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

1,532-34) The Cleves — “Nowhere”/”Down on the Farm”/”Don’t Turn Your Back”

From New Zealand’s Abbey Road, here is part of a suite of perfect pop rock songs written for a short film by the to-be-famous Australian director Peter Weir.

I thought I was so creative in describing the songs as such — until I read Grant Gillanders saying the same thing! —

In 1970 the [Cleves] were commissioned to write and record the music for a short film called Michael, directed by a pre-Hollywood Peter Weir. The resulting soundtrack was released as an EP and is a 16-minute, 10-part suite of near perfect pop music segued together to form a thematic whole in a style not to dissimilar to side two of The Beatles’ Abbey Road.

https://www.audioculture.co.nz/profile/clevedonaires

I thought of it before I read that, I swear!

MilesaGo: Australasian popular music, pop culture and social history 1964-1975 says:

Michael won the Grand Prix at the 1970 AFI [Australian Film Institute] Awards . . . . Along with the Bee Gees-like track “Don’t Turn Your Back”, the EP featured songs recorded for the soundtrack, segued together to form a thematic whole, which “combined certain elements of the British music hall tradition (as espoused by The Beatles) with a more esoteric pop flavour a la The Move”. 

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

The Cleves were a brilliant Kiwi brand composed essentially of three siblings that was destined for great things. But it is a b*tch how things ended.

Grant Gillanders tells us:

[T]he Brown siblings, Graham, Ron and Gaye, grew up on the family farm [in Clevedon]. . . . In the early sixties, with Gaye learning piano and Graham receiving drum lessons . . . Bill Brown arranged for his three children to have singing and choreography lessons with Pat McMinn of  ‘Opo the Crazy Dolphin’ fame. It was at an early talent quest when Ron and Graham were performing as a duo, that they were first introduced as “The Clevedonaires” . . . and the name stuck. . . . While still at school during 1963, The Clevedonaires started to become a bit more serious about their music and decided to form a four-piece band. School friend and neighbour Milton Lane was recruited on rhythm guitar and took his place alongside Ron (guitar) and Graham (drums), while Gaye was weened off the piano to handle the bass duties. . . . Proud parents Bill and Joy Brown supplied the emotional encouragement and support while physically handling the day-to-day management and transportation duties. . . . Ron [recalls] “Later on when we got a little bit older it wasn’t very cool to have the olds in view, so we used to send them away and arrange for them to pick us up later.” The Clevedonaires quickly built up a good local reputation with a mix of Shadows instrumentals, pop hits of the day and four-part harmony folk numbers. . . . [B]y late 1965 they were mixing it in the competitive Auckland city scene where they played at some of the top venues . . . . [T]hey were spotted by promoter and record label owner Benny Levin, who signed them to his new record label, Impact Records. Local songwriter Darryl Lawrence submitted two songs in a semi folk style to Benny for consideration as their debut single – ‘How You Lied’ and ‘Rooftops and Chimneys’. Both songs were subsequently recorded and released as the group’s first single. Although not a chart hit the record found favourable reviews . . . . By late 1966 the group had amassed a repertoire of 300 songs with Gaye now assuming the role of musical director . . . . During the day Graham, Ron and Milton helped out on their respective family farms while Gaye finished her schooling. . . . Milton found the workload too heavy and decided to leave. Enter Rob Aickin. . . . [who] took over the bass guitar from Gaye, who in turn introduced keyboards to the group’s sound, which was in the process of changing to a more rockier format. “We decided to drop the folky stuff from our repertoire,” reflects Ron, “and started doing a lot more of the harder edged British stuff from The Animals, The Kinks and The Yardbirds etc.” The new harder-edged sound . . . manifested itself on . . . their second single, released in March 1967. . . . The group auditioned for The We 3, a weekly television magazine show aimed at teenagers. . . . [and were] picked . . . as [the] resident group . . . . [F]our days before their first TV appearance . . . their mother Joy died suddenly. Two further singles were released on the Impact labels . . . The Clevedonaires were approached by an Australian entrepreneur to do a four month tour, entertaining American troops in Vietnam. . . . The group quit their day jobs and canceled all engagements for a month to concentrate on rehearsals . . . . [But] halfway through . . . rehearsals [came] the 1968 Tet Offensive . . . . [T]he group had no option but to pull out of the contract. . . . [They] decided to try their luck in Sydney. . . . head[ing] to the ski resort town of Cooma . . . where Benny Levin had arranged a regular gig at the Cooma Hotel. . . . Gaye recalls . . . . [“]We lasted for about two weeks before it got too much for us, so we rang Benny to get us out of the deal and we ended up playing in the Hume Hotel in the Sydney suburb of Yagoona.” . . . The Cleves (they now shortened their name) built up an unprecedented following among Sydneysiders who nightly would beat a path to the Hume Hotel. . . . [T]he group backed Dinah Lee for several nights at the Hume. Dinah was so impressed that she arranged for her road manager Bobi Petch to hear them perform . . . . [He] worked for Cordon Bleu Promotions, one of the top agencies in Sydney. This resulted in the group becoming the resident band at Lucifer’s, a new discotheque in Sydney, and signing up with . . . Cordon Bleu . . . . [T]he group returned home in December, 1968 . . . . After several engagements in . . . South Auckland . . . the[y] headed to Mount Maunganui for a summer engagement . . . . Once back in [Sydney] . . . they were in constant demand. . . . The Cleves’ first Australian recording was a promotional single made for . . . The Tintookies, a large-scale puppet show on Aboriginal history. The Cleves were approached . . . to perform at the after party for the Australian premiere of . . . Hair on 4 June, 1969 . . . . the party of the decade in Australia, with a veritable who’s who of the Australian music industry in attendance. The Cleves impressed all who attended . . . . [and] were signed by Festival Records shortly afterwards and started working with with ace producer Pat Aulton . . . . The poppy and almost vaudevillian “Sticks & Stones” was released . . . to glowing reviews . . . . Although not a chart hit . . . [it] received enough airplay to keep The Cleves’ name on everybody’s lips and complemented the glowing live reviews . . . . The . . . second single “You And Me” was released during May 1970, the same month that they made their 100th appearance on Australian television. . . . In late 1970 the group started work on their . . . . debut album . . . described by . . . Ian McFarlane as “a prime example of where psychedelic pop gave way to a more progressive aesthetic”. . . . With a heavy touring schedule lined-up, Gaye was exhausted and unwell, so she took four months off and the group recruited Vince Melhouney (ex-Bee Gees) on guitar to fulfill their engagements. With an offer from Helen Reddy’s manager to tour the United States on the table, The Cleves instead took advice from . . . Melhouney who suggested . . . the UK. Recently married, Graham Brown decided to leave and was replaced by Ace Follington . . . The Cleves boarded the ship to the UK with two objectives in mind, first to write a batch of new songs and second to change the group’s name to something a bit more tougher sounding to reflect their new songs.

https://www.audioculture.co.nz/profile/clevedonaires

The new name was Bitch. Gillanders writes that:

Bitch found the biggest PA system they could find and set out to blow the roof off the Speakeasy. This paid instant dividends when several labels started bidding for them before they had even finished their set. In the end Warner Bros. made the best offer and quickly signed them to a NZ$50,000 contract. Warners sent them to Spring Cottage in East Sussex with instructions to take their time, write more material for an album, and – just as importantly – to write a hit record. . . . The single “Good Time Coming’ and tracks for the album were recorded at Morgan Studios . . . . [It] was a regional Top 10 hit in Germany and Holland . . . . With the album in the can and the relative success of the first single, the group was booked into George Martin’s famous AIR Studios in Central London to record the follow-up single “Wildcat” . . . . Bitch did what they did best and hit the club scene with abandon, and as in Australia, soon endeared themselves to fans and journalists alike. . . . Bill Harman, the group’s manager [recalls:] “The band were signed to the Warners arm of WEA records, an English amalgamation of US labels Warner Bros., Elektra and Atlantic. The album had been mastered and was complete, including artwork, when disaster struck. . . . When the A&R department of WEA found a new talent they would, in consultation with the parent companies, sign them to one of their three labels. Around the middle of 1973, when the Bitch album was all ready to go, the bosses of each of the three labels in the US became worried that the next Led Zeppelin would walk through the doors in the London office and promptly get signed to one of the other two labels. Consequently, they agreed to wind up WEA and proceed to operate as three separate labels in the UK. Former CBS UK boss Robbie Robinson, an accountant by trade, was put in as caretaker at Warners . . . . [and] was not prepared to action anything that involved company expenditure. This included distributing the Bitch album. Things dragged on for months and culminated in the Bitch recording deal being scrapped and the album ditched.” 

https://www.audioculture.co.nz/profile/bitch

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

1,531) Barış Manço — “Bebek”

This ’68 A-side by the legendary and beloved Turkish singer-songwriter Barış Manço takes a Turkish folk song and turns it into a haunting and riveting classic, “combining psychedelic elements with the mysticism of Anatolia”. (Wikipedia (courtesy of Google Translate), https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar%C4%B1%C5%9F_Man%C3%A7o)

Stephen Kinzer writes that:

The folk and pop singer Baris Manco . . . had great cultural influence in Turkey and became one of this country’s most beloved figures . . . . [When he died in 1999, t]ens of thousands of people, many in tears, turned out . . . for his funeral, which was broadcast live on national television. ”Today, we as a nation feel pain in our hearts for having lost a great artist and a good friend,” the Culture Minister, Istemihan Talay, said in his eulogy.

https://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/07/nyregion/baris-manco-turkish-pop-star-and-television-personality-56.html

My Turkish Rock adds that:

Barış Manço . . . [was a] Turkish musician, poet/lyricist and singer, one of the founders of Anatolian Rock and modern Turkish rock. Also he was known as a television producer and show host . . . . He had an older brother, Savaş (in Turkish,  Savaş  means war, and Barış means peace[)] . . . . He graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Belgium . . . . In 1966, he was in a car accident that left him with a scar on his face. To hide it, he began to wear a mustache. In the late 1960s, he formed several short-lived bands, and much of his musical style was then an imitation of American rock ‘n’ roll. At that time he found his image, which for Turkey in the 60s was a bit extravagant. He had very long hair, a huge number of rings, bracelets, chains and other jewelry, bright clothes with long capes, during performances special plasticity and gestures. . . . The real beginning of Manço’s musical creativity is 1970 and the song “Dağlar Dağlar” (“Mountains Mountains”), which immediately became very popular upon release . . . .

https://myturkishrock.ru/barış-manço-english

Wikipedia tells us of Manço in the 60s (courtesy of Google Translate):

