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

Fourmyula — “Come With Me”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — October 10, 2023

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

977) Fourmyula — “Come With Me”

WARNING — If you are a New Zealander, do not read any further regarding this “gorgeously intimate then anthemic” song! (Graham Reid, https://timberjackdonoghue.com/157435146/157435161) It reached #2 in New Zealand, and the Fourmyula (by then a quintet) had become New Zealand’s top band overnight.

Deutros tells us:

While they were traveling, [bassist Alistair] Richardson and [keyboardist Wayne] Mason began writing a song. The result was “Come With Me”, which they took to their first recording session. The group wanted to release it as their first single, but [producer] Howard Gable already had a song by Martha and the Vandellas, “Honey Chile”, lined up. The boys persisted and a compromise was reached by putting “Come With Me” as the B-side of the single. When the single was released by HMV in July 1968, it was only “Come With Me” that received the attention of DJs and the public. It spent three weeks at number two on the national charts and stayed on the charts for three months. . . . Television appearances, radio interviews and newspaper articles followed.
http://littleozziealbums.blogspot.com/2016/01/

Nick Bollinger in conversation with Richardson and drummer Chris Parry:

Richardson and Mason began collaborating on songs and came up with one they were particularly pleased with. “The one I remember was Come to Me,” recalls Richardson. “I think it was in my living room with Wayne on piano, since my family had a piano. At the end of the afternoon we thought ‘Hey, that is a song, and it’s as good as anything else around.'” . . . For [their] first single, HMV’s house producer Howard Gable suggested Dance On Little Girl. “It was, to all intents and purposes, Mary Had a Little Lamb'”, recalls Parry. “It was just ridiculous and we just couldn’t take it seriously. . . . [It was a]fter the group rejected Gable’s offering [that he] suggested the Motown song Honey Chile.
Nick Bollinger, liner notes to the CD comp The Fourmyula: Inside the Hutt: New Zealand’s Pop-Psych Kingpins 1968-1969

In any event, Bollinger writes that “[t]he success of ‘Come With Me’ paved the way for a string of original chart hits – ‘Alice Is There’, ‘I Know Why’, ‘Start By Giving To Me’, ‘Home’, ‘Forever’, ‘I’ll Sing You A Song’ – all characterised by Mason and Richardson’s infectious melodies and sing-a-long choruses, [Carl] Evensen’s soulful lead vocals and the whole group’s warm harmonies and imaginative arrangements.” (https://www.audioculture.co.nz/profile/the-fourmyula)

As to the Fourmyula’s history, Jason Ankeny writes:

The success of Fourmyula marked a major turning point in the development of New Zealand rock: to an industry long dependent on cover versions of international hits, this Hutt Valley-based quintet offered proof positive that native talent could reach the national charts on the strength of their own original material. Fourmyula evolved in early 1967 from the ranks of the Insect, a fixture of area high school dances and other social gatherings . . . . [T]heir popularity soared after they took home top honors in a “National Battle of the Sounds” competition, although the consensus was that they needed a stronger lead vocalist. Toward that aim, singer Carl Evensen was recruited . . . with [Martin] Hope now focusing solely on guitar duties. After buying an instructional book on songwriting, Mason and Richardson penned Fourmyula’s first original composition, “Come with Me” . . . . [O]vernight, Fourmyula became superstars, and Mason and Richardson quickly wrote a dozen new songs for release as their self-titled 1968 LP debut. Demand for the group was so high that HMV even issued two new singles, “Alice Is There” and “I Know Why,” simultaneously; both rocketed into the Top Ten, and after quickly recording a sophomore album, Green B. Holiday, the band toured Britain, later recording the single “Lady Scorpio” at the famed Abbey Road studios. Fourmyula spent four months overseas, catching live appearances from groups including Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Spooky Tooth; acknowledging that their mod aesthetic was out of touch with emerging trends, they grew their hair out and adopted a heavier, louder sound which they intended to introduce upon returning home. New Zealand audiences were baffled . . . however, and after just one disastrous gig, they returned to their trademark four-part harmonies and softly psychedelic pop. Their third LP, Creation, appeared in late 1969, followed by the chart-topping single “Nature”; Mason was now the group’s sole songwriter, and as the band returned to Europe to tour, his material again adopted a heavier approach. To avoid conflict with a similarly named group, Fourmyula rechristened themselves Pipp; after scoring a minor hit with the 1970 single “Otaki,” their fortunes dwindled, and by the following year, they were no more. Parry later founded Fiction Records.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/fourmyula-mn0001325005

