themselves), a film essay about drugs and self-destruction.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1397767/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

Wikipedia (courtesy of Google Translate)) adds:

Originally from Genoa, [Edda Sabatini] moved to Rome with her family; she graduated in 1956 in singing and piano at the National Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome, and began his career as a chorister in Franco Potenza’s choral group. In 1958 she married Giacomo dell’Orso, whom she had met at the Academy in 1952 and with whom she had a son and a daughter; after two years she joined [Alessandro] Alessandroni’s [see #815] “Cantori Moderni”, where she had the opportunity to participate in the recording of many 45s by artists of RCA Italiana. It was during these recordings, where Ennio Morricone was often present as arranger, that the maestro noticed Dell’Orso’s soprano voice, with a range of three octaves, and decided to entrust her with solo parts in the creation of some soundtracks, among which the most famous of this period were The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in 1966 and Once Upon a Time in the West in 1968, both by Sergio Leone. While continuing to sing in . . . Alessandroni’s vocal group , Edda Dell’Orso began a solo career . . . . 1971 is the year of Duck, You Sucker!, and it is the moment when her singing voice . . . enters the history of film music. . . . In 1972, as a soloist, still within the context of . . . I cantori moderni . . . she recorded the soundtrack of the successful drama A come Andromeda, composed and directed by Mario Migliardi [see #1,586].

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edda_Dell’Orso

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The Montage — “Men Are Building Sand”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 22, 2026

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

1,952) The Montage — “Men Are Building Sand”

Left Banke mastermind Michael Brown wrote this exquisite polyphonic baroque pop number with an early environmentalist theme, originally an unreleased LB song, with Bert Sommer and Tom Feher. It wouldn’t have sounded out of place on an album of Renaissance choral works. “All the trees are becoming scarce Beams replacing what once was grass”

Richie Unterberger explains that Brown instructed Feher “to fill in words for songs starting as little more than off-the-wall titles like . . . ‘Men Are Building Sand.’ [Feher] was the original lyricist . . . but ‘I wasn’t coing up with what Mike wanted,’ and Sommer was enlisted to complete the tune.” (liner notes to the CD reissue of Montage)

Mark Hoffman writes that:

The [Montage (see #252, 1,091, 1,420)] song that gets the most controversy is “Men Are Building Sand” because of “The Note”. The lead singer complained please don’t put that on the album with “The Note”. Michael Brown insisted that’s the way it should go. On the Left Banke version it’s arranged differently. It doesn’t stick out quite as much. Have some fun. Listen to this track and see if you can find “The Note”.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/358507207130851/posts/480974201550817/

Hoffman then reveals that “The note [accompanying the word] sand was the one that they did not want to sing. They told Michael it’s a wrong note, but Michael insisted that it wasn’t.” (https://www.facebook.com/groups/358507207130851/posts/480974201550817)

As to Brown and Montage, Unterberger explains that:

After walking away from the Left Banke, Michael Brown, “who had been the group’s chief artistic force as principal songwriter, arranger, and keyboardist — worked with Montage to continue in [a] splendid Baroque pop/rock vein”.

Brown . . . mastermind[ed] an entire LP of material that was both similar to, and nearly on par with the Left Banke’s unsurpassed fusion of pop-rock and classical music. . . . [T]he graceful baroque-tinged melodies could have been no one else’s.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/montage-mn0001206263), liner notes to Montage

Jack Rabid tells us more:

Montage sounds far more like the real follow-up to the Left Banke’s first LP, Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina, than the actual one, The Left Banke, Too. This is because after the first LP the band’s three singers had sadly parted ways with keyboardist and prime songwriter Michel Brown, who instead became Montage’s mentor/mastermind. (It’s a long story: Brown’s dad was managing the band to the distrust of the other members and Brown, like Brian Wilson, similarly disdained touring in favor of staying home to write and record.) And though Brown was not technically a Montage member, he not only wrote [almost] all the music and produced this LP, but he also played all the trademark piano and organ and charted the vocal arrangements. Yet the four New Jersey no-names he found clearly translated his vision of extraordinarily lush, unspeakably beautiful orchestral chart pop. . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/album/montage-mw0000017255

Here is the Left Banke:

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Chris Clark — “I Want to Go Back There Again”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 21, 2026

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

1,951) Chris Clark — “I Want to Go Back There Again”

Berry Gordy, Jr., wrote and produced this sumptuous ’67 A-side “which unjustly fail[ed] to chart” — reaching #114 — but “remains one of his favorite compositions and displays convincing vulnerability, yet another dimension of [Chris Clark’s] underrated vocal flexibility.” (https://classic.motown.com/artist/chris-clark/) “Of the few white acts on Berry Gordy’s Motown label, Chris Clark — with platinum blonde hair, pale skin and a kind of Marilyn Monroe appeal — was undoubtedly the whitest.” (Graham Reid, https://www.elsewhere.co.nz/fromthevaults/5042/chris-clark-i-want-to-go-back-there-again-1967/) Ha, ha, ha!

Bruce Eder writes of Clark:

The Los Angeles-born Clark was discovered by Motown California talent representative Hal Davis . . . who arranged an audition for her with Berry Gordy in Detroit. Gordy hated the songs on her demo but loved her voice, and she was signed to Motown at age 18. Clark was wise beyond her years, especially in the ways of music, having spent a big part of her youth around jazz musicians. Her voice was suited to the harder, bluesier side of R&B, and Gordy gave her one of the raunchier singles ever to come out of the label, “Do Right Baby, Do Right,” as her debut. The two started writing songs together . . . and she ended up just as involved on the creative side of the business as the performing side, assisting and advising Gordy in his work on behalf of several artists’ careers. Additionally, the two were involved personally for years. Her own biggest hit, released in 1966 on the Motown subsidiary VIP label, was “Love’s Gone Bad[]” . . . which reached number 41 on the R&B chart and went to number 105 in the pop listings. That led to her first LP, Soul Sounds, released in 1967; as much a compilation of singles as a real album . . . . Although she never made a deep or lasting impression in America — where her race and sound, as well as her interracial romance with Gordy touched on some very raw and sensitive issues — Clark was embraced in England, where audiences dubbed her “the White Negress” and meant it as a compliment. She was responsible for a string of good singles that weren’t hits, among them “I Want to Go Back There Again” . . . . In 1969, Gordy decided to put Clark’s abilities to use behind the scenes by making her vice president in charge of the record label’s new film division. It was in this capacity that she grabbed a little chunk of the glory from the one major hit spawned by Motown’s jump into movies . . . as she co-authored the screenplay for Lady Sings the Blues and snagged an Academy Award nomination. Clark also had a talent for photography, which she used on behalf of numerous Motown artists, and became an executive at the company. She was in charge of the company’s creative affairs from 1981 until 1989 . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/chris-clark-mn0000439291#biography

Clark recalled that:

Getting my singles played on radio was difficult[. ]Once [DJs] found out I was white they thought Motown had tried to trick them. . . . [T]here was a bit of a backlash. They thought that something had been put over them. The photos weren’t on the single.

https://www.elsewhere.co.nz/fromthevaults/5042/chris-clark-i-want-to-go-back-there-again-1967/

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The Creation — “Making Time”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 20, 2026

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

1,950) The Creation — “Making Time”

Here is the first A-side of the UK’s singular creation — The Creation [see #129, 165, 1,502, 1,643, 1,748]. “[W]ith its violent power-chord delivery, [it] is their most deafening, defining moment. Eddie Phillips’ bowed guitar and feedback breaks are matched in force by Kenny Pickett’s arrogant, spitting vocal[.]” (Mike Stax, liner notes to the CD comp Nuggets II: (Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969))