Barış Manço left Turkey in September 1963 to study at the Royal Academy of Belgium . . . . While studying painting, graphics and interior architecture at the Royal Academy of Belgium, he also worked as a waiter and a car mechanic. During this time, he met the Belgian poet André Soulac. Thanks to Soulac, he improved his French . . . . Soulac wrote lyrics for Manço’s compositions. In 1964, Barış Manço, who wanted to continue his music career, signed a deal with the Rigolo record company and started working with the Jacques Danjean Orchestra. Barış . . . turned from Twist to Rock and Roll . . . . In September 1964, he released two EPs in French with four songs. . . . As a result of the success of the records, he was a guest on a pop music program . . . broadcast on French radio. When this EP came to Turkey, radio broadcasters thought Manço was a French artist . . . . On January 12, 1965, he performed at the Olympia concert hall in Paris before Salvatore Adamo and France Gall [see #36, 1,361] , singing his own composition . . . in French and English. . . . In 1966, he attracted attention by performing examples of Turkish music with the group The Folk 4 at a festival. However, a French musician who did not like Barış Manço’s accent and banned his records from being played deeply affected [him] and was one of the reasons that ended his European career. . . . In 1966 . . . he met the Belgian group Les Mistigris, which means “Wild Cats”, and started working with them. He gave concerts with the group in [Western and Eastern Europe]. Manço, who signed a deal with the Sahibinin Sesi company, releas[ing] singles . . . in 1966. In 1967, he had an accident in the Netherlands, which left a cleft on his lip and he began to grow a moustache. . . . Manço’s last recordings with Les Mistigris were . . . released in an EP towards the end of 1967. . . . includ[ing] Manço’s first Turkish composition “Bizim Gibi”, which would later be known as “Kol Düğmeleri” . . . . Manço and Les Mistigris parted ways due to visa and legal problems. The first psychedelic rock songs in Turkey belong to Manço and . . . Les Mistigris. . . . [H]e started working with the group Kaygisizlar in early 1968. . . . [His] English songs were left as they were, and the Turkish songs were re-recorded and released with Kaygısızlar. [T]his first [LP] that Barış Manço released from Sayan, [including] the song “Bizim Gibi” . . . re-recorded as “Kol Düğmeleri”. . . . achieved great popularity. Since Manço was continuing his education in Liège, the group was able to come together in the summer months and began to release their third single “Bebek”/“Keep Lookin” . . . . He created a unique East-West melody with Eastern music interspersed with psychedelic tones. The group, which released records at intervals, was influenced by the slowly rising Psychedelic music movement, known for its closeness to both Anatolian themes and Eastern motifs. One of Barış Manço’s 45’s with Kaygısızlar, “Ağlama Değmez Hayat”, sold over 50,000 copies in 1969, earning Manço his first gold record. Manço graduated from the Royal Academy of Belgium in June 1969 with first place and returned to Istanbul with his fiancée. Parting ways with Kaygısızlar at the end of 1969, 1970 was a year for Manço, when he moved from psychedelic rock to typical Anatolian pop waters. . . . Manço started working with a new group known in Turkey as “…Ve” and abroad as “Etc”. . . . In November 1970, Manço, who had used Western instruments until then, released “Dağlar Dağlar”. The song, recorded with Barış Manço’s guitar and . . . Cüneyd Orhon’s kemençe, was the beginning of [] own musical style . . . . The . . . record . . . sold more than 700,000 copies, earn[ing] Manço the only Platinum Record Award in his career. . . . [He] decided to join forces with Moğollar, who were already famous . . . . the goal of both groups was to become famous in Europe with Turkish music. Until then, Manço had been making music influenced by the West, while Moğollar was making music in the Anatolian pop style. . . . The first concert of the group called MançoMongol in Turkey took place in April 1971 at Manço’s Platinum Record award ceremony. . . . “İşte Hendek İşte Deve” . . . received great acclaim and was included among Barış Manço’s classics. . . . Mançomongol disbanded in June 1971 due to disagreements in the group and Barış Manço’s health problems.

https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar%C4%B1%C5%9F_Man%C3%A7o

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

1,530) Los York’s* — “La Punta De Mi Lengua”/”The Tip of My Tongue”

Wonderfully moody garage rock by “one of the most successful and groundbreaking [bands] in Peruvian rock”. (Fidel Gutierrez Mendoza (courtesy of Google Translate), https://rockperuanorollos.blogspot.com/search/label/Yorks). “”Much of Los York’s 68 is better than average Latin American garage rock, especially . . . the moody “La Punta de Mi Leguna”. (Mark Deming, https://www.allmusic.com/album/los-yorks-68-mw0000490565) “The York’s . . . make it clear that Lima was the capital of garage music made in the Southern Hemisphere in the sixties, and that it had little to envy the North American totems of the style”. (Javi Sánchez Pons, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywe1fj-Jdas)

Ah, Los York’s. Mon Falcon writes (courtesy of Google Translate):

“Their spectacular live performances, fronted by [Pablo] Luna, led to the label “rhythm sickness” (disease rhythm) being used to refer to their music, eventually becoming known as El Conjunto Enfermedad [Set Disease] as the band’s surname…. Los York’s performances were later compared to those of The Stooges, with Pablo Luna transformed into a spasmodic Iggy Pop, writhing at a frenetic pace during the songs and ending up destroying microphones, sound systems, and lighting equipment.”

https://rockperuanorollos.blogspot.com/search/label/Yorks

And Arturo Vigil write (courtesy of Google Translate):

Pablo Luna is remembered for destroying around 48 microphones, countless fluorescent lights, and light bulbs in various explosive performances. Pablo, a redhead with Afro-Peruvian features, sang with his sweet, warm, and rhythmic voice, which could abruptly shift into a cathartic and furious paroxysm, with doses of true rage and violence. Walter Paz, in charge of the lead guitar and second vocals, contributed a distinctive color and sound with his performance, perhaps due to his musical training and admiration for Ray Charles, The Animals, and the Motown sound in general. He also composed most of the lyrics, arrangements, and musical transcriptions. The guitar complement was provided by Román Palacios with his marked instrumental and stage power. “El flaco” (The Skinny One). As they called Jesús Vilchez, the band’s bassist, he displayed a marked feeling and creativity, which gave the group a very special harmonic depth. His androgynous and provocative movements are remembered, driving mad and desperate, in the irremediable screams of tender teenagers. Pacho Aguilar, a drummer endowed with charisma and a special sense of humor, brought all his personality to the percussion, projected on his wonderful Roxy drum kit, giving the “Sick” Yorks their sound.

https://rockperuanorollos.blogspot.com/search/label/Yorks

Of the LP, Mark Deming writes:

[A]s the decade wore on their music began to take on the influence of the psychedelic revolution, and this album suggests that in 1968 the group was beginning to walk between two worlds at once. Most of Los York’s 68 sounds like the work of a solid, no-nonsense garage band with tough, lean guitar work and a drummer who isn’t afraid to hit, but vocalist Pablo Luna sounds uncommonly passionate on even the most ordinary numbers, and when the band starts to hit a groove on something with a bit more drive, he lets forth with plaintive murmuring and frenetic wails that sound like the cries of a man possessed. And when Luna really hits the top, the rest of the band seems eager to follow him . . . . [I]t’s when these guys stumble into the musical Twilight Zone that this really becomes something special. . . .

While the group began in 1966 playing fairly typical fare inspired by the British Invasion and American garage rock hits of the day, Luna was a powerful vocalist not afraid to make with some freaked-out emoting, and as the band began experimenting with its sound as the decade wore on, Paz started working noise and feedback into his solos. The group’s first album, Los York’s 67, was a strong but straightforward affair; they began dipping their toes into psychedelia and other more adventurous sounds on their next LP,  Los York’s 68, which featured . . . some of Paz’s best guitar work.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/los-yorks-68-mw0000490565, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/los-yorks-mn0001881774#biography

Alexz gives us some history (courtesy of Google Translate):

The band’s history begins when Román Palacios and Pacho Aguilar meet, and from there, the idea of forming a group is born. . . . Walter joins the group while still in school. The group was almost formed, but they needed a vocalist, so they began the search. At a matinee at the Tauro cinema, the group Press was performing, in which Pablo Luna sang. Their electrifying performance was what caught Román and Pacho’s attention, and they invited him to rehearse with them. Pablo accepted. . . . Their first recording (a 45 rpm) was released in March 1967. They later recorded a few more 45 rpm records. One of the recordings, “Abrázame,” is said to have sold more than 40,000 copies, a rare occurrence for the MAG label. Pablo Luna later left, but it was only temporary. Enrique Palacios replaced him briefly. With Pablo Luna’s return, Los York’s released their first LP, York’s 67, on the MAG label. This was the album that catapulted them to fame. Radio stations at the time played their songs, and young people enjoyed their music. Songs like “Abrázame,” “Vete al Infierno,” and others received a Gold Record. . . . Fernando Quiroz took part in the recording of this album, replacing Walter Paz. Fernando participated in most of the songs and played second guitar on others. Their fame grew so great that they had their own radio and television show. This program was titled El show de Los York’s on Channel 11. In 1968, they released their second LP, York’s 68. With this album, they established themselves on the rock scene. . . . In 1969, Los York’s signed with El Virrey. Pacho Aguilar left the band. He was replaced by Freddy “Puro” Fuentes Arana, who had previously played in Los Belkings, El Polen, and other important groups of the time. The record label MAG tried to persuade Los York’s to stay, but to no avail. MAG, however, did not stop there and began releasing a Los York’s album, but added a new vocalist, Pablo Villanueva “Melcochita.” . . . [He] had previously participated in the previous album, providing backing vocals and percussion. This album also included some songs that Los York’s had recorded for the label. The album’s title was York’s 69. . . .

https://web.archive.org/web/20071028081004/http://www.rockclasicolatin.blogspot.com/2007/09/los-yorks.html

* “They both agree to name the band after New York City, as they liked the music from that part of the US.” (Alexz (courtesy of Google Translate, https://web.archive.org/web/20071028081004/http://www.rockclasicolatin.blogspot.com/2007/09/los-yorks.html) However, “Pablo ‘Pacho’ Aguilar Salazar, the drummer . . . . says that those who claim that Los York’s is an allusion to the Big Apple are mistaken, but the truth is that it was named that way because the original singer used the stage name Willy York.” (courtesy of Google Translate, https://rockperuanorollos.blogspot.com/search/label/Yorks)

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The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 1,000 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.

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

This ’65 self-written A-side by “Denmark’s – some would say the world’s – first teenage boy band” (Jan Eriksen (courtesy of Google Translate), https://www.bt.dk/underholdning/en-poppioner-er-doed)) was a hit there and is pure pop perfection. An obscure group from London then gave it a brilliant brassy mod makeover in ’67. And then decades later the song was given new life by punk legend Stiv Bators and Freddy Lynxx and the Corner Gang. WTF?

1,528) The Lollipops — “I’ll Stay By Your Side”

The Lollipops (see #25), Danish boys (starting out at 9, 10, and 12!) were “the subject of a true fan hysteria, especially in Sweden” (Jan Eriksen (courtesy of Google Translate), https://www.bt.dk/underholdning/en-poppioner-er-doed))

Jukka Saarinen writes (courtesy of Google Translate):

The Danish trio Torben, Jörgen and Poul, aka The Lollipops, delighted and amazed both young and old music lovers. The average age of the trio was just over 15, but the . . . band, which had risen to the top in an instant, had already achieved quite a bit of success. Torben Lundgreen, despite being only fifteen years old, had already become one of the most popular singers in the Nordic region. He had also established himself as a serious composer, along with his brother Jörgen Lundgreen, who played guitar and was a year younger. The brothers wrote the music for the 14-track LP Do You Know The Lollipops. The band’s drummer, Poul Petersen, is the brothers’ cousin. The Lollipops’ first hit single, “Do you know”, had been released three years earlier. In addition to the LP, the band also released the single “I’ll Stay by Your Side”, which was also predicted to be an international success immediately upon release.

https://www.ts.fi/puheenvuorot/788699

Dk-rock adds (courtesy of Google Translate):

Debuted at a talent competition held by the Pingklubben in 1960 at the age of only 10, 9 and 12. Attracted attention due to their age, which gave them engagements, including at the Københavnerkroen for a month (where the Swedish impresario Calle Persson heard them, and got them a month-long engagement in Iceland) and in the Swedish folk parks in 1961-62, where teenage girls in particular fell for the group’s boyish innocence. They then got month-long engagements at the American military bases in West Germany and France. Got a record contract with Karusell in 1963, and broadcast the same year [“Lollipops Lips”]. Was launched in Sweden by the Swedish pirate radio station Radio Syd, which in record time started a fan hysteria and idol worship without equal. Record breakthrough in Sweden with [“Do You Know How Much I Love You”], which was the start of a long series of self-composed songs by the Lundgreen brothers, who particularly drew inspiration from The Beatles, Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas and American garage rock groups such as The Knickerbockers. LP debut in mid-1965 . . . which was the first Danish rock LP with exclusively their own compositions. In 1965-67 the group had an active fan club with the magazine Lolli-Posten. In September 1966 Petersen . . . was replaced by Henrik Lund . . . . The group actually had a Danish breakthrough with [“Sussy Moore”], which was followed by a series of successes in 1967-68 ([“SussY”], however, resembled the Tim Hardin song “The Lady Came from Baltimore” more than was good. The copyright case ended in a voluntary settlement in complete silence). . . . Lollipops disbanded in 1971 due to declining success and education (Torben at business school, Jørgen at the Academy of Fine Arts and Henrik studying as a decorator). . . . Lollipops was re-formed in March 1973 in connection with a performance in Cirkus Revyen. In the 70s, they enjoyed renewed success with a long series of Danish-language hits, including “Ung Kærlighed” and “Lorna”.

https://www.dk-rock.dk/dklol.htm

1,529) The Shiralee — “I’ll Stay By Your Side”

The Shiralee’s version — their only A-side — is “[w]onderfully moody intense mod with great ringing guitar, brass stabs and hints of the psych future”. (happening45, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCB3LX6GuyY) It is “[a]bsolutely brilliant, gives me goosebumps! How on earth was this overlooked?” (marshallscott7955, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCB3LX6GuyY) So true.