Finally, the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame states that:

The Fourmyula were Wellington’s greatest ever hitmakers, and in an age where cover versions were the norm, they wrote the book on self-penned songs. [Following] . . . “Come With Me”. . . . they would manage an astonishing 10 entries in the NZ Top 20, including “I’ll Sing You A Song”, “Forever”, “Home”, “Alice Is There” and the now-iconic “Nature”, a number 1 single in December 1969.
https://www.musichall.co.nz/portfolio/the-fourmyula/

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The Who — “Rael”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — October 9, 2023

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

976) The Who — “Rael”

From ’67’s The Who Sell Out, “Rael” is a wonderful “mini-opera, with musical motifs that reappeared in Tommy”. (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-who-sell-out-mw0000652659) What I didn’t realize until recently was that the song is about Israel. In a time of great sorrow, “Rael” is so comforting. Thanks, Pete.

Seth Rogovoy writes that:

Townshend in his early years was shuffled around among relatives, friends and neighbors while his parents came and went, carrying on relationships outside of their marriage. In his autobiography, Townshend waxes nostalgic not for the comfort of his family, but for the Jewish world that protected him: “We shared our house with the Cass family, who lived upstairs and, like many of my parents’ closest friends, were Jewish. I remember noisy, joyous Passovers with a lot of Gefilte fish, chopped liver and the aroma of slow-roasting brisket.” . . .

Following a visit to Caesarea, Israel in 1966 with his first wife, Karen Astley, and the subsequent outbreak of the Six-Day War, Townshend began work on “Rael,” a song cycle loosely based on Israel’s struggle to survive despite being massively outnumbered by its enemies. “Rael” . . . got sidetracked, partly due to the demands of the Who’s record company for faster delivery of more hit singles, and “Rael” was consigned to the shelf. The only song that has surfaced from that project is called “Rael” and appears on the late 1967 album, “The Who Sell Out.”
https://forward.com/culture/music/306023/pete-townshend-jewish-history-the-who-roger-daltrey-birthday/?amp=1

I had never listened closely to the lyrics before. “Rael the home of my religion To me, the center of the earth . . . . My heritage is threatened My roots are torn and cornered And so to do my best I’ll homeward sail” Now I see.

As to The Who Sell Out, Richie Unterberger tells us:

Pete Townshend originally planned The Who Sell Out as a concept album of sorts that would simultaneously mock and pay tribute to pirate radio stations, complete with fake jingles and commercials linking the tracks. For reasons that remain somewhat ill defined, the concept wasn’t quite driven to completion, breaking down around the middle of side two (on the original vinyl configuration). Nonetheless, on strictly musical merits, it’s a terrific set of songs that ultimately stands as one of the group’s greatest achievements. “I Can See for Miles” (a Top Ten hit) is the Who at their most thunderous; tinges of psychedelia add a rush to “Armenia City in the Sky” and “Relax”; “I Can’t Reach You” finds Townshend beginning to stretch himself into quasi-spiritual territory; and “Tattoo” and the acoustic “Sunrise” show introspective, vulnerable sides to the singer/songwriter that had previously been hidden. . . . The album is as perfect a balance between melodic mod pop and powerful instrumentation as the Who (or any other group) would achieve; psychedelic pop was never as jubilant, not to say funny (the fake commercials and jingles interspersed between the songs are a hoot).
https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-who-sell-out-mw0000652659

Here is Pete’s demo:

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The Churchill’s — “Song from the Sea”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — October 8, 2023

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

975) The Churchill’s* — “Song from the Sea”

From the classic album by “Israel’s own psych-rock pioneers” (Jesse Rifkin, http://www.furious.com/perfect/churchills.html) comes this haunting song. “Swim with me in darkness, underneath the dark sky, bits of tears are falling, now I know you can cry.” Yes.