Matthew Greenwald writes:

A perfect example of the British mod sound . . . one of the greatest anthems of the social and musical movement, which somehow didn’t translate to U.S. success. Led by some positively severe power chord riffing from the Creation’s resident guitar god, Eddie Phillips, this record is as powerful as any Who [see #548, 833, 976] record of the day, and the performance and overall moxie that the band had is well-represented here, in all of their power-trio-with-lead-vocalist glory. Not coincidentally, it was produced by Shel Talmy, who ran the board for the early Who and Kinks [see #100, 381, 417, 450, 508, 529, 606, 623, 753, 865, 978, 1,043, 1,108, 1,330, 1,451, 1,591, 1,697, 1,784, 1,907] recordings. Lyrically, the song captures all of the pent-up youth angst that was part of the British teen experience of the day, with a litany of complaints and depression via repetition (“why do we have to keep on singing the same old song”) that made up the social strada of the movement and the moment.

https://www.allmusic.com/song/making-time-mt0007428073

Mark Deming talks of the Creation:

One of the most powerful and forward-thinking British bands of the 1960s, the Creation fused mod style to a freakbeat sound in a manner that anticipated psychedelia and boasted a sonic impact that was matched in their day only by the Who. Rooted in the adventurous guitar work of Eddie Phillips, whose bracing use of feedback and work with a violin bow gave him a unique sound, and the impassioned vocals of Kenny Pickett, the Creation also incorporated the influence of pop art in their music, and they attracted a loyal cult following. However, the group’s popularity in Europe far outstripped their following in England or the United States . . . . [The Mark Four] got signed to Mercury Records’ British division in 1964, but the resulting two singles failed to sell. Though audiences in the U.K. were slow to warm to their music, German audiences were greeting their performances at the Big Ben Club . . . with rousing enthusiasm. . . . [T]he band chanced to cross paths with a local band called the Roadrunners who were wowing fans with their use of guitar feedback in their songs. Eddie Phillips made note of the effect and started working out how he might assimilate it . . . . The Mark Four got a second crack at recording success with Decca Records, which resulted in the single “Hurt Me (If You Will)” b/w “I’m Leaving.” Sales were disappointing, but [“I’m Leaving” (see #1,502)] did establish the beginning of a new sound[.] Phillips incorporated his own approach to guitar feedback. . . . [T]he band’s rhythm guitarist, Mick Thompson, and their bassist, John Dalton quit (soon to join the Kinks . . . ). The Mark Four finished their history with a temporary lineup and one last single in early 1966. During the weeks that followed, Pickett and Phillips, along with drummer Jack Jones . . . began rethinking their precise image and direction . . . . By the spring . . . the group had evolved into the Creation, with ex-Merseybeats bassist Bob Garner filling out the lineup, and they had also signed with an ambitious young Australian-born manager . . . named Robert Stigwood. The Creation burst on the British pop/rock scene that June with “Making Time,” a single that seemed to have everything going for it . . . . In portent of their future, “Making Time” soared to number five in Germany but peaked at an anemic number 49 in England, even as the Creation were getting enthusiastic press for their stage performances, which included artists creating and destroying “action paintings” on stage. . . . The group finally saw some slightly significant chart action at home in the fall of 1966 with “Painter Man,” a cheerfully trippy pop anthem with a feedback-oozing guitar break that made the Top 40; predictably, the same record hit number one in Germany. The B-side, “Biff Bang Pow[” (see #1,748)] . . . jumped into a pop/rock idiom with a psychedelic edge that should have earned it airplay on its own. By the start of 1967, however, the Creation had hit a crisis point, as Kenny Pickett quit over creative differences and frustration over constant touring in Europe, where their biggest audience was rooted. He was eventually replaced by Kim Gardner, late of the group the Birds. . . . Still struggling for a commercial foothold in England despite being one of the most widely touted live acts of the time, the group’s German label decided it was time to release a Creation LP. We Are Paintermen was highlighted by the titular hit plus a surprisingly good, crunchy rendition of “Like a Rolling Stone,” and a jagged, powerful version of “Hey Joe.” . . . One more single, “Life Is Just Beginning” b/w “Through My Eyes [see #129],” showed up in the fall of 1967 — the A-side was a rousing psychedelic showcase, with elements of Indian raga and a catchy, chant-like main body, plus forceful guitar and a string orchestra. “Through My Eyes” was no throwaway, either, with a lean, crunchy guitar, beautiful choruses, and a great central tune, with three-minutes-and-change of spacy sensibilities ending in a feedback crescendo. Eddie Phillips apparently felt that the single was as good a showcase as he would ever get, and in October of 1967 he quit the Creation. His departure was followed by Kim Gardner’s decision to exit the group for a team-up with Ron Wood, Jon Lord, and Twink in what became known as Santa Barbara Machinehead.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-creation-mn0000110341#biography

Here is the Creation on Germany’s Beat Club:

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Pink Floyd — “Remember a Day”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 19, 2026

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

1,949) Pink Floyd — “Remember a Day”

Pink Floyd (see #13, 38, 260) keyboardist Rick Wright wrote and sung this towering ode to childhood lost, a ‘68 U.S. B-side (to “Let There Be More Light”) and track off of the band’s second LP Saucerful of Secrets. It is fitting that two of the three Floyd songs I have previously featured, “Paintbox” (see # 13) and “Summer ’68” (see #38), were Wright songs. He was an underappreciated genius.

“‘Remember’ features, quite uniquely, Rick on the Farfisa organ and Syd Barrett playing slide guitar on his Telecaster. The song . . . reminisces lost time, and speaks of the innocence of childhood.” (Atshay Pattabi, https://thedelicatesoundofthunder.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/remember-a-day/) “That overwrought sound, with whispered voices and odd percussion, and Syd[ Barrett’s (see #87, 315, 922)] druggy slide guitar—the textures and time changes—bespoke a sound of child’s reverie”. (Donald Brown, https://browndmt.blogspot.com/2014/07/dbs-song-of-day-day-209-remember-day.html?m=1)

Uncle Custard tells us:

“Remember a Day” . . . [was] recorded on 5 September 1967 (one month after the release of [The Piper at the Gates of Dawn]). Syd plays some beautiful slide guitar . . . which was virtually complete, but apparently needed to be touched up a little bit for release, with Dave Gilmour probably doing a couple of very minor overdubs . . . . When [Wright] wrote it he was about to turn 22 — and yet it is a plaintive yearning for the days of childhood, when everything seemed so simple and there was enough time to “Dream yourself away.” Perhaps the pressures of success forced the young members of the group to grow up sooner than they would have liked . . . .

https://floydlyrics.blogspot.com/2010/03/remember-day.html

I must note that Jim Miller called the song “inoffensive, but featur[ing] some rather miserable bottleneck guitar, second rate piano, and empty-sounding acoustic guitar work” in the October 26, 1968, issue of Rolling Stone. (https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/a-saucerful-of-secrets-184964/) To put that in context, he disliked Saucerful of Secrets in its entirety and wrote that Roger “Waters (who wrote a couple of dull tracks on the first album) is an uninteresting writer, vocalist, and bass player”!