Apparently, the song “[f]ell through the cracks when Pirate Radio closed. It was played as a climber on Radio London the last week of transmission”. (trevdenman9319, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCB3LX6GuyY)

Twerptwo tells us of the Shiralee:

Originally known as the Albert Square Group, the band later changed their name to The Shiralee and went professional in 1967 upon signing a record deal with Fontana. Group members included Graham Barnes (lead guitar), Kevin Cummings, Peter Rikart, Bernie Clarke, Ken Golding and a member only known as Tim. . . . The single sold relatively few copies for The Shiralee, resulting in its not charting. . . . The Shiralee played the Whisky A’ Go Go on November 7th 1967 and again on March 14th 1968. The group toured throughout the UK during the late 1960’s with bands such as The Nashville Teens, The Swinging Blue Jeans, Cliff Bennett and The Rebel Rousers, Jimmy James and The Vagabonds and supported The Rolling Stones at a New Musical Express Concert in London.

https://www.45cat.com/record/tf855

Chris Clarke wrote in ’17 that “[t]his band were from Acton in West London. Bernie Clarke is my father who we lost earlier this year.” (https://www.45cat.com/record/tf855)

Here are Finland’s Hurriganes with their ’75 A-side cover “I Will Stay”:

Here is Stiv Bators with his ’87 cover demo “I’m No More”:

Here is Freddy Lynxx and the Corner Gang ’04 (“Punk rock’n’roll project by the french guitarist and singer Freddy Lynxx featuring members of Rick Blaze and The Ballbusters, Sour Jazz, Road Vultures, Kevin K Band, The Remains/The Golden Arms, etc.” (https://www.discogs.com/artist/2152069-Freddy-Lynxx-And-The-Corner-Gang)):

Here is Stamping Bricks (Denmark) with their ’66 A-side cover:

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The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 1,000 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.

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

1,527) Kissing Spell — “Sueno o Realidad”/”Dream or Reality”

A beautiful and haunting song from the Chilean band’s (see #360, 453) classic ‘70 psych LP Los Pajaros [The Birds].

The LP “is one of the best and most sought after South American psych albums . . . . [It has w]ell-crafted songs with an attractive dreamy quality enhanced by spacey effects, occasional bursts of well-handled fuzz guitar, and strong harmonies . . . .” (https://johnkatsmc5.blogspot.com/2016/08/kissing-spell-los-pajaros-1970-chile.html?m=1) “Without doubt . . . one of the best 60’s psychedelic albums period! contains beautiful melodic compositions, killer fuzz leads peppering the disc, a superb dreamy atmosphere and great drifty vocals (mostly in English).” (https://www.roughtrade.com/en-us/product/kissing-spell/los-pajaros) Norman Records calls it “a lovely example of hazy late 60’s atmospherics with nods towards Love, Friends era Beach Boys and the Canterbury bands. Vocals are kinda English-as-a-second-language hesitant but there are lots of sweet harmonies. Ah what a vibe. Was life really all as laid back and chilled as this back then?” (https://www.normanrecords.com/records/148773-kissing-spell-los-pajaros)

Ana María Hurtado tells us of Kissing Spell (courtesy of Google Translate):

Like many other Chilean bands of the time, Kissing Spell began performing in 1968, influenced by the likes of the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, although their influences also included certain Argentine and Brazilian music. This mixed origin, coupled with its members’ approach to poetry, made this group one of the most original of its time. Related in sound to the Blops [see #541] and Los Jaivas, Embrujo [Spell, the band’s later name] represents another strain of the fundamental fusion rock that emerged in Chile in the early 1970s, and whose path was interrupted by the 1973 coup d’état. Kissing Spell was originally a trio: Juan Carlos Tato Gómez, Carlos Fernández, and Ernesto Aracena had played Brazilian music together while the former two were still in school. As a quintet, they began producing material primarily in English, in addition to setting poems by Federico García Lorca and Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer to music. In developing their work, they had great support from Fernández’s father, a psychiatrist who ran the Institute of Applied Psychology and who provided them with a rehearsal room in the institute’s building . . . in Santiago. In a studio at the same location, Kissing Spell made a recording that reached the ears of Camilo Fernández, producer of the Arena label, who had previously worked with rock groups such as Aguaturbia and Escombros. Fernández agreed to record the quintet’s first album, Los pájaros (1970). Before recording their second album, the group decided to change their name to Embrujo, and thus released the album Embrujo in 1971. It featured Spanish-language compositions that bordered on progressive rock and displayed a wide range of nuances. . . . The military’s rise to power forced them to put an end to the project. That same year, guitarist Ernesto Murillo left for the United States, followed later by Carlos Fernández. The latter remains connected to music through the production of advertising jingles and has participated in two Blops regroups. Tato Gómez . . . works as a music producer in Germany, where he also formed part of the group Santiago in the 1970s . . . .

https://www.musicapopular.cl/grupo/kissing-spell-embrujo/

Here is a recent cover by the Chilean band Raíz de lo Oculto/Root of the Occult. “’We chose it as a single this time to symbolize that same debut and birth of the group,’ say Raíz De Lo Oculto members Edson [Espinoza] and Francisco [González Ponce], who also highlight the value of the lyrics, which express ‘a pastoral and dreamlike beauty.'” (https://horizontesnacionales.cl/noticias/raiz-de-lo-oculto-embrujo-que-besa/)

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The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 1,000 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.

All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.

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

1,526) Jack Grunsky — “Ain’t You Got a Thing to Say to Me”

A lovely folk-rock tune from future children’s music superstar Jack Grunsky (see #566, 728, 1,342), who was famous at the time — well, he was famous in Austria. Rolling Stone Mick Taylor, who played guitar, was famous at the time — everywhere.

Austria’s City Magazin says (courtesy of Google Translate):

Born in Austria, [Jack Grunsky] crossed the Atlantic as a small child on the Queen Elizabeth II with his parents, both musicians. The family emigrated to Canada [and] little Jack spent his childhood in Toronto. . . . Somehow he was drawn back to Europe. After graduating from high school, Jack . . . went to Vienna in 1964 and studied painting at the art academy. . . . For ten years he was in the top of the European charts as a singer and songwriter, some of them with Jack’s Angels. He had his own weekly radio show “Folk with Jack” on ORF [Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, Austria’s PBS]. In 1974, Jack Grunsky crossed the Atlantic again towards Canada. . . . and discovered his love for music for children. . . .

https://web.archive.org/web/20070928121943/http://www.city-magazin.at/storysundevents/szeneundleute/grunsky.html

Grunsky recounts his career:

After finishing high school in Toronto in 1964, I moved to Austria to study at the Academy of Arts in Vienna. At the same time I formed a folk singing group called ‘Jack’s Angels’ and we were signed to Amadeo Records, touring and recording 4 albums. Within the span of two years we gained considerable popularity before disbanding in 1968. The record label kept me on for two more albums after which I was brought on board the progressive German ‘Kuckuck’ label in Munich. I pursued a solo singer-songwriter career for the next 8 years, touring extensively throughout Europe and recording 5 more albums of original material. My Toronto LP [including “Ain’t You Got a Thing”] was recorded in London and was produced by Alexis Korner with various tracks featuring Mick Taylor (of the Stones) on slide guitar. In Vienna I composed music for 3 television children’s musicals . . . . With a few hits on the charts . . . and also hosting my own radio show ‘Folk mit Jack’ for ORF Austria, my following continued to grow in the Euro Pop Music scene of that time. . . . In 1974, together with my family, I returned to Canada. In spite of European success highlights, a shift in the Euro music industry took place and I found myself in fringe territory. I was seeking closer connection with the folk/rock music scene happening in North America. . . . [I released] my album The Patience Of A Sailor and . . . reboot[ed] my singing career . . . . We performed as a band in clubs and festivals and returned to tour in Europe several times allowing me to stay in touch with my fans. In the early 80’s however, pointers and signs were guiding me in a new direction. Our daughter’s teacher invited me into the classroom to sing with the students. This led to offers to be a freelance music teacher at various Montessori schools around greater Toronto. . . . I became passionate about quality children’s music and discovered a market in need of it. Building a repertoire of original children’s songs and drawing on my concert performance experiences, I soon found a manager, a concert agent and eventually was signed up to the BMG Kidz Music label. . . . I have presented my children’s performances and workshops for over 30 years. This led to countless . . . teacher workshop opportunities across Canada and the US . . . . TV and radio appearances; major concert tours and international children’s festivals followed plus a number of symphony shows for family audiences. To date I’ve released 16 CD’s for children garnering a number of awards including 3 JUNO’s [Canada’s Grammys].

https://www.jackgrunsky.net/bio

While that was a bit self-promotional (I guess to get bookings), here is a part of a quite enlightening and appealing interview that Jack Grunksy had with TV Ontario in 1997:

Richard Ouzounian: I KNOW YOU FORMED A GROUP AT ONE POINT, JACK’S ANGELS, RIGHT?

Jack Grunsky: YES.

Richard: I HAVE VISIONS OF CHARLIE’S ANGELS. IT WASN’T THE SAME THING. IT WASN’T YOU AND THREE —

Jack: IT WAS A TERRIBLE NAME.

Richard: NO. IT WASN’T THREE BODACIOUS LADIES BEHIND YOU WHILE YOU SANG UP FRONT, NO.

Jack: THE NAME JACK’S ANGELS WAS NOT MY DOING.

Richard: OKAY.

Jack: WHEN I LIVED IN VIENNA, WHEN I WAS TAKING THE COURSE AT THE ACADEMY OF ARTS, I FORMED THIS GROUP. AND WE PERFORMED OUR REPERTOIRE OF FOLK SONGS, NORTH AMERICAN, BRITISH FOLK SONGS. AND I HAD ALREADY STARTED TO WRITE SONGS WITH THE GUITAR. AND MY FASCINATION WITH THE NORTH AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC SCENE, AT THAT TIME, THE KIND OF MUSIC I WAS LISTENING TO DURING HIGH SCHOOL, SUCH AS PETER, PAUL AND MARY, THE KINGSTON TRIO, BOB DYLAN,THOSE KIND OF PEOPLE,THEY WERE MY ROLE MODELS. SO WITH THIS ENTHUSIASM OF WANTING TO EMULATE BEING A SONGWRITER AND SINGER AND GUITARIST, I SHARED THIS WITH SOME STUDENT FRIENDS OF MINE IN VIENNA. AND WE FORMED THE GROUP AND PERFORMED IN VARIOUS LOCATIONS IN THE AREA. AND A FRIEND OF OURS CONTACTED A RECORD LABEL, AND THEY WERE QUITE INTERESTED IN WHAT WE WERE DOING. SO THEY CAME TO ONE OF OUR CONCERTS, AND WITHIN TWO WEEKS, SIGNED US UP FOR A TWO YEAR CONTRACT, DURING THE TIME OF WHICH WE RECORDED FOUR ALBUMS, AND A NUMBER OF SINGLES, AND STARTED TO TOUR QUITE EXTENSIVELY. I HAVE TO TELL YOU, AT THAT TIME, IN AUSTRIA AND CENTRAL EUROPE, THE NORTH AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC DID NOT YET CATCH ON. SO WHAT I WAS DOING, IN A WAY, WAS NEW TO EUROPEANS. AND THERE WAS A CERTAIN ENTHUSIASM THAT WE COMMUNICATED SIMPLY BECAUSE OF THE JOY THAT WE HAD IN SINGING TOGETHER IN HARMONY AND PLAYING TOGETHER. AND I THINK THIS SPARKED THE INTEREST AND CAUGHT THE PEOPLE’S IMAGINATION.

Richard: NOW, WHAT YEARS ARE WE TALKING HERE, ROUGHLY?

Jack: THIS WAS ’66, ’67.AND WE CONNECTED WITH JOAN BAEZ WHEN SHE CAME. AND SHE BROUGHT US UP ON STAGE AFTER HER PERFORMANCE. SO THERE WAS CONNECTION TO THE FOLK MUSIC SCENE, WHICH, IN AUSTRIA, THEY LABELLED THE GREEN WAVE. . . . AFTER THE GROUP JACK’S ANGELS DISBANDED BECAUSE SOME OF THE MEMBERS DID NOT WANT TO PURSUE MUSIC AS A CAREER, AND WE WERE GETTING SO BUSY TOURING AND RECORDING THAT IT WAS JUST TOO MUCH FOR THEM. SO WE HAD INTERNAL PROBLEMS. AND THE RECORD LABEL AGREED TO THE SPLIT OF THE GROUP, AS LONG AS I WOULD REMAIN WITH THEM, BEING THE LEADER AND THE SONGWRITER. SO AFTERWARDS, I CONTINUED ON MY OWN AS A SOLO PERFORMER . . . .