Jesse Rifkin tells us:

[T]he Churchills – Israel’s own psych-rock pioneers . . . . story began in Israel in 1965, when Mickey Gavriellov noticed Haim Romano playing a mandolin for a small group of friends. Gavriellov, who wanted to be in a band, started following Romano around with his guitar, trying desperately to get noticed. Gavriellov soon started playing bass with guitarist Yitzchak Klepter, drummer Ami Treibich, and vocalist Selvin Lifshitz. . . . [T]he band soon added Romano on lead guitar. The group soon became known as Churchill’s Hermits (in tribute to Herman’s Hermits), and eventually just the Churchills. . . . Huxley had come to Israel from England in 1967 as a member of one of the various touring incarnations of the Tornadoes . . . . When the Tornadoes finished their tour in Israel, the bassist and drummer decided to return to England, but Huxley and the band’s keyboardist decided to stay. After playing in a few groups in Israel, Huxley came across the Churchills. “The band would play two sets . . . . one of pop covers and one of American soul music, on which they were joined by [Canadian singer] Stan Solomon.” At the time, Solomon was singing in a band called the Saints. Huxley and Solomon became friends very quickly, and soon moved in with each other. In 1968 Lifshitz and Klepter were drafted into the Israeli army. Solomon was almost immediately asked to become the band’s new lead singer, and he in turn recommended Huxley as Klepter’s replacement. The change was dramatic. “Stan and I had the other members of the band over to our apartment,” Huxley said, “where we smoked a bunch of hash, which there was a lot of in Israel at that time… We introduced them to the Doors, Vanilla Fudge, and Hendrix – that kind of music, and they just freaked out! They totally loved it!” . . . This unique mix of Eastern and Western music became very popular in Israel, no doubt helped by the fact that, thanks to Huxley and Solomon, the Churchills became the first Israeli rock band to play original material. . . . The band soon released its first single, “Too Much in Love to Hear,” a Huxley original, backed with Solomon’s “Talk to Me.” Not long after the single was released, the band ventured to Denmark, where they spent four months opening for Deep Purple. . . . When the band returned to Israel, they were asked to create a soundtrack for the film A Woman’s Case, a bizarre movie about an advertising executive who falls for and later plots to kill a lesbian fashion model. The songs Huxley, Solomon and Gavriellov wrote for the movie became the basis for the band’s 1968 self-titled debut album. . . . In 1969, Stan Solomon left the band and returned home. “Stan’s father was one of the richest men in Canada,” Huxley explained. “He wanted Stan to come back and join the family business, which was a clothing business. . . . “[Stan’s quitting] was a crisis,” said Gavriellov. . . . In early 1970, Huxley briefly went back to England to get married. When he returned, the other band members informed him that while he was gone, they had added a new lead singer – Danny Shoshan, formerly of the Lions of Judea. “In my opinion,” said Huxley, “Danny Shoshan became the other Stan Solomon. He and I started writing together like I had with Stan. But Danny sang with a very ballsy voice, so we started doing harder stuff because we could.”
http://www.furious.com/perfect/churchills.html

Richard Klin adds:

The 1960s, for much of the world, were synonymous with social ferment and rebellion. Not so in Israel. Nineteen sixty-seven was the year of the Six-Day War, followed by the War of Attrition with Egypt, followed still by the Yom Kippur War in 1973. . . . [T]here was no Israeli equivalent of mass student uprisings, no Haight-Ashbury. . . . [But there] sprang a complete anomaly: The Churchills – a trippy, psychedelic band that emerged not from California, London, or other high temples of grooviness, but from the environs of Tel Aviv. The Churchills began as a standard Israeli cover band. At the same time, a revamped version of the Tornados, the British band that gave the world “Telstar,” toured Israel. The Tornados disbanded after that tour and one of its members, Robb Huxley, “decided to stay in Israel as I had met and become friends with Canadian Stan Solomon, who was the [Churchills] singer…and then began our arduous task to change the music of the band and hopefully turn the Israeli audience on to a different style of music.” . . . The Israeli audiences “took us as being a bunch of crazy musicians,” [Huxley] remembers, “who played ‘noise’ and were all ‘soaked’ in LSD.” . . . Yet the Churchills . . . doggedly plugged away. In 1968 came their eponymous album, Churchill’s—the errant apostrophe a forgivable offense in a Hebrew-speaking world. The album was a psychedelic, expressive classic, with songs ranging from the bombastic to the plaintive. The fact that Churchill’s . . . existed at all was odds-defying. . . . The album’s sonic palette is heavily inflected with strong doses of the jangly, drone-like tones of the Mediterranean and Middle East . . . . The band joined forces with Arik Einstein, one of the founding fathers of Israeli rock. They connected with other Israeli musicians who were forming a homegrown, nascent rock scene. . . . In Israel, the sort of music the Churchills championed was a marginalized, often scorned, form of expression. Yet it did find its way into public consciousness. The musicians and their fans coalesced. The Churchills are part of a wonderful, scattered lineage found in culture’s nooks and crannies.
https://www.jewishviews.com/israeli-gears/