Atshay Pattabi writes that:

[It] has been performed live only two times . . . at a show in 1968, and in September 2008 by David Gilmour on a broadcast of Later… with Jools Holland on BBC Two. Richard Wright was originally slated to perform with Gilmour at the show . . . but his battle with cancer had made him so ill and weak he had to cancel a couple of weeks before the performance. And sadly enough, Rick Wright died . . . about a week before the show. . . . It is obvious that Gilmour chose to perform this song as a (fitting) tribute to his long-time friend and musical partner. What is touching, though, is his use of the Telecaster and the slide, just like Syd does in the studio version. Now, Gilmour is a man who swears by his signature black Fender Stratocaster. And he has gone on record to speak of his disdain for slide guitars . . . . For him to perform a little known Rick Wright song exactly the way Syd did in the original is the best possible tribute he could have bestowed upon both Rick and Syd . . . . Gilmour is almost always a very composed man when he talks and when he performs; the bends in his solos may drive even the most stone-hearted of listeners into a musical daze, but he remains unstirred . . . . But at this particular performance . . . he seems to be giving all he has to keep himself from losing it. . . . Rick Wright’s ethereal sound – that intangible element without which everything around crumbles to nothingness – was what defined the “Pink Floyd sound” and was the glue that held Pink Floyd together. . . . He was a man who was not unfamiliar with being taken for granted by the rest of the band. But he never seemed to have cared . . . .

https://thedelicatesoundofthunder.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/remember-a-day/

Well said.

Here is the 45 version:

Here it is on French TV:

Here is David Gilmour:

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Del Shannon — “I Think I Love You”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 18, 2026

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

1,948) Del Shannon — “I Think I Love You”

Del Shannon, yes that Del Shannon (see #1,453), runs away to psychedelia, giving us a brooding psych juggernaut, an “especially catchy psych rocker” (Jacksondale, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/del-shannon/the-further-adventures-of-charles-westover/reviews/1/) with “some of the heaviest psychedelic production and instrumentation you can hear on any record from 68.” (atrainradio, https://www.discogs.com/master/362669-Del-Shannon-The-Further-Adventures-Of-Charles-Westover?srsltid=AfmBOooPecR9Br7RI4nr8o-XpPV0ebLww5jf0XIQP2_5DgbBx-XZIHKD)

Bad Cat Records writes of “I Think I Love You”:

Always loved the pounding bass line; the electric sitar and the catchy refrain. . . . the album’s best blend of psychedelic and commerciality. To get a feel for the song, imagine what Mike Nesmith and the rest of The Monkees would have come up with had Don Kirshner let them go off in a true psych tangent. I would have tapped this one as a single.

https://www.discogs.com/master/362669-Del-Shannon-The-Further-Adventures-Of-Charles-Westover?srsltid=AfmBOooPecR9Br7RI4nr8o-XpPV0ebLww5jf0XIQP2_5DgbBx-XZIHKD

Brian Young tells us of the LP: The Further Adventures of Charles Westover (Shannon’s birth name):

In light of what was happening in popular culture, Shannon was encouraged and pushed into doing a psychedelic album. He was encouraged to write the songs this time, and [the LP] began taking shape. . . . Shannon brought “I Think I Love You” and “Gemini” [see #1,552] to the table . . . . “Gemini”/ “Magical Musical Box” w[as one of] the only two singles from the album. Neither charted, but both became instant cult favorites.

Donald A. Guarisco adds:

This lesser-known cult favorite is not only one of the most musically ambitious outings of Del Shannon’s career, but also one of his most all-around consistent albums. [It] finds Shannon embracing psychedelia in a personalized way: Instead of imitating the whimsy of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, or the creepy freak-outs of Their Satanic Majesties Request, he uses the cinematic quality of psychedelic pop to provide a vivid backdrop for his songwriting.. . . . The overall effect is stunning, managing to fit the tag of psychedelic pop but still retaining the haunting, emotional kind of songwriting that distinguished Del Shannon’s music.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-further-adventures-of-charles-westover-mw0000468155

RDTEN1 bats clean-up:

It seems that by 1968 every musician under the sun was growing their hair long (nice sideburns Del), donning mod clothing and jumping aboard the psychedelic bandwagon. With his recording career in commercial limbo, Del Shannon was no exception to the rule. . . . . 1968’s The Further Adventures of Charles Westover . . . was an all-out assault on the realm of downer-psych. Instinctively you’d probably think the resulting album would be hysterically inept, however having listened to it . . . dozens of times, the set’s goofy, but surprisingly good. Unlike many of his competitors Shannon and his teamed pulled out all the stops in an effort to underscore his relevance. The twelve songs came complete with over-the-top orchestration, backward strings, harpsichords, sitars, female backing vocalists and supposedly deep and insightful lyrics. . . . Unfortunately as was to be expected, the change in musical direction was too much for old fans to handle. . . . Simultaneously younger psych-oriented audiences wanted nothing to do with what most of them viewed as a golden oldies act. . . . Caught in that demographic dead zone, the album failed to sell and by the end of the year Shannon had ended his longstanding professional relationship with Liberty. Shame since this was one of the best “reinvention” albums out there. Whereas many of his contemporaries slapped a psychedelic cover on a collection of the same old stuff, Shannon was clearly serious about exploring different musical idioms and remaking himself. The album should have been a massive hit.

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/del-shannon/the-further-adventures-of-charles-westover/reviews/1/

Richie Unterberger tells us of Del:

[He was o]ne of the best and most original rockers of the early ’60s . . . . Although classified at times as a teen idol, he favored brooding themes of abandonment, loss, and rejection. In some respects he looked forward to the British Invasion with his frequent use of minor chords and his ability to write most of his own material. In fact, after hitting number one with “Runaway” in 1961, Shannon continued to chart for a year or two into the British Invasion . . . . Shannon happened upon a gripping series of minor chords while playing with his band . . . . form[ing] the basis for his . . . debut single, “Runaway,” one of the greatest hits of the early ’60s, with its unforgettable riffs, Shannon’s amazing vocal range (which often glided off into a powerful falsetto), and the creepy, futuristic organ solo in the middle. It made number one, and the similar follow-up, “Hats Off to Larry,” made the Top Five. Shannon had intermittent minor hits over the next couple of years (“Little Town Flirt” was the biggest), but was even more successful in England. . . . Del got into the Top Ten with a late 1964 single, “Keep Searchin’,” that was one of his best and hardest-rocking outings. But after the similar “Stranger in Town” (number 30, 1965), he wouldn’t enter the Top 40 again for nearly a couple of decades. A switch to a bigger label (Liberty) didn’t bring the expected commercial results, although he was continuing to release quality singles. A brief association with producer Andrew Loog Oldham . . . found him continuing to evolve, developing a more Baroque, orchestrated pop/rock sound . . . . Much to Shannon’s frustration, Liberty decided not to release the album that resulted from the collaboration . . . . By the late ’60s, Shannon was devoting much of his energy to producing other artists . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/del-shannon-mn0000194018#biography

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Johnny Neal & Starliners — “Walk Baby Walk”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 17, 2026

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

1,947) Johnny Neal & Starliners — “Walk Baby Walk”

This stunning, strutting mod number was the B-side from the first of two singles the Starliners released before being grounded. Earlier, they were the band that took over for the Beatles at the Star Club in Hamburg! (https://letciaschn.medium.com/exclusive-interview-johnny-neal-part-ii-31568ad7e330)

Johnny Neal reminisced to Letícia Sechini that:

The first time I heard rock ‘n roll I was walking down a street in London and a car passed by with the windows down blaring out “Heartbreak Hotel” by Elvis Presley . . . I was elated and wanted to know more about Elvis and his music! On one [talent] show I appeared on — the Carroll Levis Show at the Birmingham Hippodrome . . . . I met up with another act appearing there called the Mike Jacks trio . . . They didn’t make it to the next round of the competition but I did and I then asked them to join me as my backing group. This was my first backing band and we finished in second place . . . . As rock ‘n roll was starting to take off I added guitar and tenor saxophone to my line-up thus forming the first authentic rock ‘n’roll . . . band in Birmingham. The band now called Johnny Neal and the Houn’dogs appeared on TV shows, theatres, dance halls etc playing the new rock ‘n rock music . . . . I then later joined a band called the Starliners. . . . In 1962 my band and I went to the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany to back a female singer called Tanya Day and to take over from a band from Liverpool called the Beatles . . . . I received a call whilst in Hamburg at the Star Club . . . that there was plenty of work waiting for us in France playing at American Forces Bases . . . . At the one American base we met an English pianist who like ourselves had been travelling around the bases. He told me he had written [“Walk Baby Walk”] and would I be interested — [it] was quite different from any other pop songs going at the time. We met with a guy from AFN (American Forces Network) a radio station for the serving GI’s in France, who snuck us into the studios late one night . . . . [and] we made a demo . . . . After our stint in France, we returned to the UK and continued gigging around Birmingham. . . . My next manager . . . John Singer . . . booked us at the Birmingham Town Hall and numerous places around the Midlands . . . . Around 1965 . . . [he] took us to . . . Pye . . . . We had submitted a demo of a song “And I Will Love You” . . . which . . . made an immediate impression on Alan [Freemn] who came down to Birmingham and signed us up. Back in the studios in London Alan asked if we had a B side for the record, we didn’t but then I remembered “Walk Baby Walk” which we quickly recorded with a young lady walking over a wooden plank in high heeled shoes with a microphone under the planks to give the sound of the footsteps at the beginning and end of the record.

https://letciaschn.medium.com/exclusive-interview-johnny-neal-part-ii-31568ad7e330

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Sandy Posey — “Hey Mister”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 16, 2026

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

1,946) Sandy Posey — “Hey Mister”

In this devastating and hearbreaking song, countrypolitan icon Sandy Posey (see #1,154, 1,752) asks “Mister, Mister have you got a dime? I wanna call my mother down in Caroline A ramblin’ man took advantage of me . . . . And now I’m stranded in the Windy City”

“Two minutes of what life can be like for a single girl, out there in the big wide world. Harsh but true. . . . A lost gem if ever there was one”. (xxxxxxxx3476, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6RFhzIf8aw) Indeed. The song was written by legends Spooner Oldham and Dan Penn.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine writes of Sandy:

Walking the line separating girl group pop and the Nashville Sound, Sandy Posey scored a pair of major hits with her first two singles, “Born a Woman” and “Single Girl,” both number 12 Billboard hits in 1966. . . . Posey transitioned to country music in the ’70s, earning a string of country hits that ran through the decade. . . . After graduating from a high school in West Memphis, Arkansas, she started to pursue a musical career in Memphis. Landing a job as a receptionist in a recording studio, she also started to work as a session singer. . . . [She] came to the attention of producer Chips Moman. Hearing her demo of “Born a Woman[]” convinced Moman to help Posey secure a contract with MGM Records. Moman produced “Born a Woman,” . . . [which] snag[ged] Posey two Grammy nominations in 1967 . . . . After “What a Woman in Love Won’t Do” reached 31, Posey again occupied the number 12 position with “I Take It Back.” As quickly as she shot up the charts, Posey shot back down. “Are You Never Coming Home” topped out at 59 in 1967, with “Something I’ll Remember” failing to chart in 1968. By 1971, she refashioned herself as a country singer . . . . [and o]ver the next few years, she was modestly successful on the country charts . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/sandy-posey-mn0000291724#biography

Michael D’Arcy notes that:

Posey also continued with her obligations as a back-up vocalist. She contributed to `When A Man Loves A Woman’ – a huge hit by Percy Sledge. Sandy also provided vocal back-up for Elvis Presley [see #80, 879] at Moman’s American Studios. Amongst others, her contributions are included on `Elvis’s Gospel Songs’ in 1966 and `Back In Memphis’ and `Mama Liked the Roses’ in 1969. Her activities in supporting Elvis Presley in this way led to Sandy’s appearance with Elvis on his initial Las Vegas concert in 1969.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070203191740/http://www.countrypolitan.com/fringe0601.php

Here is Judy Thomas:

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Mastermind — “Turn of the Head”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 15, 2026

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

1,945) Mastermind — “Turn of the Head”

This gritty, riveting and absolutely brilliant psych exercise in apathy-shaming is “[s]till a full-blown mystery 20 years after it appeared on a U-SPACES disc. No info on location, personnel or date or label.” (U-Spaces Archives, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3m63H8Afds) The single was the only release on the Mastermind label.(https://www.discogs.com/label/2673320-Mastermind-6)

“No one knows what happened here, happened here, happened here” — proclaimed four times in a row by a Greek chorus. “How many people do you think have wound up dead because the others have turned away their heads?” Could this song be about the notorious and era-defining 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese in New York City? Martin Gansberg wrote in his famous March 27, 1964 article in the New York Times that “For more than half an hour, 38 respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens. . . . Not one person telephoned the police during the assault . . . .” (https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1964/03/27/97175042.html?pageNumber=1)

Someone needs to solve this cold case. Who was the mastermind behind Mastermind?

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The Cymbaline — “Matrimonial Fears”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 14, 2026

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

1,944) The Cymbaline — “Matrimonial Fears”

Here is Swinging London’s anthem for the swinging bachelor: “I’ve been having the time of my life for several years I won’t marry a wife, I’ve got matrimonial fears” Supposedly, this inspired Beyoncé to record “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)”!

This “well-crafted pop song” is the Cymbaline’s “finest moment”. (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited) In fact, it is so “completely brilliant!” (Louval, https://www.45cat.com/record/bf1624) that wilthomer says he “[w]as drunkenly serenaded . . . at my bachelor party by all my friends” with this song. (wilthomer, https://www.45cat.com/record/bf1624) Unfortunately, UK kids had record buying fears regarding the Cymbaline’s 7 singles between ’65 to ’69. Peter Jones wrote in Record Mirror (for the week ending December 1, 1967) that the band “go[es] on making knock -out discs and do[esn’t] make the charts. Unfair.” (https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Record-Mirror/60s/67/Record-Mirror-1967-12-01-S-OCR.pdf) Indeed.

Vernon Joynson says that the Cymbaline was “[a] good, if rather lightweight, pop group from Essex” and that “[i]n Stuart Calver they had a vocalist with a very attractive voice and they were perhaps a bit unlucky that commercial success eluded them.” (The Tapestry of Delights Revisited)

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Kusudo & Worth — “Of Sun and Rain”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 13, 2026

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

1,943) Kusudo & Worth — “Of Sun and Rain”

Here is a gorgeous and melancholy song from a ’68 folk LP self-produced and recorded over a three hour span by two California high schoolers: Ken Kusudo and Jeff Worth (see #1,127). “This is about as good as stark acoustic folk gets, with evocative songs, beautiful and versatile singing, [and] unexpected acoustic rave-ups”. (Aaron Milenski, The Acid Archives, 2nd ed.) Two hundred copies were pressed.