Richard: I REMEMBER YOU SAID SOMETHING ONCE ABOUT, YOU SAID THAT A SONG WAS LIKE A LITTLE WINDOW A CHILD COULD LOOK THROUGH. AND YOU SHOW THEM THE WHOLE WORLD.

Jack: WELL, IT’S THE WINDOW OF YOUR IMAGINATION. SO SOUNDS AND SONGS CAN TRIGGER A LOT OF THINGS IN A VERY CONSTRUCTIVE AND POSITIVE WAY.

https://www.tvo.org/transcript/632935

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The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 1,000 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.

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

1,525) Nirvana — “The Touchables (All of Us)”

Pure Nirvana (see #287, 391, 475, 1,238) from Swinging London’s Irish/Greek duo of Patrick Campbell-Lyons (Cork born) and Alex Spyropoulos (Athens born) — “a perfect encapsulation of the[ir] floating, blissful, softly lysergic . . . sound” (David Wells, Record Collector: 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records: High Times and Strange Tales from Rock’s Most Mind-Blowing Era), a “fine piece of harmonic pop from the flower power era”. (Easy Livin, https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=14717) It comes from Nirvana’s 2nd LP — All of Us — “a beautiful late 60’s psychedelic-pop album, full of eccentric English imagery and catchy songs, definitely an unsung classic.” (Penza, https://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/reviews/nirvana-uk-all-of-us)

The song had been commissioned as the theme for the film The Touchables:

Absolutely the rarest (and wildest) of Mod Artifacts . . . star[ring] Judy Huxtable, Esther Anderson, Marilyn Rickard and Kathy Simmonds as a quartet of Pop-Art princesses who kidnap rock-star Christian (David Anthony) and imprison him in their plastic, see-through Bubble House. Gay wrestler Ricki Starr gets jealous, and tries to (literally) muscle his way into the action. Directed by Beatles-photographer Robert Freeman (who shot the cover for Rubber Soul) . . . .

https://www.modcinema.com/categories/5-bestsellers/160-touchables-the-uncut-1968-dvd

John Seal warns us that:

The ONLY reasons to watch The Touchables are if you a) have an insatiable appetite for plotless 60s fashion shows masquerading as films, or b) you want to hear the terrific theme song by the (English) Nirvana. There’s also a snippet of The Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive” used inexplicably as background music during a boat ride, but it’s precious little consolation for sitting through this piece of ripe tripe.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063709/reviews/

I need to see this flick! Melanie Blue explains that:

John Bryan was directing a feature film starring four girls . . . who were models plucked from the pages of Vogue to appear in a typical summer-of-love romp entitled The Touchables. What the director wanted was Stevie Winwood to write something along the lines of his music for Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush. Stevie was too busy — but fortunately “Tiny Goddess” [see #475] was playing in the Island office and the film people asked “What’s that?” Chris Blackwell played them more and Nirvana were asked to write a title theme for the movie. . . . The new song was to be based on a half-written track called “We’ve Got To Find A Place”. . . . The original idea was to have the girls from the film sing the track, at least on the movie soundtrack version, and although various takes were made the job finally fell to Patrick.

liner notes to the CD reissue of All of Us

David Wells writes that “Nirvana’s sound involves “mystical, gently romantic lyrics . . . [with a] breathy falsetto and a gorgeous combination of soft psych/pop melodic flair and baroque-flavoured arrangements that incorporated the use of cello and French horn.” (Record Collector: 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records: High Times and Strange Tales from Rock’s Most Mind-Blowing Era)

Let me sprinkle some more Oregano:

Nirvana, the nonchalantly enigmatic duo of Patrick Campbell-Lyons and Alex Spyropoulos . . . . releas[ed] a brace of the most airily accessible and mercilessly hooky albums to have floated into being in the culturally charged domain of 1967 and ’68, without sacrificing a neutrino of integrity. . . . [We must] ponder anew why Nirvana didn’t make a deeper impression on the malleable hearts of the record-buying public. They fared rather better in mainland Europe, admittedly, where their billowing, romantic, sumptuously arranged and gracefully baroque compositions were tailor-made for trailing fingers in petal-strewn lakes on warm nights and contemplating Greco-Roman statuary. Nevertheless, their comparatively brief entry in the historical record remains mystifying when they were the perfect panacea for intense times. [A]n ambrosial, benevolent air blew over them and lightly draped a paisley pattern over most everything they recorded. Theirs was a sonic picture unassailed by acid horrors . . . . For the most part, this was sweet-natured, serenely uplifting mood music for the watering of ferns and the lighting of joss sticks; and even in the hard light of 1968, when the compass-overboard hedonism of the previous year had tipped over into revolution, riots and a return to rock, you still had the option of sinking into Nirvana’s plushly-upholstered sound cave of incense, patchouli, silks and satins after a hard day at the barricades.

https://recordcollectormag.com/articles/nirvana-uk

Was that a bit tongue-in-cheek? Who knows, but don’t bogart the patchouli.

Here is the trailer:

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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).

The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 1,000 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.

All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.

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

1,524) The Lee Kings — “On My Way”

Who’s dat band? No, not the Who! It’s primo Swedish freakbeat, a “Who-ish mod pop-art feedback frenzy”. (happening45, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkynB3RzJ8w) Vild!

Tim Sendra says of the Lee Kings that:

So many beat groups were able to pull off a passable imitation of the sounds of the day, but stumbled hard when it came to the songs themselves. The members of the Lee Kings were no slouches at crafting snappy, sweet, and poppy tunes that have a graceful, autumnal quality . . . or rock hard enough to fill discotheque floors . . . or sound like lost classics of the beat era . . . . a very solid mid-’60s beat group.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/bingo%21%21-for-the-lee-kings-mw0002616134

Marcy Donelson writes:

The Lee Kings were a short-lived Swedish rock quintet who rode the wave of the British Invasion to multiple appearances in the Top Ten of their country’s singles chart in 1966 and 1967. Formed in 1964 as Lenne & the Lee Kings, founding members included Lenn Broberg, guitarists Bengt Dahlén and Bjärne Möller, bassist Olle Nordström, and drummer Lasse Sandgren. Nordström parted ways with the band in 1966 and was replaced by Mike Watson. The next year, Johnny Lundin would replace Möller and Tony Walter took over for Sandgren before the band dissolved. After hitting number two with their song “Stop the Music” in January 1966, they topped the chart with their sole number one, “L.O.D.,” a month later. Both tunes appeared on their 1966 debut album, Stop the Music . . . . “Why, Why, Why” from the RCA Victor LP Bingo! made the Top Ten later that year, and “I Can’t Go on Living” was a summer hit in Sweden in 1967.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-lee-kings-mn0002573090#biography

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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).

The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 1,000 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.

All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.

When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.

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

1,523)  Ihre Kinder/Their Children — “Leere Hande”/”Empty Hands”

Here is “[t]he best song” from Ihre Kinder’s (see #553) second LP, “a little proggy but [a] very nice pop song with clever keys and great singing. . . . a track you want to play again and again.” (DrommarenAdrian, https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1925#reviews)

Ihre Kinder was the first German rock band to sing exclusively in German, and the beginnings of Deutschrock and Krautrock. Prog Archives notes that “[t]heir music combined influences from the American protest song (Bob Dylan), white blues music from England and – in a cautious way – the typical German electronic rock music of the early 70s to a progressive and unique mixture.” (http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1925)

Silly Puppy explains:

Ihre Kinder . . . introduced the then radical notion of crafting rock songs in its own German language. The band was a continuation from the earlier pop band Jonah & The Whales . . . . After releasing an all but ignored [cover of] “It Ain’t Me Babe,” the band called it quits[. After] assembling a new team of noise makers vocalist/keyboardist Sonny Hennig and financier Jonas Porst . . . created a new band from scratch. . . . [Ihre Kinder] was one of the pioneers of German language rock and was met with great skepticism for having done so. . . . [Record labels] were [not] interested in this strange style of rock sung in German and [the album had to be] release[d] independently. Despite all efforts this debut album was met with little interest and the newly gestated Deutschrock had to wait a few more years for cultural acceptance.

https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1925#reviews

Edgar Klüsener gives us more history (courtesy of Google Translate):

They played acoustic folk and rich blues, oriental-tinged psycho-pop and rock-hard rock . . . [m]usically, the[y] . . . hardly differed from other German rock bands of the late sixties. And yet they were the beginning of a revolution. Because [they] sang exclusively in German . . . . In the early 1970s, the German language was still a sacrilege in rock music. Anglo-American idiom was cool, German, on the other hand, was discredited as the tongue-lashing of the escapist Musikantenstadl yodels and shallow-pink pop romanticism. Anyone who was self-respecting as a German rocker sang in English . . . . [They] . . . relied on poetic lyrics, a kind of psychedelic German beat lyrics, but could also be very clear and precise when they took up political topics. In 1970, the readers of the magazine “Musikexpress” voted the group the best German blues band. By then, at the latest, the band was well known even to high school students from the laboring suburbs . . . .
Nuremberg was . . . the city of Photo-Porst. In the 1960s, Hannsheinz Porst was at the head of the family business. He was a dazzling figure, a communist dressed as a capitalist . . . [who] turned the market-leading photo discounter into an employee company. . . . [and] had undisguised sympathies for the [Soviet Union]. [T]he German press liked to describe [him] as a madman, a spy, an ideological arsonist, a crackpot or a traitor to the homeland who was dangerous to the public. [H]is son Jonas. . . . played the impresario and put his father’s dough into a recording studio that was to become the important nucleus of German rock culture – and he put it into the band Your Children. The group’s first album, financed and produced by Jonas . . . was initially rejected by German record companies as far too uncommercial. The prevailing opinion in the recording industry was that the English and Americans were much better at rock music. Who wanted to hear German lyrics? . . . . In the end, a record company showed courage. Philips released the album, but so half-heartedly that it almost went under without a trace. At least, Hermann Zentgraf, the man in charge at Philips, subsequently signed the band to the Munich independent label Kuckuck, thus paving the way for their continued success . . . . Empty Hands was the title of their second album, released in 1970. Their goal was to speak to people in their own language and thus encourage them to listen. [They] sang about things not everyone wanted to hear about. The song “South Africa Apartheid Express,” for example, was a haunting examination of the racist apartheid regime . . . .

https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/popmusik-a-949347.html 

In English:

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

1,522) Trúbrot — “Relax”

If Crosby, Stills and Nash had gone to Iceland to record a progressive LP, it would have sounded like Trúbrot’s second album — Undir Áhrifum/Under the Influence — which gets a 4.05/5 rating from reviewers at Prog Archives (https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=7822). The album track “Relax” is an English language joy to, dare I say, relax to — as gorgeous as Iceland’s Northern Lights (https://www.visiticeland.com/article/northern-lights-in-iceland).