Well, were they popular in Israel or were they not?

* The band’s name “was simply a reference to founding member Yitzhak Klepter’s schoolboy nickname, inspired by his round, plump appearance that apparently conjured up images of the British prime minister”. (Richard klin https://www.jewishviews.com/israeli-gears/)

Live:

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Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs — “Black Sheep”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — October 6, 2023

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

974) Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs — “Black Sheep”

Sam the Sham does his best Dylan (see # 126, 823) impersonation, complete with an Al Kooper-like (see #642, 705, 804) organ accompaniment. Yes, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs! And the song even reached #68 in ’67! It’s a rollicking, wry and wonderful song, one of the first written by country music songwriting legend Bob McDill (30 country #1 hits!). Classic Rock History says:

They started out the lyrics not with “Black sheep, black sheep, have you any wool?” but instead with, “Black Sheep lays around drinking wine all day.” The song concludes with, “Black sheep died a wealthy man, with five gold watches, six gold rings…” Although [it] is a somewhat humorous play on words, it does evoke an image of someone who is wealthy, but older and very lonely.
https://www.classicrockhistory.com/top-10-sam-the-sham-and-the-pharoahs-songs/

Michael Jack Kirbyt says it has “a folk[y] groove with a hook straight from the original nursery rhyme” and adds that “[w]hile not technically novelty songs, Sam the Sham’s hits weren’t completely serious either, but all of them were and still are fun to listen to”. (https://www.waybackattack.com/samthesham.html)

As to Sam the Sham, Classic Bands tells us that:

Domingo Samudio was born . . . to a Spanish speaking couple of Mexican decent. . . . [H]e took up guitar and formed a high school group with some friends [including] Trini Lopez . . . . After graduation, [he] joined the Navy . . . . [where] he began to act as an M.C. at dances and learned to crack jokes and cut up on stage. Back in the States, Domingo enrolled at the University of Texas in Arlington . . . . [He] played Rock ‘n’ Roll at night with a band he called The Pharaohs. . . . [who] only recorded one record which failed to sell. They broke up in late 1962 before Sam left the music business to work in a carnival. . . . [Then, h]ocking everything he had, he bought an organ and three days later accepted a job with a band called Andy And The Nightriders in Louisiana. “We became a popular roadhouse band . . . playing mostly gun and knife clubs.” When [the] leader . . . left the group a short time later, Domingo took control . . . and decided to re-name it. “By that time, everyone was calling me ‘Sam’, short for Samudio . . . and what I was doing, fronting the band and cutting up was called ‘shamming’. We got the rest of the name from the movie The Ten Commandments. Old Ramses, the King of Egypt, looked pretty cool, so we decided to become The Pharaohs.” The band featured a lot of comedy in their act and wore turbans and Egyptian garb on stage. . . . [E]arly [recordings] failed. In the Summer of 1964, they went into the studio with a song that used the words “Hully Gully”. When told by the record company that they couldn’t use that phrase, Sam said, “Okay, let’s kick it off and I’ll make something up.” . . . There was a saying around here, when anybody did good it’s like ‘Wooly Bully for you,’ like ‘big deal.’. . .” The single was originally released on the tiny XL label and was later picked up for distribution by MGM. It went on to sell over three and half million copies in the United States alone . . . . soar[ing] to #2 . . . . The Pharaohs would reach the Billboard Top 40 twice more in 1965 with “Ju Ju Hand” (#26) and “Ring Dang Doo” (#31). . . . In late 1965 . . . [the entire band] left . . . over musical and financial disagreements. Sam was forced to hire a whole new set of touring musicians. . . . [T]his line-up enjoyed another huge hit record with the novelty tune “Lil’ Red Riding Hood”, which peaked at #2 . . . . MGM kept pressuring him to produce another formula hit single, which led to a period in which the group abandoned their hard rocking sound in favor of adaptations of nursery rhymes, cartoon characters and other juvenile topics. A song called “The Hair On My Chinny-Chin Chin” somehow reached #22 in the Fall of 1966. Personnel changes continued . . . . Sam reached the Billboard Top 40 one last time in January, 1967 with “How Do You Catch A Girl”, which reached #27.
http://www.classicbands.com/samsham.html