To Richard Krieb, their compatriot and sometimes lyricist, “Of Sun and Rain” is “a musical masterpiece that lends powerful poignancy to [my] lyrics.” (https://kusudoandworth.com/our-story/) Ken Kusudo talks about how the song was created:

So Richard, Jeff, and I began collaborating on songs. Usually Jeff or I would devise a chord progression and melody to Richard’s lyrics. He’d come to either of us at any time of the day or night. I had always thought he simply came to whomever was available or awake at the time. Later I learned that he shared his more “Dylanesque” lyrics with me – those with an edge or some tension – while softer, gentler words and themes – more “Donovanesque” – were given to Jeff. For example, he wrote some lyrics one gray and rainy day when he was feeling a bit melancholy. Late that night he brought them to me, hoping a song might emerge and lift his spirits. We sat at the kitchen table. I strummed the guitar ever so quietly and, almost whispering the words, I voiced a melody while hoping not to wake my parents. In less than half an hour, we had “Of Sun and Rain”.

https://kusudoandworth.com/our-story/

Jeff Worth’s “favorite songs from the album” are “Of Sun and Rain”, “The Gull”[see #1,127], and “Love is Naught'”, and he would have chosen “Of Sun and Rain” and “The Gull” as the singles. (https://kusudoandworth.com/our-story/),

Of the album, Jason Smith writes:

[The LP] Of Sun and Rain stands shoulder to shoulder alongside the known folk classics of the late 60s and early 70s, including Simon & Garfunkel, Tim Hardin [see #457], Tim Buckley, and Donovan [see #908, 1,036, 1,064], amongst others. The music of Kusudo & Worth shares the same aching romanticism and heartfelt personal intensity of these classics and yet mirrors none of them – their sound and voice is unique. Like the best of that era, this 1968 Kusudo & Worth album features extraordinarily strong material and works as a seamless, artistic whole. That this was the work of sixteen and seventeen year old amateur musicians with no professional production, and recorded, edited, mixed, and mastered in just under three hours is utterly staggering. I do not believe I am alone in heralding Of Sun and Rain as a lost classic.

https://kusudoandworth.com/our-story/

Their story is an enchanting one, recalled on their delightful website — https://kusudoandworth.com/our-story/. Let me offer some snippets:

Ken explains the birth of his partnership with Jeff Worth:

It wasn’t until we were both in junior high school that we would strike up a lifelong friendship. . . . Jeff and I were asked by a mutual friend to be part of a quartet – four junior high school kids playing three acoustic guitars and a gut-bucket bass – strumming and plucking what few tunes we all knew. It didn’t last more than two or three practice sessions, but at least now Jeff and I knew the other played guitar pretty well – each with an older sibling who also played guitar and listened to the revitalized American folk music of Peter, Paul & Mary [see #1,307], The Kingston Trio, and others. Within the next year (1966) I ran into Jeff at an arts workshop . . . . To this day, he remembers that I played “Elizabeth”, a song that I had written when I was 14 or 15. . . . Jeff and I were still not a duo, just casual acquaintances. However, Jeff was so drawn to “Elizabeth” that he wanted to make his own contribution to the song. It was at that point, according to Jeff, that we became “Kusudo & Worth”. . . . About this time we were developing a Peter, Paul & Mary thing with a girl, a classmate of mine in 1967. I must have been in the ninth grade, and Jeff, one year older and in high school . . . . The girl didn’t last too long because her father didn’t want his daughter hanging out with two lowlifes like ourselves. So we became a duo, performing at a few school assemblies and for a few church youth groups. Then Richard Krieb entered the picture. That’s when original songs started to happen in fairly rapid succession . . . . Richard . . . was in his third year of university studies on the fast-track to becoming a scientist, mathematician, or engineer. . . . Because his youngest brother and I were so close, I was at the Krieb house often.

https://kusudoandworth.com/our-story/

Richard recalls:

I was nearing the end of my junior year at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) majoring in math – with my goals firmly set on becoming an aerospace engineer. However, this all changed one improbable, fateful afternoon … I was sitting in my bedroom at my family’s home, dutifully doing my homework (as usual) when I heard the beguiling strains of an acoustic guitar coming from my youngest brother’s bedroom . . . . There was Ken Kusudo, one of my brother’s good friends, playing . . . . Ken explained that he was getting together with another pal (Jeff Worth) to write and play folk songs. Ken went on to say that they were composing some melodies that did not yet have lyrics. From out of nowhere, I offered to write lyrics for them. I had absolutely no related experience whatsoever – no creative writing nor playing any sort of instrument. I was a straight-arrow math-scientist. . . . [F]rom that moment on, I found myself flowering day by day into a child of the Sixties. My meticulous class notebooks . . . now showed scribblings of poetry – fantasies of love and protestations of latent angst. I began spending more and more time with Ken and Jeff. I would often sit in on their practice sessions . . . and accompany them to their ever more frequent weekend gigs. All the while, I was fashioning pages and pages of proposed lyrics. My hair was getting longer, my clothes were getting scruffier, and I was getting less and less interested in my math and physics studies. I moved out of my family’s house, petitioned for a one-year leave of absence from the university (to the shock and dismay of my dear disbelieving parents) and earnestly and enthusiastically became the full-time “&” in Kusudo & Worth.

https://kusudoandworth.com/our-story/

And then . . .

Ken:

Jeff, a month after graduating from high school, eloped with Michele, his high school sweetheart, in July 1969. From that point, I planned on becoming a teacher, Richard was off to San Francisco to start a rock band, and Jeff, with Michele, had decided to tend his grandparent’s orange grove in California’s Central Valley.

https://kusudoandworth.com/our-story/

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1941 Special Edition: Harry Nilsson/TomNorthcott — “1941”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 12, 2026

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

1,941) Harry Nilsson — “1941”

From Harry Nilsson’s (see #1,168, 1,298, 1,854) first LP — Pandemonium Shadow Show — here is one of his greatest songs, “quietly heartbreaking beneath its jaunty cabaret”. (Stephen Thomas Erlewine, https://www.allmusic.com/album/pandemonium-shadow-show-mw0000179116) Matthew Greenwald writes that:

“1941” is a lovely, Beatlesque song that is auto-biographical in nature. A slow, lilting pop waltz, the song goes through the author’s early decades, his father leaving home, and his own restless nature. Aside from the excellent sense of craft that embodies the song, Nilsson’s incredible scat singing gets a whole verse devoted to just that. Pretty adventurous for an unknown artist.

https://www.allmusic.com/song/1941-mt0019319007

Aimee Ferrier enthuses:

While the storytelling is simple, the way the story comes full circle, with Nilsson tricking us into thinking that the subject has broken the cycle of parental trauma, is incredibly clever. It is just one of many examples of Nilsson’s understated genius; the contrast between the initial melancholy of the opening notes (which possess a funeral-horn quality), with the ambiguous lyrics and upbeat vocal sections make the song an interesting and refreshing listen. It feels like there’s something new to discover with every listen, whether that be the emotive instrumentals or the false sense of security that Nilsson lulls us into with his lyrics. With this song, he cemented himself as a songwriting legend.

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/1941-song-that-truly-showed-the-vast-talent-of-harry-nilsson/

Nilsson et Peggy March – filmed for French TV (’68):

BBC (’71):

Here is a demo:

1,942) Tom Northcott — “1941”

Here is Canadian Tom Northcott’s (see #20, 420) incredible cover (which actually reached #88 in the U.S. and #68 in Canada). Matthew Greenwald tells us that:

Although the definitive version of the heavily auto-biographical “1941” was by Harry Nilsson himself, this fabulous version by Tom Northcott is one of the great lost singles of the late ’60s. Northcott, one of the finest singer/songwriters to come out of Vancouver, has a vocal quality somewhat similar to Nilsson and Sal Valentino, and his reading gives the recording a great emotional core. However, the production by Leon Russell is positively devastating, combining a deceptively breezy opening with some wild tempo changes, including a syncopated, circus-like bridge, chorus, and coda, which mirror the lyrical reference perfectly. The song and recording are buttressed even further by Van Dyke Parks’ fabulous harpsichord playing, and (very probably) arrangement touches.

https://www.allmusic.com/song/1941-mt0005783776

Andrew Sandoval interviews Northcott:

“1941” got good exposure,” remarks Tom, “but, for example, it would be falling off the charts in Chicago just as it began to chart in Miami, and so on around the continent. No sustained momentum. It was a solid hit in Australia.” Resultantly, the single made an appearance on the U.S. Pop chart, staying for a mere two weeks, reaching a high of #88. . . . Northcott was encouraged by Tiger Beat editor Ann Moses to cover [“1941”]. The song features one of Leon Russell’s many grandiloquent arrangements for Tom. Tom: “The basic track was a metronome and Leon’s performance on a massive theater organ built into the studio . . . . literally pulled out all the stops on the organ, and we just turned off the ones we didn’t like.”

liner notes to the CD comp Sunny Goodge Street: The Warner Bros Recordings

As to Northcott, Sandoval says “Blessed with one of the most distinctive voices of the ’60s — a folky flutter sure to carry listeners on a magical ride of winsome wonder — Tom Northcott is perhaps the last and best-kept secret of the era. Excluding two almost-U.S. hit singles (‘Sunny Goodge Street’ [see #20] and ‘1941’), his career outside his homeland of Canada amounts to a mere handful of 7-inch discs.” (liner notes again)

Ray McGinnis tells us that:

Tom Northcott is a Vancouver folk-rock singer with hits on the local pop charts from the mid-60s into the early 70s. He became known to a Canadian audience by his regular appearances on CBC Television’s Let’s Go music program in 1964-68. He was nominated as best male vocalist for a Juno Award in 1971. . . . [I]n his teens [he] was gaining a reputation performing on the Vancouver coffeehouse circuit in the early ’60s. In particular, he was a regular in the Kitsilano neighborhood, the nexus of the hippie scene north of San Francisco. In 1965, Northcott took over . . . as the lead singer for the Vancouver Playboys . . . . [H]e [then] formed The Tom Northcott Trio . . . . [who] were soon regulars on . . . Let’s Go . . . . Meanwhile they were selling out the top clubs in the area . . . . The Tom Northcott Trio traveled to California and played gigs in San Fransisco and Los Angeles. This exposure got them further performances . . . and they opened for The Who, The Doors and Jefferson Airplane. . . .

https://vancouversignaturesounds.com/hits/1941-tom-northcott/

Joe Marchese adds that:

[Northcott] gained solid regional airplay and a minor chart entry in the U.S., but his music never struck the same chord in America as in his native Canada. . . . Is it sunshine folk? Is it baroque coffeehouse? This genre-defying and blissfully offbeat music speaks for itself. Northcott was supported by a virtual “Who’s Who” of the L.A. scene, including Harry Nilsson, Leon Russell, Randy Newman [see #174] and Jack Nitzsche, all under the watchful eye of Warner Bros.’ supreme A&R man, Lenny Waronker. He stood apart from many of his contemporaries, though, by his reliance on material from outside songwriters. Though an accomplished composer and lyricist . . . Northcott was launched by Warner Bros. as an interpretive singer . . . .

McGinnis adds a footnote:

[Northcott] changed careers in the early 1970s and got a license to become a commercial fisherman in British Columbia. At the end of the decade Northcott ran for public office under the banner of the Social Credit Party of British Columbia in the New Democratic Party stronghold of East Vancouver. He lost the campaign. Once again he switched careers and, after studying law at university, he specialized in maritime and admiralty law.

Joe Marchese ponders that “had things turned out a little differently, he might be remembered in the same breath as Joni Mitchell or Gordon Lightfoot [see #92, 167, 392], fellow Canadian troubadours.” (https://theseconddisc.com/2012/04/02/review-tom-northcott-sunny-goodge-street-the-warner-bros-recordings/)

Here are New Zealand’s Avengers:

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I’m the One Who Loves You Special Edition: The Impressions/The Paramounts — “I’m the One Who Loves You”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 11, 2026

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

1,939) The Impressions — “I’m the One Who Loves You”

Curtis Mayfield wrote this endearing and lovely ’63 Impressions (see #118, 285, 1,347, 1,544, 1,848) A-side that moved on up to #73 (but nowhere on the R&B chart). “It’s impossible to fault . . . . Mayfield’s voice is suited perfectly to the patient best friend of a lady who prefers meaner men”. (Angus Taylor, https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/c2p2/)

It also made it onto the Impressions’ first LP. John Bush writes:

[It] was one of the finest debuts of any ’60s soul act, though it excelled in part because it featured a backlog of chart singles . . . . Curtis Mayfield wrote all but two of the songs, stretching back to 1961’s “Gypsy Woman” . . . but mostly including strong 1962-1963 material like the hit “Little Young Lover,” “Grow Closer Together,” “I’m the One Who Loves You,” and “Minstrel and Queen.” . . . Mayfield’s disarmingly brilliant songs were really the only necessary element toward making The Impressions a strong LP, but the mesmerizing vocals and sympathetic arrangements made for a classic work of Chicago soul.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-impressions-mw0000770074

Ah, the Impressions. Steve Huey puts it well:

The quintessential Chicago soul group, the Impressions’ place in R&B history would be secure if they’d done nothing but launch the careers of soul legends Jerry Butler [see #347, 1,921] and Curtis Mayfield. But far more than that, the Impressions recorded some of the most distinctive vocal-group R&B of the ’60s under Mayfield’s guidance. Their style was marked by airy, feather-light harmonies and Mayfield’s influentially sparse guitar work, plus, at times, understated Latin rhythms. If their sound was sweet and lilting, it remained richly soulful thanks to the group’s firm grounding in gospel tradition; they popularized the three-part vocal trade-offs common in gospel but rare in R&B at the time, and recorded their fair share of songs with spiritual themes, both subtle and overt. Furthermore, Mayfield’s interest in the Civil Rights movement led to some of the first socially conscious R&B songs ever recorded, and his messages grew more explicit as the ’60s wore on, culminating in the streak of brilliance that was his early-’70s solo work.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-impressions-mn0000082013#biography

1,940) The Paramounts — “I’m the One Who Loves You”

The UK’s Paramounts did an outstanding job with the song, painting with a whiter shade of the Impressions. But, the ’64 A-side failed to chart.

As to the Paramounts, Bruce Eder writes:

Once hailed by the Rolling Stones as “the best R&B group in England,” they toiled for years with only the most modest chart success, and that on their first single. . . . The origins of the Paramounts go back to a band contest at the Palace Hotel Dancehall in Southend. The organizer thought to get the best members of the competing groups together in a single band. He ended up managing a lineup of Gary Brooker on piano, then 14 years old, Robin Trower on guitar, Chris Copping on bass, Bob Scott as singer, and Mick Brownlee on drums. It turned out that, except for Scott . . . they were all huge R&B fans . . . . Scott didn’t last long with the group and when he failed to turn up for a gig one day, Brooker found himself pressed into service as a singer . . . . In 1961, the Paramounts began playing the basement of a café owned by Trower’s father . . . and acquiring an audience of young mods, R&B enthusiasts all. They honed their sound during this period and became one of the better working bands of the time as their lineup evolved. By late 1962, Copping had left the band to attend college and was succeeded on bass by Diz Derrick; drummer Brownlee also exited the lineup, to be replaced by B.J. Wilson. By mid-1963, they were one of the more advanced R&B outfits in London . . . . They were signed to Parlophone Records in late 1963 and made their debut with “Poison Ivy[]” . . . . [which] skirted the lower reaches of the sales listings with help from appearances on the television shows Ready! Steady! Go! and Thank Your Lucky Stars. It was after appearing on the latter program with the Rolling Stones that the Paramounts received the aforementioned endorsement. The group was never able to capitalize on the publicity, however. A second single, “Bad Blood,” failed to hit, and a third single, “I’m the One Who Loves You,” was primarily notable for its B-side, “It Won’t Be Long,” which was the first track ever written by the group members. A Brooker/Trower composition, it didn’t attract much attention, but it did open a new phase in Brooker’s career as a composer. . . . [I]n late 1966, the Paramounts broke up. . . . Brooker . . . began writing songs with lyricist Keith Reid. In 1967, they arranged to cut a song that they’d written, called “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” which was recorded by a studio band credited as Procol Harum. When it became a hit, not only were new recordings needed, but there were demands for a tour. In the course of putting together a real live Procol Harum, Brooker rejoined Trower and Wilson [and later Chris Copping].