Of the album, Phil Freeman writes that:

The second album by early-’70s Icelandic group Trúbrot marks a significant change in their sound, the result of extensive personnel upheaval. . . . The band’s earlier sound, which mixed ’60s pop with occasionally heavy boogie . . .was largely abandoned on Undir Áhrifum, in favor of a looser, folkier sound based on vocal harmonies. Many songs recall Crosby, Stills & Nash with their multi-part vocals and jangling acoustic guitars, while others . . . sound very influenced by Rod Stewart’s work with the Faces [or] . . . Uriah Heep at their most depressive. In another major shift, almost all the lyrics are in English, rather than Icelandic, something that was controversial in their homeland at the time. This is a strong example of early-’70s progressive rock . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/album/undir-%C3hrifum-mw0000468096

Weekend J adds (courtesy of Google Translate):

The album . . . was released just before Christmas 1970 . . . and was rightly advertised as the first Icelandic LP with original material only – in fact in English (except for one song) . . . . None of the songs . . . except perhaps “Relax”, enjoyed great popularity, although the album was quite strong as a whole . . . . Trúbrot was nevertheless voted band of the year in the media’s poll, and Rúnar Júlíusson pop star of the year, but this was partly thanks to the two singles. . . .

https://glatkistan.com/2018/04/12/trubrot-1/

Weekend J tells us Trúbrot’s story:

The band Trúbrot is without a doubt one of the most well-known and influential bands in Icelandic music history, it was also Iceland’s first real supergroup . . . . Hljómar from Keflavík had for several years been by far the most popular band in the country . . . . The members had tried their hand abroad (1965-68) under the name Thor’s Hammer [see #518, 910] with little success and had re-adopted the Hljómar name, regained their previous popularity and released the album Hljómar II in 1968 (and another LP before that as well as several singles). The mainstays of the band, guitarist Gunnar Þórðarson and its main songwriter, and bassist Rúnar Júlíusson wanted to take on bigger challenges, and in the spring of 1969, the idea arose among the two of them, along with organist Karl J. Sighvatsson and drummer Gunnar Jökul Hákonarson, the main members of the band Flowers, who had recently released a four-song single and had a hit with songs like “Slappaðu af” and “Glugginn”, to form a new band out of the two bands. It turned out that the band was officially formed in May 1969 and in addition they got the singer of Hljóma, Shady Owens, Erlingur Björnsson, guitarist from Hljóma, was hired as the band’s agent. . . . Trúbrot was introduced with great fanfare and most people were eagerly waiting to hear from the new band, but there were still many who took a stand with the members of the two bands who were ignored, i.e. those who did not get a place in the supergroup. So it actually happened that another band was formed from the “remnants”, it was named Ævintýri and actually enjoyed great popularity for a long time as well . . . . Trúbrot . . . made their first public appearance in Sigtún at Austurvöllur (later NASA), which had been awaited with great anticipation and a large crowd came to see the new band. The band was not considered particularly impressive that evening . . . . [I]mmediately after this gathering Trúbrot flew to New York in the United States to play a few concerts, later, according to the media in Iceland, with a good reputation, under the name Midnight Sun. The Túbrotsfólk returned home to Iceland . . . [and] played at a large outdoor festival in Húsafell to a large crowd and was immediately considered much better. . . . [T]he band played for soldiers at Keflavík Airport, but was briefly banned after playing the song Give peace a change in a twenty-minute version where the soldiers sang the peace message in loud voices. In October, Trúbrot returned home and headed to record an album at Trident Studios in London. . . . [T]he self-titled album, which was released before Christmas 1969. . . . The album . . . sold very well, selling around three thousand copies, and was chosen as album of the year by Morgunblaðið and Tíman. . . . The band went abroad again in the spring, but then they headed to Denmark to play (under the name Breach of Faith) at local dance venues in Copenhagen and also to record new material, but the band stayed abroad for three weeks, five songs were recorded at the Metronome studio and they were all by Gunnar Þórðarson. In these songs, which were planned to be released on two singles . . . . Around this time, rumors began to circulate that singer Shady was leaving Trúbrot and was planning to move to the United States, but she was half American and had come to Iceland in her teens. The singer denied these rumors to some extent, saying that she would continue singing with the band for a while but would probably leave in the summer. More rumors circulated in the newspapers that turned out to be somewhat true, on the one hand that drummer Gunnar Jökull was leaving the band as well as organist Karl, the latter of whom was planning to study music. . . . [O]rganist Magnús Kjartansson was brought into the band instead of Karl . . . . Although Gunnar Jökull did not quit the band in the spring as rumours had it was clear that he was not happy in the band, he felt that the ambition had diminished and the band was getting stuck in ballroom music which was often called “spirit music” at the time. This ended in disagreement with other members of the band, especially Gunnar Þórðar, and so he left Trúbrot in early August . . . . In mid-October, the second single was released . . . . This album received excellent reviews in Vikunn and fairly in Morgunblaðið, but the change in policy to release songs in English was very controversial in Iceland at the time. All the band’s songs from then on were in English, however. . . . Trúbrot stayed in Denmark for about a month, recorded an eight-song album . . . and also played a few concerts abroad. The music became considerably heavier than before . . . . . [M]any have compared Trúbrot to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young during this period. . . . The members of Trúbrot, especially Gunnar Þórðar, were not at all happy with the band, they felt that some spark was missing and they were even about to close it down. Gunnar even had the idea of ​​joining the band Ævintýri . . . . Before Trúbrot could break up, old friends reappeared and wanted to join the band again, Gunnar Jökull and Karl Sighvatsson. It turned out that drummer Ólafur was let go and Jökull took his place, Karl became a pure addition to the band as an organist, while Magnús moved more to the piano. This changed everything within the group and a new driving force and creativity now reigned. . . . [T]he group embarked on intense creative work and rehearsals . . . and began working on their largest work, which was conceived as a whole, it dealt with a character who is followed from cradle to grave and was later given the title … Lifun . . . . Trúbrot . . . went to London and the album was recorded at Morgan Studios and Sound Techniques . . . . [T]he band performed at the most famous outdoor festival in Icelandic history, the Saltvík Festival ’71, Youthme in second place among the best albums in Icelandic history in two polls conducted by Morgunblaðið on Icelandic Music Day in 2007 and 2009, and so on.

https://glatkistan.com/2018/04/12/trubrot-1/

Man, that was a Norse saga!

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

1,521) The Charms — “I’m Coming Back (to Stay)”

Here is my big fat Greek ’66 garage gold! Nikos Sarros tells us:

The “Charms” . . . were one of the most successful bands of the Greek sixties. The original members of the group were Giorgos Stratis, Giorgos Balaskas, Spyros Karoutas and Kostas Karydas. Many changes and a large number of live performances accompany the fame of Charms, whose members started various bands of that time. The success of Olympians with Greek lyrics and the influence of their manager Costas Tseronis made the Charms in late 1966 turn to their own songs (among them “The Crazy Girl” we all know). Charmes (with Mike Rozakis, Teri Ieremia, Giorgos Stratis, Costas Nikolopoulos and Petros Polatos) became one of the most commercial bands of the 60s [and] participated in motion pictures . . . .

The Greek music bands of the 60’s, https://thecommonsense.gr/en/2023/11/25/14-%CE%B5%CE%BB%CE%BB%CE%B7%CE%BD%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%AC-%CF%83%CF%85%CE%B3%CE%BA%CF%81%CE%BF%CF%84%CE%AE%CE%BC%CE%B1%CF%84%CE%B1-%CF%84%CF%89%CE%BD-sixties-%CE%BA%CE%B1%CE%B9-%CE%BF%CE%B9-%CE%AC%CE%B3/

Chris Bishop adds:

The Charms were one of the top acts in Greece in the mid-1960s. . . . [B]y 1966 they stepped away from instrumentals and started singing, but the music still has a jerky instrumental flavor to them on the early Music Box releases. All their early vocals are in English. Their first Music Box 45 has the great garage sound of “See You on Sunday” on the B-side . . . . Their next 45 . . . may be even better. “I’m Coming Back (to Stay)” has a repetitive horn riff and a good performance from the group. . . . After these releases the band lineup changed and their later output is more pop, and more often sung in Greek . . . .

https://garagehangover.com/charms/

Bart informed Chris Bishop that “[o]ne reason that the Charms switched to ‘terrible pop’ as you say, after 1966-67, might be that lead singer Mike Rozakis had a tonsillectomy operation around that time* and, as a result, his voice lost that wonderful hoarse quality. (*) according to the book (in Greek) by Dinos Dimatatis, Get that Beat: Greek Rock, 1960s-1970s” (https://garagehangover.com/charms/)

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The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 1,000 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.

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

1,520) Illés/Elijah — “Reklám Úr”/“Mr. Advertising”

I’ve featured songs written and performed by “Mad Men” (see #525, 526, 527, 528, 954), but this is the first I’ve featured about “Mr. Advertising”. The song “depicts human stupidity and gullibility. . . . Unfortunately, the problem of people being increasingly unscrupulously influenced by advertisements is constant and has, unfortunately, intensified greatly since 1969.” (Laszlo Majnik (courtesy of Google Translate), https://beatkorszak.blog.hu/2019/09/11/otveneves_az_illes-egyuttes_magnum_opusa_az_illesek_es_pofonok) “Life is beautiful, very beautiful, beautiful, very beautiful Buy it today, buy it today, don’t waste your life!” Ironically, the song is so good, so bouncy, so invigorating, that it would be great for a major ad campaign! Nike? Apple?

The song is on Illés’ (see #1,182) ’69 LP — Illések És Pofonok…/Kisses and Slaps… — “the ‘Holy Grail’ of Hungarian beat music”, the band’s “magnum opus”, a “masterpiece”. (Laszlo Majnik again)

Zikkurat Stage Agency gives us a Hungarian rhapsody (courtesy of Google Translate):

Illés was the Hungarian Beatles, “the” band, the generational band, the new idol that embodied and realized the dreams of a new generation, in which we could imagine all the desires that, in the end, were left out of the lives of many of us. Illés is a separate chapter in Hungarian youth culture, but perhaps not an exaggeration, also in the Hungarian cultural history of the second half of the century. With their performance, not only did a new era in entertainment begin, but with their music and thoughts, they also changed the face, thinking, and perception of life of a generation. The story of Illés is also the story of the sixties. With their explosions and failures, their momentum and exhaustion, their “revolutionary” thoughts and their forced compromises. If a summary cultural history or youth sociology work is prepared about the progressive aspirations of this century, Illésék’s work, the aspirations identifiable with the name of the band, cannot be missing from it. Illés appeared with new songs for new times and wanted to turn the world around with the belief of “bright breezes”.

http://www.zikkurat.hu/illes/bio_1.shtml

Susanna tells us (courtesy of Google Translate):

On this side of the Iron Curtain, during the socialism there were two dominant pop bands in Hungary which competed with each other and also with other bands for popularity. These two bands were Illés-együttes (or simply Illés) and Omega [see #195, 644, 766, 832]. Illés was founded in 1957 by the brothers Lajos and Károly Illés (at that time it was fashionable to choose the surname of the founder as the name of the band . . . ). At the beginning, Illés had Italian and evergreen songs in their repertoire, like those of the Hurricanes for example. They performed the first song composed by themselves only in 1965 because the previously written songs had been banned by the political system. In the same year, the classic line-up of Illés was created when Levente Szörényi joined the band. The members were Lajos Illés, Levente Szörényi, János Bródy, Szabolcs Szörényi and Zoltán Pásztory. The real success came thanks to the song “Rohan az idő”[“Time Runs”] sung by Zsuzsa Koncz and accompanied by Illés. Illés managed to bring something new to the Hungarian musical life: Eastern and Western voices, folk and artistic music were mixed in their songs and their lyrics represented generational problems.

https://fromhungarywithlove.wordpress.com/2020/08/14/omega-and-illes-the-dominant-music-bands-in-hungary-in-the-60s-and-70s/

Zikkurat Stage Agency again:

In the beginning, Illés, like other beat bands, played Dixieland, popular Italian hits, evergreens, guitar tracks, primarily Shadows and Hurricanes compositions, at high school and university events. . . . [In] 1965 the two Szörényi brothers [joined the band, which] is when the band [turnd] into a generational band. Levente Szörényi Szabolcs Szörényi started his musical career at the Szárón Sándor High School in Vác, where he and his brother Szabolcs performed in a guitar duo, and already there they created a sensation with their playing: “We were the crazy Szörényis.” . . . Szörényi finally joined Illés in January 1965 (he only accepted membership if he could bring his brother too), and the Illés story continued on a common thread for nearly a decade. . . . However, Illés’ . . . breakthrough is based on the six-month work that shakes up the ensemble in 1965 and gives birth to the idea – you have to try to win back the audience’s sympathy with your own songs. First, they completely refresh the repertoire (they mainly play Beatles, Kinks, Animals, Pretty Things songs), get a club . . . and finally . . . they have to win a battle in Bosch. . . . [I]n the summer of this year at the Gitárpárbaj organized in the Kisstadion, where the audience booed the representatives of traditional dance music, distracted them from the stage and cheered the beat bands, of which only Illés dared to sing in Hungarian. . . . In their songs, they simply open a channel for the emotions, energies, and desires that lie deep inside, and thanks to Bródy’s lucky tone, these songs still have a shocking, mobilizing, and camp-calling power for their age group. After the summer explosion, in December 1966, Illés led the field with six songs on the Top 10 list of the Youth Magazine. Young people are burning with the fever of the Illés phenomenon, and the author couple Szörényi-Bródy pour out the “generational anthems” with unflagging energy . . . . On October 10, 1967, the band also visited abroad. . . . [w]ith overwhelming success. Their music . . . is significantly influenced by the Beatles’ LP Sergeant [Pepper’s] . . . . By the end of 1967, they were already far behind the beat leader, and in the end-of-year poll, the readers of Youth Magazine and Magyar Ifjúság voted for them. . . . [F]ilmmakers discovered them. They compose soundtracks. Several of their famous songs are heard for the first time in films [including] The Story of M . . . . The first four places on the IM hit list in July 1968 are occupied by Illés songs. . . . In 1968, the band received 5 of the 11 awards of the Dance and Song Festival, and Illés, who was looking for new musical sources, received the name “Hungarian National Folk Beat Ensemble” . . . . This “title” highlights two important moments in the band’s life. In their musical pursuits, they finally deviated from the well-trodden paths of the beat, but at the same time, the band slowly moved from the reality of everyday life to the world of myths in the love of the fans. In 1968, Illés was not only a role model and parable, but also a myth in the life of his generation. . . . [T]hey were able to express what they heard from the hearts of themselves and their generation [and were] spoken of as “the voice of the generation”. In 1968, Illés found itself right in the middle of the renewal and reform efforts that permeated Hungarian intellectual-cultural-economic-political life. Already in 1966 . . . Illésék’s music was characterized by a strong connection to the folklore of Hungary and neighboring countries. . . . The Illés brought Eastern-Central European and Balkan folk music into the international beat and created Hungarian youth music with a unique character, not only in terms of content and spirit, but also musically. . . . In 1968, the band – even if only for a short time – managed to find an experimental workshop for their political, social and cultural utopia and for the expansion of their concept, taking advantage of the favorable winds and momentary concessions . . . . In September 1968, a youth club was opened in the Capital Community Center. The Illés club – managed, organized and led by János Bródy – we can safely say – was the most important youth experimental workshop of the late sixties. After the 1968 festival, seeing the Illés’ political ambitions embracing folk music, prestigious representatives of the intelligentsia . . . also began to support the band. In particular, specialists in public education saw a great opportunity in the use of beat music to guide children from the most diverse social strata to other arts or political culture. In February and March 1970, under the organization of the Marquele-Martin management office, they played 10 days in London . . . . Illés’ performance was praised by the English magazines, highlighting their particularly national style, their “songs with a political tone”. . . . At home, the band’s first two LPs (Nehéz az út 1969, Illések és pofonok 1969) were released without any significant critical response, so to speak, during the band’s idolatry and incense at home. . . . The second LP [from which today’s song is taken] is a record of “bitter experiences”. The songs are all situational reports about everyday people, Mr. Advertising, silly girls, beliefs . . . hope for change . . . . This record is the imprint of a showdown with certain illusions and hope fueled by new illusions. A situational assessment and statement, which holds the promise of a next, clean, summary LP. However, the Illés could not make this record. The scandal . . . in London closed the doors to them. On April 26, 1970, they started shooting their film with Márta Mészáros . . . but the work was stopped, they were banned from ORI events, they were not allowed to perform in the capital, the Hanglemezgyár did not release their records, Koncz Zsuzsa’s second album, Szerelem, on which compositions of Szörényi-Bródy can be heard, was not played on the radio – the record sold out in 100,000 copies anyway! -, they could not appear in public for a year. . . . The group was not officially condemned, the embargo that hit them seemed to be a tacit, yet unified measure. The mystery was then answered in the June 5, 1970 issue of the Magyar Ifjúság by István Takács’ article titled “Wronged saints or Illés and their slaps”. It turned out that the Illés chatted recklessly and freely in a BBC program and thereby provided material for enemy propaganda. . . . The accepted, award-winning, adored “saints” were pushed off the rock Olympus and turned into black sheep.

http://www.zikkurat.hu/illes/bio_1.shtml

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The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 1,000 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.

All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.

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“Refleksjoner” starts at 0:56.

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

1,519) Inge Christofersen — “Refleksjoner”/”Reflections”

Such an indescribably gorgeous pop rock song from Inge Christofersen’s solo LP — but it is in Norwegian (and I can’t find the Norwegian lyrics) so I have no idea what it is about. If someone would want to enlighten me, I would be grateful. Two of the album’s other songs got banned by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corp. — one because it made fun of Norwegian actress and model Julie Ege’s on screen and in print nudity (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/may/02/obituaries.world) and the other because it made fun of one of Norway’s two dueling Communist parties. I’m not making this up.

Jon Vidar Bergan tells us of Inge Christofersen (courtesy of Google Translate):

In the 1960s he made three singles with the pop group Souls, in 1970 he released a critically acclaimed solo LP, in 1979 he wrote a Grand Prix song and in 1984 an ambitious album . . . . In the late autumn of 1965 he formed the pop group Souls together with fellow students at Hokksund Gymnas [high school]. . . . Inge was the vocalist, played a little guitar and organ, and wrote five of the six songs Souls recorded . . . . They came in 2nd place in the Norwegian National Championship in rock in 1966 and were rewarded with a record contract . . . . The debut single “Mother” entered VG’s “The Best Norwegian” list on July 13, 1966 and . . . [was the] 11th most popular Norwegian single of the year[.] Souls was the 8th most popular Norwegian artist of the year. . . . Inge wrote “Mother” after his mother died of cancer when he was 16. . . . 1967 [saw] the sequel “The Day is over” . . . . [The] 3rd and final single in 1968, “Money” . . . is advanced and sophisticated pop music of high quality. In the spring of 1969, Souls disbanded. Inge moved to Hamar after high school to attend teacher training college, but after graduating in 1969 he had little desire to work as a teacher. He sent his special assignment from teacher training college to Arne Bendiksen and offered to work there as a producer in his studio. . . . While the studio was not in use, Inge recorded a number of his songs for free. He played all instruments except drums . . . on the solo single “Ingen diskresjon”[/”No Discretion”]/”Liv og død”[/”Life and Death”] . . . . [O]n the solo LP “Refleksjoner” . . . he was the producer and arranger, and played piano, organ, spinet, vibraphone, guitar, bass, flute and a little drums. . . . Several of the lyrics were political, and two of the songs were so controversial that NRK [the Norwegian Broadcasting Corp.] banned them from being played: “Du lot alle sammen få se”[/”You Let Everyone See”], which ironized Julie Ege’s nudity, and “Hurra for Mao”[/”Hooray for Mao”], which [radio host] Harald Are Lund refused to play because it criticized the AKP (ML) [the Norwegian Maoist political party]. Inge received a letter of solidarity written on Christmas Day 1970 at a musician’s party . . . . After the solo album, Inge started working at Coop in Oslo. He married in 1971 and had [a] daughter . . . in 1974. In the late 1970s, he took his family to Tanzania to work. But he continued to write songs, and in 1979 his entry for the Melodi Grand Prix was accepted. “Sang uten ord”[/”Song Without Words”] was performed by Gudny Aspaas, who is best known as the vocalist in Ruphus. It finished 7th out of 8 songs in the final . . . and was never released on record. In 1981 . . . [in] a competition for various cultural expressions in the fight against drugs[,] Inge’s artistic contribution was the mini-musical “Hvite hester”[/”White Horses”], which won one of the three first prizes. . . . [and] was staged by the National Theatre . . . .

https://eikerarkiv.no/inge-christofersen-1947-2008/

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“En Mi Ciudad” starts at 23:35

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

1,518) Johnny Allon — “En Mi Ciudad”/”In My City”

The trailblazing and flamboyant Argentine rocker, TV personality and entrepreneur gave us this effervescent horn-accented number from his ’68 solo LP.

Wikipedia tells us (courtesy of Google Translate):

Antonio Juan Sánchez, later better known as Johnny Allon, grew up in . . . Buenos Aires . . . . [D]uring his adolescence he was a lover of rock, especially Elvis Presley and Bill Haley, as well as having a deep admiration for . . . bandleader Glenn Miller. Regarding music, he was part of The Tammys . . . that did covers of the Beatles, among other artists . . . . After making the Fotonovela de Los Tammys, he made his film debut in 1966 with Una ventana al éxito, a musical comedy . . . . In his early days he used the pseudonym Johnny Willy . . . . Later, he formed his own group, “Johnny Allon y su Banda Púrpura” . . . with which he recorded several singles. In the early 70s he formed a rock group called “Caballo Vapor” . . . . [A]t the end of that decade he moved away from music and opted to venture into television, being the protagonist – as host – of the Johnny Allon Show cycle, broadcast between 1978 and 1987 . . . a pioneering program in Argentina in the diffusion of music videos. . . . The program began to be called Johnny Allon Presenta from 1984 . . . . For many years he produced and hosted Johnny Allon Presents  which was . . . reproduced in countries such as Mexico and the United States . . . . Allon popularized the phrases “change my music” and “give it power “, frequently used as catchphrases. . . . He is . . . considered one of the first entrepreneurs to establish dance clubs of the so-called “tropical music” (bailanta) in Argentina. . . . In 2015, he launched a new program, Johnny Allon Max . . . dedicated to music and humor, ending its broadcast on said channel at the end of 2019. 

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Allon#cite_note-4

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

1,517) Messe Blanche/White Mass — “Messe Blanche”/”White Mass”

I’m not waffling over this Belgian number — it is a “soulish freakbeat go-go psych dancer” (Edu Lazaro, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP82419KJOg), “a groovy, church organ dominated, go-go freakbeat cut, with a doomy atmosphere all over!” (Up to Eleven, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek3HJVQMV-k) Oh, and with “great keys & top notch groovy rhythm section”. (https://www.popsike.com/MESSE-BLANCHE-1970-Belgian-MOD-SOUL-PSYCH-FREAKBEAT/200068356339.html)

Up to Eleven tells us that “Messe Blanche . . . was a Belgian conceptual band formed by a couple of students. They recorded a single 45 at the Cultural Centre of Leuven which was to be played at an avant-garde theatre art performance.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek3HJVQMV-k)

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The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 1,000 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.

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

1,516) McCully Workshop — “The Circus”

One of South Africa’s greatest rock bands (see #399, 544) gives us “an up-tempo psychedelic pop-rocker with strong vocal harmonies, distorted guitar sounds . . . .and great flute playing” (Brian Currin, liner notes to the CD reissue of McCully Workshop Inc., https://mccullyworkshop.wordpress.com/albums/mccully-workshop-inc/) that is “ballsy and psychedelic, with urgent rhythm guitar and frantic lead guitar”. (Kurt Shoemaker, liner notes to the Korean CD reissue of McCully Workshop Inc., http://sarockdigest.com/archives/issue_194.txt)

“Circus” is from the “superb South African band’s stunning debut album [McCully Workshop Inc.].” (The Forced Exposure, https://mccullyworkshop.wordpress.com/about/) “Of all the albums we’ve heard from South Africa this one is topscore. What a beautiful masterpiece. Pepper-influenced underground music with great songs, lovely vocals, strong harmonies, great distorted guitarwork.” (Psychedelic-Music.com, https://mccullyworkshop.wordpress.com/albums/mccully-workshop-inc/) Oh, and “[w]hen asked to name his favourite song on the . . . album besides ‘Why Can’t It Rain’, Tully [McCullagh] says without hesitation, ‘The Circus’. ” (Brian Currin again)

Brian Currin writes that “McCully Workshop is arguably one of South Africa’s finest pop rock bands. They started way back in the ’60’s, dominated the South African airwaves in the ’70’s, continued through the ’80’s and ’90’s and in the 21st century are still going strong.” (https://mccullyworkshop.wordpress.com/about/) Currin provides some more history:

The McCullagh brothers, Tully . . . and Mike . . . . started as a folk-rock trio [in ‘65] with Richard Hyam and called themselves the Blue Three. Richard had been in a folk duo, Tiny Folk, with his sister Melanie. . . . “I had my own studio in the garage since I was 12” remembers Tully. . . . The brothers’ father, radio personality Michael Drin (his stage name), painted the name “McCully Workshop, Inc.” on the garage wall. “McCully” was an easier-to-spell version of McCullagh and the “Inc.” was a tongue-in-cheek addition. . . . Mike McCullagh [says] “In 1969 I was 22 and Tully was 16, along with Richard Hyam, his sister Melanie and Allan Faull the group started.” . . . Tully wrote ‘Why Can’t It Rain’ in the middle of the night and this became a hit single putting McCully Workshop on the charts for the first time[ and] dr[awing] the attention of the Gallo label, and they said they wanted an album. McCully Workshop signed probably the first independent licensing deal with a major label in South Africa. The Inc. album shows a variety of styles and influences including The Beatles, Frank Zappa and Pink Floyd. “Sgt Pepper was very important, as were the pop charts at the time”, recalls Tully. Another big influence, according to Tully, was The Moody Blues Threshold Of A Dream which was released in April 1969.

liner notes to The Best of McCully Workshop, https://mccullyworkshop.wordpress.com/albums/the-best-of-mccully-workshop/

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The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 1,000 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.