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The Applejacks — “As a Matter of Fact”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — October 4, 2023

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

973) The Applejacks — “As a Matter of Fact”

A delightful British Invasion charmer from a band that was the first from the Birmingham area to join the hit parade. But they get no respect! Richie Unterberger says that “[w]hile their discs had peppy harmonies, they were on the whole among the wimpier fare of the British Invasion fare” and “[t]he overwhelming bulk of their material . . . was pleasantly bland or downright boring” (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-applejacks-mn0001169341), and Vernon Joynson called them “wimpy” too! (The Tapestry of Delights Revisited) Not fair!

Unterberger tells us:

A minor British Invasion group that had three hits in the U.K. . . . Their jaunty, lightweight pop/rock could have easily been mistaken for that of a Merseybeat combo, though they actually hailed from the town of Solihull, near Birmingham. The sextet also attracted more attention . . . due to the presence of one female member, Megan Davies, on bass. . . . Forming in 1961 as the skiffle trio the Crestas, the band soon expanded their personnel, moved into electric rock, and changed their name to the Applejacks the following year. Decca issued their first single, “Tell Me When[]” . . . [which] made it to number seven in the U.K. They were fortunate enough to procure “Like Dreamers Do” from Lennon and McCartney when they met the pair at a television rehearsal. . . . mak[ing] it to number 20 in the British charts. . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-applejacks-mn0001169341

Nostalgia Central adds:

[I]n 1960, guitarists Martin Baggott and Philip Cash were in a church youth club skiffle group called The Crestas. Drummer Gerry Freeman persuaded Megan Davies, a fellow Sunday School teacher (and later his wife) to come in on bass. Adding organist Don Gould in 1962 the band went forth as The Jaguars, specialising in instrumentals. . . . The following year [they added] singer Al Jackson . . . . On the look-out around Birmingham, Decca A&R man Mike Smith visualised The Applejacks in their bright red smocks as harbingers of a ‘Solihull Sound’. Hunting around publishers’ offices, a commercial vehicle was found to launch this plan – Tell Me When. . . .
https://nostalgiacentral.com/music/artists-a-to-k/artists-a/applejacks/

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Paper Blitz Tissue — “Boy Meets Girl”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — October 4, 2023

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

972) Paper Blitz Tissue — “Boy Meets Girl”

The ’67 A-side of PBT’s only 45 is “a thrillingly visceral slab of British studio psychedelia” (David Wells, liner notes to the Real Life Permanent Dream: A Cornucopia of British Psychedelia 1965-1970 CD comp), “a near-gem of a psychedelic track with fluttering and squealing guitars, crunching Who-influenced percussion, a melody that was both ominous and tuneful, and a thunderous production that made the band sound rather as if they were crashing around in a large glass tunnel” (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-paper-blitz-tissue-mn0001387475) with a “great psychedelic intro, some fine guitar work and vocals which are ideally suited to this type of music.” (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited)

‘And it was composed by Rob Granier, the famed British TV/movie/theater composer who wrote the themes for the super-cool TV shows Dr. Who, Steptoe and Son (later transformed into Redd Foxx’s Sanford and Son in the U.S.), Danger Man, The Prisoner, and the super-cool Charlton Heston flick The Omega Man!