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-paramounts-mn0000482080#biography

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The Dave Miller Set — “Bread and Butter Day”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 10, 2026

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

1,938) The Dave Miller Set — “Bread and Butter Day”

This B-side by New Zealand’s Dave Miller Set (see #1,010) is an “[u]nder-the-radar Beat Bespoke style hard mod psych dancer with killer guitar and funky bass.” (happening45, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZRPUzpydEc&list=RD3ZRPUzpydEc&start_radio=1&pp=ygUkRGF2ZSBtaWxsZXIgc2V0IGJyZWFkIGFuZCBidXR0ZXIgZGF5oAcB&ra=m) I don’t know what the heck that means, but I love the song.

PopJunkie says that:

[“Bread and Butter Day”] struts in a snotty mid 60s garage style way complete with stinging guitar and shuffling beat[, b]ut then hits overdrive on the outro with an extended Hendrixy guitar solo. [Now that I understand!] It is astonishing that this has not been compiled and that the band’s reputation doesn’t rest as much on this corking tune as it does on their hit [“Mr. Guy Fawkes” (see #1,010)].

https://popjunkielondon.wordpress.com/2017/10/16/the-dave-miller-set-mr-guy-fawkes-cd-review/

The definitive Milesago: Australasian Music & Popular Culture 1964-1975 tells us:

“Bread and Butter Day” is a driving slice of heavy-soul which gives a clearer hint of what the band were delivering live. It was also an important advance for the group — Dave’s [see #1,010, 1,867] first original song to be commercially released, and John’s [Robinson’s] first opportunity to really stretch out as a lead guitarist on record. He spikes the track with some scorching licks, climaxing in a wailing, Hendrix-like solo. Lyrically, it convincingly explores the “life is tough” theme . . . . [F]or any working muso of the time, the phrase “bread and butter day” was certainly an apt description for their often hand-to-mouth existence.

http://www.milesago.com/artists/dms.htm

Four years ago, Dave Miller commented that he was “very proud of [‘Bread and Butter Day] now”. (djrbfmbfm-woa, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZRPUzpydEc&list=RD3ZRPUzpydEc&start_radio=1&pp=ygUkRGF2ZSBtaWxsZXIgc2V0IGJyZWFkIGFuZCBidXR0ZXIgZGF5oAcB&ra=m)

Happening45 responded:

It is brilliant, as are all your 45s I think – shame you didn’t get the breaks back in the day. This is my favourite, I love the way the guitar, bass and drums all link in so well with each other.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZRPUzpydEc&list=RD3ZRPUzpydEc&start_radio=1&pp=ygUkRGF2ZSBtaWxsZXIgc2V0IGJyZWFkIGFuZCBidXR0ZXIgZGF5oAcB&ra=m

Miller responded to happening45:

[W]e were one happy group for a time. bob the bassist was my best mate. we thought alike. a telecaster by the way. this is not a good reference as it is too boomy. . . . thx anyway.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZRPUzpydEc&list=RD3ZRPUzpydEc&start_radio=1&pp=ygUkRGF2ZSBtaWxsZXIgc2V0IGJyZWFkIGFuZCBidXR0ZXIgZGF5oAcB&ra=m

As to the Dave Miller and the Byrds and then the Dave Miller Set, New Zealand Music of the 60’s, 70’s and a bit of 80’s says:

Dave Miller and the Byrds came from Christchurch, before moving to Auckland in 1965. They were one of the best R&B cover acts to appear in the early sixties, faithfully reproducing all manner of Chuck Berry and Chicago blues originals on stage. . . . In 1962 Phil Garland formed the Playboys . . . . [a] later version of the Playboys consisted of Graeme Miller, John O’Neill, Kevin O’Neill, Brian Ringrose, Phil Garland and Dave Miller. Phil left the group and with Dave Miller as the lead singer, and a couple of more personnel changes, they very shortly afterwards renamed themselves Dave Miller and the Byrds. After arriving in Auckland, they soon became a top attraction on the club scene. The group came to the attention of Eldred Stebbing [owner of the Zodiac label] and he soon had them into his studio to do some recordings. “Bright Lights, Big City”, a cover from the Pretty Things, was their first single on Zodiac in 1965 . . . and it performed quite well on the local charts. . . . In 1967, [two members departed and] the rest of the group renamed themselves the Dave Miller Set and moved to Australia.

Not long after their arrival, the band fell apart and Dave put together a new line-up with John Robinson on lead guitar. . . . A recording contract was negotiated with Spin Records . . . . In 1969 . . . John Robinson emerged as a fluid and inventive guitarist and the Dave Miller Set attained prominence as one of the first heavy rock bands on the local scene in the Led Zeppelin mould. Under the direction of Festival’s in-house producer Pat Aulton, the band cut its fourth single, “Mr Guy Fawkes” . . . in July 1969. . . . a cover of the song by English band Eire Apparent rates [that] as one of the great Australian psychedelic classics of the sixties.

https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20090913081842/http://www.sergent.com.au/davemill.html, https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20090915214845/http://www.sergent.com.au/davemillerset.html

Milesago goes deep:

The Dave Miller Set is an important group in the history Australasian music, and one that has been long overlooked for too long. They were one of the most popular and hardworking live bands on the east coast scene in the late ’60s. . . . [G]uitarist and composer John Robinson, one of Sydney’s original ‘guitar heroes’ . . . went on to further fame with Blackfeather and also became an influential guitar teacher. Most importantly, the DMS was a key chapter the career of New Zealand-born singer-songwriter Dave Miller . . . . Dave is a crucial link between the formative music industries of Australia and New Zealand. He honed his craft in thriving Christchurch scene and since they were teenagers he has been a close friend and colleague of most of the top New Zealand acts of the era . . . . The DMS career spans the fascinating transitional period from the end of the “scream era” in 1967 to the start of the infamous Radio Ban in 1970 [over payola allegations]. They were one of the first Australian acts to pick up on the heavy rock/progressive rock trend pioneered by overseas acts like Cream, Hendrix, Free and Led Zeppelin . . . . Their style was forged on Sydney’s university and college circuit, and in the thriving inner-city club scene that was fuelled by the influx of American servicemen on “R&R” leave . . . . Despite a solid following throughout NSW and in Queensland, the DMS were victims of the infamous Sydney-Melbourne rivalry and they were almost completely ignored in Victoria . . . and unfortunately they never managed to establish a national presence. As with his first band Dave Miller & The Byrds, Dave handled virtually every aspect of the DMS business affairs, and his entrepreneurial skills guided them to considerable success in Sydney, in New Zealand and even as far afield as Fiji . . . . Another important thread is Dave’s association/collaboration with influential industry figures . . . . Dave moved easily in industry circles, had a good rapport with the media, was a tireless promoter and organiser on behalf of his band, and his collaboration with Festival house producer Pat Aulton created some classic recordings. The five records that The Dave Miller Set recorded for the Spin label are among the freshest and most enjoyable Australian pop-rock Singles of the late ’60s. . . . produced, arranged and included vocal and instrumental contributions by the great Pat Aulton, one of the most prolific, influential and talented producers of the period. . . . Well before he came to Australia . . . Dave Miller was already a significant figure in Kiwi music, fronting one of the best NZ ‘beat’ outfits of the period, Dave Miller & The Byrds. . . . A feature unique to Christchurch in the early ’60s was the influx of American personnel who passed through the city as part of “Operation Deep Freeze”, the establishment of the American Antarctic base. . . . g[iving] the Christchurch scene a special “leg up” and it many respects it became the “Liverpool of the south”, thanks to the infusion of original blues, R&B and rock’n’roll records brought in by the Yanks . . . . Dave proved to be a natural showman and a great addition to the [Playboys]. . . . The Playboys might have remained a local attraction but they got a crucial break in late 1964, which soon set them on the road to national prominence, when they were spotted by Howard Morrison . . . . the leader of the hugely popular vocal group The Howard Morrison Quartet . . . . [T]hey were impressed enough to invite them to be the Morrisons’ backing group on their upcoming summer tour of NZ holiday resorts. . . . Just before they set out they decided to change their name to The Byrds, to avoid confusion with other acts like America’s Gary Lewis & The Playboys, and Normie Rowe’s backing band of the same name. [This was] before the . . . American [Byrds] had their first hit[, which] necessitated the later addition of “Dave Miller & ..” prefix. Over that summer the Byrds and the Morrison Quartet played to literally tens of thousands of people, an experience which thoroughly honed their playing and showmanship. . . . Howard . . . recommended the Byrds to Eldred Stebbings . . . . Dave and The Byrds scored a major hit in Auckland 1965 with their debut single, a strong cover of Jimmy Reed’s “Bright Lights Big City” . . . [which] peaked at a very creditable #13 nationally. . . . [B]y 1966 [Miller] could see that even though the NZ scene was booming and The Byrds were doing extremely well, any further local success would be limited, and that they’d soon be going over old ground. . . . Australia was the obvious next step . . . . [T]he rest of the group were reluctant to move and start all over again . . . . The Byrds honoured their outstanding commitments and went their separate ways in early 1966. . . . [Miller’s] fiancé Corinne . . . had just moved to Sydney with her family. . . . When the DMS first formed they played much the same repertoire as The Byrds including covers of The Yardbirds, The Kinks, The Animals and other popular favourites. . . . As John found his feet in the band they gradually adopted this “heavier” style, becoming one of the first Australian bands to do so . . . . Dave worked assiduously on developing John’s stagecraft and showmanship . . . . [ and o]ver the next three years Dave provided John with the space and scope to develop into one of the most powerful and innovative electric guitarists on the scene . . . . [T]he friendship that developed between Dave and Spin Records boss Nat Kipner led directly to the DMS being signed to the label. Kipner teamed them with Pat Aulton . . . justly famous for the many classic discs he produced for Normie Rowe, Kahvas Jute, Neil Sedaka and many others. . . . The debut DMS single, released in October 1967, was “Why Why Why”, a cover of a Paul Revere & The Raiders song . . . . Spin were obviously happy with the result, so Nat Kipner teamed them up with . . . Aulton . . . . By ’68 the influence of Cream, Hendrix and The Who were reverberating around the world and . . . DMS to become the first local groups to pick up on this trend and develop it convincingly in the local context. . . . By the start of 1969 the Set had become one of the most popular live draws in the Sydney-Newcastle-Wollongong region, and each new single had gained successively greater attention. Yet throughout their career Melbourne was more or less a “closed shop” for them . . . .

Dave: “By that stage we were well and truly ensconced in that the progressive/underground direction of music we were taking. The band had expanded so much beyond the concept of a three-minute record that our live performances were up in the echelon of Zeppelin, Who, Cream . . . .”

As [1969] drew to a close, Dave became aware that trouble was looming for the music industry — a smouldering “pay for play” dispute between commercial radio and the record companies that was about to break out into open warfare as the infamous 1970 Radio Ban. . . . As the new year progressed the radio dispute hotted up, and many acts on major labels — including the DMS — would soon find themselves unable to get airplay. . . . [W]ithout another charting record to keep them in the public ear, the momentum they had built up began to dissipate. They were also tired from almost three years of incessant travel and gigging . . . and by now Dave could see the writing on the wall. . . . In May 1970, just as the Radio Ban was officially declared, Dave announced that he was leaving the Dave Miller Set.

https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20100316061804/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/35967/20100315-0848/www.milesago.com/artists/dms-3.html

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Larry’s Rebels — “Fantasy”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 9, 2026

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

1,937) Larry’s Rebels — “Fantasy”

New Zealand’s hard-rocking Rebels take an exquisite excursion into psychedelia. “Taking their lead from the English childlike take on the genre, the strings back this Snow White tale splendidly.” (Jason Barnard, https://thestrangebrew.co.uk/i-feel-good-the-essential-purple-flashes-of-larrys-rebels-1965-1969/)

Grant Gillanders writes:

Their new single ‘Fantasy’ failed to make the national charts even after positive feedback and excellent reviews. It did however feature on a number of the country’s regional charts. . . . “We arranged for a few violinists and a harp player [from the Symphonia of Auckland] to play on ‘Fantasy’,” says [drummer] Nooky Stott. “Only problem was that the harp wouldn’t fit through the door of the studio, so she had to play in the adjoining garage with me standing in the doorway giving her the cues.” In a nice piece of ad-libbing, Larry [Morris] recites Nooky’s name as one of the seven dwarfs in the fairy tale themed lyrics. “Fantasy” was not released in Australia. “It’s not the sort of sound that the Australians go for,” revealed Russell Clark in the group’s March 1968 fan club newsletter.

https://www.audioculture.co.nz/articles/larry-s-rebels-part-2-dream-time

Guitarist John Williams recalls:

“Fantasy” begins with a harp. We had an orchestra in there. I couldn’t believe [manager and label owner] Russell Clark would spend the money on a full string section.

https://www.audioculture.co.nz/profile/larry-s-rebels#

“Fantasy” has its detractors. Andrew Schmidt calls it a “less than successful take on psychedelia”. (https://www.audioculture.co.nz/profile/larry-s-rebels#) But Schmidt loves the Rebels:

Larry’s Rebels were New Zealand’s Animals [see #513, 949]. Our Paul Revere and the Raiders. The top notch local pop band with bluesy bite, who released a handful of vital discs, and for a brief few years were all over the media, the charts and the nation’s bedroom walls. The Rebels were Auckland’s first great homegrown pop band of the modern pop era; hard working and electrifying live. Their cover versions nipped at the heels of the originals.

https://www.audioculture.co.nz/profile/larry-s-rebels#

Mark Deming adds:

[F]or five years they were one of the nation’s biggest and best beat groups. Larry’s Rebels were sometimes compared to the Animals in their homeland . . . and while they lacked the fierce blues power of the British band, they shared their talent for taking well-known songs and giving them a distinctive spin of their own. Singer Larry Morris had a strong, versatile voice that worked with sunny pop numbers and harder blues-based material, and guitarist John Williams . . . could play tough, howling leads dipped in fuzz and feedback; this was a band that could cover the Who [see #548, 833, 976] and the Creation [see #129, 165, 1,643, 1,748] and, if not surpassing the originals, deliver versions that had a backbone and a personality of their own. (And “Flying Scotsman,” an obvious lift from “Train Kept A Rollin’,” burns nearly as bright as the Yardbirds’ [see #1,924] variation on the theme.) Larry’s Rebels were stars in New Zealand and fared well in Australia, but they failed to break through in the U.K. and were unknown in the United States . . . .[They] could tackle moody pop . . . sneering R&B . . . raunchy garage punk . . . and proto-psychedelia . . . with equal confidence and skill.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/i-feel-good-the-essential-purple-flashes-of-larrys-rebels-1965-1969-mw0002832184

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