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

1,515) Los Ovnis/The UFOs — “Infinito”/“Infinite”

From “the greatest punk band that Mexico has ever produced” (wirtis, http://garagelatino.blogspot.com/2013/09/los-ovnis-hippies-1968.html?m=1) (see #654), from an LP of “arguably the most filthy and authentic sounding garage rock ever sung in Spanish” (Spanish Pop Lyrics, https://spanishpoplyrics.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/cuando-era-nino-by-los-ovnis/) that was “a musical punch right in the face of the Mexican middle-class society” (Light in the Attic Records, https://lightintheattic.net/releases/1218-hippies), comes “a grade-A fuzz monster that belongs in anyone’s garage collection” (getitinyoursoul, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/los-ovnis/hippies/), with “[p]owerful distorted guitar chords by the great Ernesto de León” (Viaje al Espacio Visceral/Journey into Visceral Space (courtesy of Google Translate), http://viajealespaciovisceral.blogspot.com/2018/04/los-ovnis-hippies.html?m=1)

“Infinito” is a track on the UFO’s ‘68 album Hippies, the first completely original Mexican rock album, “a superb album of psych fuzz music, sung in Spanish, from a great Mexican band” (Hectorvadair1, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/los-ovnis/hippies/). Light in the Attic Records writes:

When we are talking about really rare and great albums from Mexico . . . Los Ovnis-Hippies is perhaps the second rarest one right after Kaleidoscope. . . . The 1968 Summer Of Love and the political protest of the young rebel culture created the desire to produce a stronger album with own songs, heavier garage sounds and counter-culture lyrics. This album became something the Mexican society in 1968 was not ready for. It was too idealistic and too psychedelic to become popular and the original label released it with no promotion at all. That’s why this album became so good and so rare. Los Ovnis are 5 musicians from Mexico City. Strong garage songs, great Spanish vocals, amazing guitars, organ and rough sounds.

https://lightintheattic.net/releases/1218-hippies

Gustavo Zamora lets Ernesto de León give us his history of the band (courtesy of Google Translate):

In 1961 . . . singer and composer Armando Vázquez formed the “Teddy Bears” . . . .  In 1965, they changed their name to Los Ovnis . . . . In later LPs a fundamental element was present, [guitarist] Ernesto de Jesús de León Rodríguez . . . . [who] remembers . . . . “I was in high school and I was about twelve years old when I started to get interested in rock and roll. My greatest dream was to be able to play the guitar, like I saw the Beatniks, the Locos or the Teen Tops doing in their groups. My first musical experiences were with my cousins ​​Pepe and Raúl Rodríguez. We played improvised instruments, since we made the drums with a tub and the guitars were made of cardboard.  At that time, I loved going to XEW on Saturdays, to the program “Sábados Alegres” to listen to the groups that performed there, among which were the Beatniks and the Teddy Bears. By then I was already organizing my group called the “Flashes”, but we didn’t last long because they wanted to continue playing the Ventur[es]’ vibe and I was fascinated by the “Liverpool Sound”, that was around 1963, in the middle of my adolescence, it was a very confusing time for me… I went back to my studies, but I was still depressed… Then I discovered that if I didn’t play the guitar I would die of sadness. That was when Jorge del Razo (El Calaco) put me in contact with Armando Vázquez and soon after I became part of the Ovnis… I had already seen them as Teddy Bears. Then I saw them as UFOs in various existentialist cafes and at a rock and roll festival at the National Auditorium . . . . We toured the interior of the country; I remember having played in soccer stadiums packed with fans.  That was in the golden age of the Cafés Cantantes: the Roselli, the Trip and the Tiki Tiki and others. It was one of the best periods for Mexican rock. . . . [A]s we played every day, I had to evolve; there was work for all the rock and rollers and there were more girls, the youth movement in general was very good. I participated in the recording of an original album with the UFOs, that was in 1968, and although the album was good, it was not accepted because the public still did not like the original songs very much. Apart from that, inexplicably, the UFOs never made the definitive leap, despite being a very good group; also, since they were older than me, we could never fully understand each other. Age was like a barrier between us and due to many internal problems the group disintegrated. . . . In those years the hippie movement was emerging in San Francisco and from there it spread to the entire world. We fully identify with the movement and its ideals of peace, justice and love… That’s why we decided to record a rock album with original songs, which would reflect the mentality of Mexican youth in those years and would serve as a message for the new generations of young rock and roll lovers.” 

https://estroncio90.typepad.com/blog/2009/08/cuando-era-ni%C3%B1o-rese%C3%B1a-de-los-ovnis.html

Armando Vázquez recalls (courtesy of Google Translate):

When Discos Peers signed us as Los Ovnis in 1965 . . . now what we wanted was to make original music and not versions in Spanish, but the label just wanted us to continue making songs like ‘“Enrique VIII” or “Little Help from Mama” who was from The Rolling Stones.  We gave them everything they wanted, because we even released three albums in less than a year, which were Los Ovnis, Somos Amantes and Napoleón XIV.  It wasn’t until I told the label that we were going to release an album with original songs with or without them, and that’s how Hippies came out. Even though they made us [do a] cover . . . I only accepted “Light My Fire” by The Doors. So, look, it took eight years for us to finally get to the sound we wanted. . . . The best moment for the band was with Hippies, of course, it’s a record that I’m very proud of . . . .  However, when that record came out in 1968, the massacre of the students also occurred, and the record company told us that they were not going to put us on the radio or anything, because the President had vetoed anything young, anything rebellious.  That demotivated me a lot, that and the depressing atmosphere that was felt were the reasons that led me to leave the band and better finish my degree.

https://www.indierocks.mx/musica/entrevistas/entrevista-con-los-ovnis/

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The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 1,000 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.

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

A deliriously good pop soul kiss-off song written and sung by girl group genius Ellie Greenwich on her ’68 solo album Ellie Greenwich Composes, Produces and Sings is transformed into a funky Finnish number by singer Ann-Christine Nyström.

1,513) Ellie Greenwich — “Long Time Comin'”

“Long Time Comin'” is “richly soulful” (Joseph Neff, https://www.thevinyldistrict.com/storefront/graded-on-a-curve-ellie-greenwich-i-want-you-to-be-my-baby-bw-goodnight-goodnight/), a “more serious-minded soul-pop outing that’s moodier than most of her compositions”. (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/composes-produces-sings-mw0000556412)

Kreen writes of Composes, Produces and Sings:

It sounds like something out of time, really: in 1967, in an era of psychedelic rock, genius Brill-Building songwriter Ellie Greenwich, with the help of producer extraordinaire Bob Crewe on two numbers, produced a gem of a record. She had it all: talent as a musician and songwriter, good looks and a great voice. And on this LP, she provides rich and sophisticated production on a mix of songs she wrote herself and other great covers that she gives real character to. There’s no filler here; all of the numbers could have been released as singles. This is like Sgt Pepper’s never happened and the girl-group sound persevered into 1968, the year in which this was released.

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/ellie-greenwich-composes-produces-and-sings-a-lost-60s-classic.938587/

Well, I’m glad that Sgt Pepper’s happened, but I’m also glad that Composes, Produces and Sings did. It has the best version of “Niki Hoeky” that I’ve ever heard.

Jude Rogers tells us of Ellie Greenwich:

Ellie Greenwich . . . co-wrote some of the decade’s most extraordinary songs –” “Be My Baby” and “Da Doo Ron Ron” for the Ronettes, “Leader of the Pack” for the Shangri-Las, “I Can Hear Music” for the Beach Boys, and “River Deep, Mountain High” for Ike and Tina Turner. . . . Born in 1940 to a Russian father and an American mother . . . . [i]n her late teens, she met her first husband, Jeff Barry; both sharing a love of the pop music that emerged at the end of the 50s. As their relationship blossomed, so did their songwriting. A few years later, they would become one of the Brill Building’s biggest assets alongside Carole King and Gerry Goffin, its more famous husband-and-wife writing team. Back then, the music industry was incredibly male-dominated. Women were largely only background singers or lyricists, but Greenwich’s abilities quickly led her to become a producer. “There were few women who played piano, wrote songs, and could go into a studio, work those controls and produce,” she told Charlotte Greig, in an interview in the late 80s. Music publishers rushed to get her to record new artists, and she became known in the industry as the “Demo Queen”. But Greenwich’s songwriting, as well as her producing, was top-notch, too. Her early classics are tirelessly, hopelessly romantic – full of passionate sentiments straight out of a young girl’s heart. . . . developing the career of a new singer-songwriter she’d chanced upon called Neil Diamond. Greenwich also worked with Dusty Springfield and Frank Sinatra, released her own album Ellie Greenwich Composes, Produces and Sings, and had two chart hits that showed off her raw, fabulous voice. 

https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2009/aug/27/ellie-greenwich

Steve Kurutz writes:

Songwriter Ellie Greenwich helped to shape and popularize the girl group sound of the early ’60s that included such acts as the Ronettes, the Shangri-Las, and the Crystals, becoming, in the process, one of the most respected pop songwriters of the era. Like most of her generation, Greenwich was transfixed with the sounds of rock & roll and, between college classes, hung out at a local record shop . . . . The owner of the shop introduced Greenwich to some label scouts and soon she found herself recording a single for MCA under the name Ellie Gaye. The single flopped, however, but in a moment of fate she met aspiring songwriter Jeff Barry in 1962 at a party and soon the two began writing songs together, eventually becoming husband and wife. After composing for a few short months, the duo made an appointment at the famed Brill Building . . . . Greenwich and Barry  were taken into the fold by Leiber and Stoller and began writing and producing for Phil Spector’s short-lived Philles label. It was during this period that Greenwich co-wrote some of her most lasting songs, including “Da Do Ron Ron” and “Be My Baby.” Greenwich and Barry also recorded an album under the name the Raindrops, scoring with “The Kind of Boy You Won’t Forget.” In 1964, Greenwich and her songwriting husband teamed up with Leiber and Stoller to write for their Red Bird imprint. It was with Red Bird that the girl group sound was molded into perfection by Greenwich, Barry, Leiber, Stoller and producer George “Shadow” Morton. . . . Greenwich continued to write hit records with Jeff Barry, including the seminal “River Deep, Mountain High” and the Beach Boys’ 1969 hit “I Can Hear Music,” but, like the team of Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, when their marriage soured so did their writing partnership. Greenwich continued on in the music industry, recording a singer/songwriter album for Verve Records in 1973 and providing background vocals to many of rock’s biggest stars.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ellie-greenwich-mn0000154326#biography

1,514) Ann-Christine Nyström, Ulla Ja Tiina — “Liian Monta Päivää”/”Long Time Comin’”

This was a ’69 B-side from Finland by Ann-Christine Nyström and Ulla Ja Tiina (“[a] Finnish vocal duo that consisted of twins Ulla and Christina Rif” (https://www.discogs.com/artist/1468621-Ulla-Ja-Tiina?srsltid=AfmBOoqd6xA700Uob_LvAEuA-KilDapOBXnqKCq6TO1Zjp2khas8lUvM)), with Finnish lyrics by Kari Tuomisaari.