David Wells notes that the PBT were “[r]egulars on the London psychedelic underground scene during the second half of 1967 . . . play[ing] such venues as Middle Earth, the Electric Garden and UFO as well as appearing at the semi-legendary Kensington Olympia happening Christmas on Earth Continued. . . . [but] disappear[ing] as suddenly as they arrived”. (liner notes to the Real Life Permanent Dream: A Cornucopia of British Psychedelia 1965-1970 CD comp)

Chocolate Soup for Diabetics adds:

[They] were at the heart of London’s 60s underground, playing at all the leading venues and acclaimed in their day as one of the UK’s first psychedelic bands. Drummer Dave Dufort had played in the Scenery alongside Ian Hunter (soon to form Mott The Hoople) . . . . [and had been] in the Voice [see #176] . . . . The apogee came . . . with three momentous events in December 1967. Firstly, their 45 . . . was released. Secondly, they appeared in a BBC TV play entitled Death of a Private, screened on December 13 [my 5th birthday!] and telling the melancholy tale of a soldier whose wife leaves him for a rock singer. The quartet played numerous Grainer-penned songs in the film, as The Majors, but . . . no copies survive. Finally, they shared a stage with Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, Tomorrow and others at Christmas On Earth Continued at Kensington Olympia on the 22nd.
liner notes to the Chocolate Soup for Diabetics: Volumes 1-5 CD comp

As to Ron Grainer, the Mfiles tells us that:

Ron Grainer was born in Australia . . . . He . . . studied music at the Sydney Conservatory, until World War II where he suffered a severe leg injury in an accident. After the war he completed his musical studies concentrating on composition. Ron and his wife moved to England in 1952 where he found work initially as a pianist and accompanist for light entertainment shows . . . . In 1960 [he] was commissioned to compose the theme and incidental music for a new detective series called “Maigret”. The theme was a major hit . . . . Over the next few years, Grainer was to write for a number of television productions . . . . He wrote the themes for “Comedy Playhouse”, “Steptoe and Son”, “That Was the Week That Was” and “Doctor Who”. There was something about his themes which audiences related to: “Maigret” . . . g[a]ve the detective a Gallic feel, and “Old Ned” (the Steptoe theme) easily captured the scrap merchants’ horse trundling along the streets, while the jazzy theme song for “That Was the Week That Was” . . . seemed to mirror the show’s lively mix of current affairs and comedy. . . . For Doctor Who Grainer wrote the theme as a piano instrumental which was then given to Delia Derbyshire at the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop. When Grainer heard the resulting music created by splicing together tones and effects on magnetic tape, he famously remarked “Did I write that?”. . . . Grainer was also getting his first commissions for film scores. The films . . . were rarely in the major league . . . but his film music is highly regarded. . . . [H]e scored “Hoffman” starring Peter Sellers, and the minor cult movie “The Omega Man” starring Charlton Heston. By this time Grainer had moved to Portugal with his second wife Jennifer. . . . [but] continued . . . scoring more films, writing music for theatre and further television programmes. Many of those TV series developed a cult following (e.g. “Man in a Suitcase”, “The Prisoner”, “Paul Temple”, and “Tales of the Unexpected”) . . . . Grainer suffered from a number of health problems in addition to his leg injury . . . . [and h]is eyesight started to fail in later years, and he died . . . at the age of 58.
https://www.mfiles.co.uk/composers/Ron-Grainer.htm

Here is Ron Granier’s original instrumental:

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The Executives — “Moving in a Circle”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — October 3, 2023

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

971) The Executives — “Moving in a Circle”

Carole King (no, not that Carole King!) and her husband Brian founded what was “widely regarded as . . . Australia’s most sophisticated pop group.” (Paul Culnane, http://www.milesago.com/artists/executives.htm) Besides their slew of delightful covers, one of their few originals was this “trippy [’68 B-side] . . . very much out of character for . . . [a group] who had the vocal chops to deliver complicated harmony material along the lines of the Mamas & Papas or Fifth Dimension. . . . [W]ith its backwards tapes and Carole Kings’ haunting vocal, the track remains a major achievement for the outfit.” (Alec Palao, liner notes to Peculiar Hole in the Sky: Pop-Psych from Down Under CD comp)