Jukka Lindfors tells us of Ann-Christine (courtesy of Google Translate):

Ann-Christine Nyström . . . began her career in the early 1960s with upbeat twist songs. Her well-known recordings include “Kun twistataan”, “Lalaika”, “Mennään tansimaan”, and many Beatles covers sung with Johnny Liebkind. With the emergence of soul and blues, Ann-Christine also had the opportunity to interpret more African-American material, including the song See-Saw made famous by Aretha Franklin. Ann-Christine represented Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1966 with the song Playboy.

https://yle.fi/a/20-94353

Wikipedia adds(courtesy of Google Translate):

A family friend of the Nyströms entered Ann-Christine’s record company . . . into a singing competition, which was held at the Helsinki Cultural Centre in 1961. Ann-Christine won the competition with her German-language song “Bei mir bist du schön”. Ann-Christine’s first recording was the single “Lalaika / Kun twistataan”, which was based on a Russian folk tune and was released in 1962. “Lalaika” became a popular song and new recordings were quickly made. Ann-Christine’s second single was “Ciribim-Ciribom”/ “Mennään tanssimaan”. The third single, in turn, included German-language versions of “Lalaika” and Marion’s Eurovision hit “Tipi-Tii”. However, the new singles did not reach the popularity of the first single. In the mid-1960s, Ann-Christine made joint recordings with Johnny (“Eksynyt kuulu oon”) and The Renegades (“Comin’ Home Baby”). She also appeared as a soloist with Tauno Suojanen’s band, Jussi Itkonen’s The Strangers and Danny’s Islanders, among others. In 1966, she represented Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 . . . with . . . “Playboy” and came in tenth place. . . . [T]he song from becoming a hit in Finland. In the summer of 1966, Ann Christine toured Sweden . . . . [S]he also had a Finnish version of Miriam Makeba’s hit “Pata Pata” on the charts , but her peak popularity was beginning to fade. Ann-Christine continued to record until 1969 and perform until 1973.

https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann-Christine

Here is the UK’s Bimbi Worrick:

Here are the Chicks from New Zealand:

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Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).

The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 1,000 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.

All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.

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

1,512) Los Shakers — “Nunca Nunca”/”Never Never”

From the Uruguayan Beatles (see #906) — no joke — this infectious ’66 number is a “[w]onderful song, a mix of bossa nova, British invasion rock & roll and Latin rhythms”. (dnlllm (courtesy of Google Translate), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJbso_FZjKg) I’ve played songs that I’ve called Beatlesque, and I’ve played a song that I called “the greatest early Beatles imitation I have ever heard” (see #849). But hands down, Los Shakers were the greatest Beatles fascimile of all time — “the Realest Fake Beatles to ever record” (Gaylord Fields, https://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2008/07/fake-beatles-no.html), “one of the most uncannily Beatlesque bands from anywhere, at any time” (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/por-favor%21-mw0000102599). They led what Wikipedia cheekily calls “the Uruguayan Invasion” of Latin America. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Shakers)

Mike Stax tells us:

[I]n 1964 [Los Shakers] . . . began to peddle the new Mersey Sound — Montivideo style. This was a potentially embarrassing recipe, to be sure — other bands around the world certainly made fools of themselves trying — but [Los] Shakers proved to be an entirely more convincing proposition. Not only did they have the musical smarts to pull off the sound, but in the Fattoruso brothers they also possessed a strong songwriting team who could dash off Beatles-flavored original material with disarming ease. Their first single in 1964, . . “Rompan Todo” . . . . became a massive hit all over South America, and the group toured across most of the continent to rapturous receptions.

liner notes to the CD comp Nuggets II (Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969)

Richie Unterberger writes:

The concept of a Uruguayan band in the mold of the Hard Day’s Night-era Beatles may seem absurd, but it did happen in the mid-’60s. . . . [T]he Shakers . . . were fairly successful in mimicking the jangle of the early Beatles sound, writing most of their material with a decent grasp of the British Invasion essentials of catchy tunes and enthusiastic harmonies. . . . [S]oundwise the Shakers were actually superior to many of the bona fide Mersey groups . . . . The group was formed by brothers Hugo Fattoruso (lead guitar, keyboards) and Osvaldo Fattoruso (rhythm guitar), who as a team wrote most of their material. Like so many combos around the world, the specific motivation to form the group came from watching . . . A Hard Day’s Night. The band remained extremely influenced by the Beatles throughout their career . . . . [It] became very big in both Uruguay and Argentina, and also toured in several other South American countries. There was never a concerted effort on the band’s part to invade the English-speaking market, and they never played in North America. However, a small New York label, Audio Fidelity, took the unusual step of issuing a Shakers album, Break It All, in the States in early 1966. This LP actually consists mostly of re-recordings (and good ones) of songs from their debut Uruguayan long-player, as well as songs that had appeared on singles. . . . The Shakers continued to follow the Beatles’ lead through 1968, introducing Revolver-like guitars and backwards effects, and then some Magical Mystery Tour-type psychedelia, as well as some occasional influence of their native South American rhythms and musical styles. . . . The Shakers broke up toward the end of the 1960s, with the Fatturoso brothers recording an album for Odeon in 1969 before moving to the United States for a few years to work with Airto Moreira, and then forming the Latin rock group Opa.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/los-shakers-mn0000360089/biography

Gaylord Fields adds:

Hugo, Osvaldo, Pelin and Caio . . . were as uncannily accomplished at bringing forth the psychedelic Pepperisms as the Merseybeat. . . . [T]he language they actually sang in . . . was a charmingly imperfect English. [They cast a] magical spell . . . . The group . . . play[ed] . . . jazz[] when they contracted Beatlemania after a screening of ¡Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Paul, John, George y Ringo! (or A Hard Day’s Night, as it’s known to the gringos). Signed to EMI’s Odeon label in Argentina, Los Shakers issued three spectacular LPs in their 1965-68 recording lifespan (actually, four, if you count their U.S. only re-recordings of their early songs . . . ).

https://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2008/07/fake-beatles-no.html

As to Uruguay’s place in rock history, Eric Zolov writes that:

Squeezed in between mighty Brazil and Argentina, Uruguay has historically served as a geopolitical buffer zone, a nation whose own political and cultural identity has been overshadowed by its powerful neighbors. Yet during the 1960s this small country generated some of the most original rock found anywhere in the hemisphere. Foreign influences abounded, from the Anglo-rock invasion by the U.K. and the U.S., to the commercialized pop of Argentina and the cultural remixings of the Brazilian  tropicalistas. Uruguayan rockers chewed on these influences and spat them back, mockingly at first and more somberly as the night of political repression fell. Uruguay was long known as the Switzerland of South America. It had a stable, two-party political system with a large middle class. The military had stayed out of politics and wasn’t expected to come back. When Beatlemania hit the Western Hemisphere, Uruguayan youth were especially ready to join in the revelry. “Discódromo,” a freewheeling radio program (and, later, TV show) started by Rubén Castillo in 1960, had already exposed the youth of Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital, to the teen culture emerging abroad. . . . [With] Los Shakers. . . . Uruguay’s era of English-language música beat had begun. Other groups soon followed, notably Los Mockers, whose artful impersonation of The Rolling Stones was the counterpart to Los Shakers. . . . By the mid 1960s, scores of so-called “beat bands” were performing across Uruguay. They did so in spaces ranging from the semi-underground  cuevas  (caves), as they were known, to the ritzy hotels and private clubs that dotted the country’s beach resorts. Except for Los Shakers . . . these bands essentially performed covers of foreign hits. Moreover, they all sang in English. They did so not sheepishly but with unabashed exuberance . . . . As Esteban Hirschfield, organist for Los Mockers, later remarked in an interview, there was “no shame” in imitating the Stones “as closely as possible.” “On the contrary,” he reflected, “we were proud of it.” Singing in English seemed the obvious ticket for staking a claim to a world beyond Uruguay. . . . By 1968, the cultural climate for making music was undergoing a radical shift. A self-confidence established over the previous years had laid the foundations for greater experimentation. The political situation had shifted as well. Los Tupamaros, an urban guerrilla group, captured the headlines with a spate of kidnappings in the name of revolutionary justice. . . . In June 1968, the president declared a state of emergency, suspending numerous constitutional protections. Uruguay was now on a slippery slope that lead to direct military rule in 1973. . . . [But] for a brief period, English-language Uruguayan rock dominated the South American pop charts.

https://www.npr.org/sections/altlatino/2011/07/25/137627714/shakers-and-mockers-uruguays-place-in-latin-rock-history#English3

Here in Spanish:

On TV, they even look like the Beatles!

Again on TV:

“[T]his is the second of the two shorts that Carlos Tato Ariosa made in Uruguay based on film material that Osvaldo gave him (mostly fragments of Rodolfo Corral’s filming and home movies).” (danielgrigera7125, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C34ij9IhsJk):

Documentary on the band, in Spanish:

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Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).

The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 1,000 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.

All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.

When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.

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

1,511) Arlette Zola  — “Lula Lula”

This ’67 yé-yé* A-side by Swiss singer Arlette Zola, released on the French label Disc’ AZ, is a lulu!

The Swiss Disco blog page (“your ultimate source for the latest and most exciting news from the world of the Swiss club and disco scene!”) tells us about Arlette (courtesy of Google Translate):

Arlette Zola was born Arlette Jaquet in the city of Fribourg . . . . Her mother and stepfather ran the Restaurant de la Grand-Fontaine there. Still a child, she already sang for the guests, accompanying herself on the guitar. The driving force behind her career was her stepfather, René Quazzola, from whose surname Arlette’s stage name is derived. He financed Arlette Zola’s first record and built up contacts with the music industry. The immediate result was a recording contract with the Paris label, “Disc AZ”. In late 1966, the single “Elles sont coquines” . . . came out. “Elles sont coquines” constituted Arlette Zola’s commercial breakthrough. It was followed in 1967 by “Deux garçons pour une fille”, “Le marin et la sirène” and “Je n’aime que vous” which figured prominently in the radio hit parades of the French-speaking world. Arlette Zola adorned the front pages of teenie magazines, appeared in many TV programs and gave live performances at home and abroad. Her 1967 guest appearances in Brazil and in Bulgaria, where she won an international song contest, deserve special mention. She also aroused interest in Germany and made a considerable number of recordings there. But there were no more major hits. As of 1970 Arlette Zola gradually withdrew from show business. After her marriage in 1972, she and her husband went into farming for several years in canton Fribourg. Shortly after the birth of a daughter in 1979, Arlette Zola and her husband decided to separate. Thanks to support from Geneva musician and composer, Alain Morisod, Arlette Zola made a musical comeback. In 1982 she represented Switzerland at the Eurovision Song Contest . . . . Singing Morisod’s composition “Amour on t’aime”, Arlette Zola finished in third place, the best ranking by a Swiss contestant in many years. New records followed, as well as regular live performances, mainly in French-speaking Switzerland.

Source: Interviews with Arlette Zola, February 2004 and July 2005, https://web.archive.org/web/20080108070925/http://www.swissdisco.ch/zola/index-e.php

Swiss radio station Radio SRF Musikwelle tells us more (courtesy of Google Translate):

As a teenager, she entertained guests with her songs in her mother’s restaurant De la Grand-Fontaine. As innkeepers, the parents had little time for their children. “The guests were my family,” says the singer looking back. Serving and singing, she ensured well-being and entertainment. . . . [She] was really discovered through a TV appearance as part of a singing competition. In 1966 the successful single “Elles sont coquines” was released. A year later, the songs “Deux garçons pour une fille”, “Le marin et la sirène” and “Je n’aime que vous”, which were equally successful in Francophone countries. The Freiburg native became a star. For some she was a female Heintje, for others even a Swiss Mireille Mathieu. She toured the country with Paola and Toni Vescoli and also appeared regularly on television in France with greats such as Silvie Vartan, France Gall [see #36, 1,361] and Claude François. But you won’t find any airs and graces with her. With great modesty she still says today: “I’m not a star, just a woman who likes to sing.” Then Arlette Zola follows her heart. She gets married, becomes a mother and puts her career on hold for the sake of her family. Then the marriage falls apart. In order to make a living for herself and her daughter, she works again as a waitress. A newspaper once described this chapter of his life as “Les années noirs”. Arlette Zola sees it differently: “That time wasn’t that black – maybe a little gray.”

https://www.srf.ch/radio-srf-musikwelle/zu-gast-im-brunch-arlette-zola-ein-star-ohne-allueren

* What is yé-yé? Matt Collar explains:

Yé-yé pop showcased young, cherubic-voiced female singers framed against dance-ready beats and rock & roll hooks in songs often riddled with thinly veiled sexual innuendo. It was bubblegum pop meets softcore porn and it was massively successful in Europe from the late ’50s through the ’60s.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/sensationnel%21-y%C3%A9-y%C3%A9-bonbons-1965-1968-mw0002813954

Here is the B-side, an orchestral version by Norman Maine et son Orchestre:

I have added a Facebook page for Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock! If you like what you read and hear and feel so inclined, please visit and “like” my Facebook page by clicking here.

Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).

The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 1,000 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.

All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.

When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.