As to the Executives, Paul Culnane writes for the authoritative Milesago: Australasian Music & Popular Culture 1964-1975 that:

[N]ot enough recognition has been accorded to The Executives. They . . . scored several Top 40 hits, including two consecutive Top 5 singles in Sydney, and they were widely regarded as being Australia’s most sophisticated pop group. They are also notable as one of the very first Australian groups to produce their own recordings. This polished sextet was founded by husband and wife Brian and Carole King in Sydney in late 1966, quickly gaining ‘must-see’ status around inner-city venues. Their musical expertise and versatility was unequalled for the time, and between them the six members could play thirty-one instruments, ranging from violin to harpsichord. In January 1967 they released their debut single, “Wander Boy” [see #452 for Bruno’s original version] backed by a cover of The Addrisi Brothers’ “You’re Bad”. . . . It was the one-two punch of follow-up 45s in mid-’67 that cemented The Executives’ reputation. “My Aim Is To Please You” was a beautifully arranged and recorded mid-paced ballad . . . . [that] became a sizeable national hit, peaking at #26 . . . . It paved the way for their biggest seller, the lush, majestic Steven Stills song “Sit Down I Think I Love You” . . . [in which they followed the arrangement of the Mojo Men (see #84)]. It was a Top 30 hit on most capital city charts . . . especially successful in Sydney, where it peaked at #4, and it reached #28 on the Go-Set chart in December. During 1968 they released a trio of self-produced singles, making them one of the very first Australian bands to produce their own recordings. The first was the brisk and catchy “It’s A Happening World” (March) written by . . . Barry Mann & Cynthia Weill, which made the Top 40 in Sydney and Brisbane [with “Moving in a Circle the B-side]. The second was an irresistible slice of pure pop called “Windy Day” (June); originally recorded by US band The Lewis & Clark Expedition, it . . . reached #7 [in Sydney]. The third single was a glistening bauble of psych-pop whimsy, “Summerhill Road” (December) . . . . All . . . were respectable national sellers. . . . Shortly after the early-1968 release of their eponymous debut LP, The Executives made the first of two forays to the USA, where they attracted encouraging industry scrutiny. . . . [and] signed to the Buddha label . . . . Unfortunately nothing came of the Buddah deal, so they eventually returned to Australia. . . . [A] further bunch of singles, EPs and another album fared well on the charts, and they remained a popular live draw. . . . A second trip to America in late 1969 saw them absorbing the prevailing psychedelic-progressive trends [and] they changed their name to The Inner Sense, adopting a heavier musical style but still retaining their trademark vocal polish. The Mark 1 line-up of the group lasted until late 1969. . . . The Executive should be remembered for their sophisticated and inventive sound, those gorgeous vocal harmonies, their accomplished musicianship and their mastery of the three-minute pop single idiom.
http://www.milesago.com/artists/executives.htm

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The Motherhood — “Soul Town”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — October 2, 2023

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

970) The Motherhood — “Soul Town”

If you’ve heard this “[b]reezy and badass” (J. John Aquino, http://afistfulofsoundtracks.blogspot.com/2011/01/rock-box-track-of-day-motherhood-soul.html) “dose[] of funky soul” (https://www.lpcdreissues.com/item/i-feel-so-free-2), it is likely because the track played over the closing credits of Ocean’s 13. It was a ‘69 B-side in Germany and a track on I Feel So Free, the Motherhood’s “space-age bachelor-pad classic”. (https://www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/motherhood-the-i-feel-so-free-cd/ZG.9104CD.html) The über-groovy number could have easily subbed for Quincy Jones’ “Soul Bossa-Nova” in Austin Powers. Yeah, baby!

LPCD reissues tells us that:

Their rare debut album ‘I Feel So Free’ has nine originals and a few unique cover tunes, with [Klaus] Doldinger’s searing alto and soprano sax and clarinet lines aided and abetted by the pounding drums of Udo Lindenberg and Amon Duul’s Keith Forsey. The overarching format is jazz, but as the material was recorded in 1969, here there are plenty of psyche leanings throughout the disc, as well as doses of funky soul.
https://www.lpcdreissues.com/item/i-feel-so-free-2

Forced Exposure says:

The brainchild of legendary Berlin-born saxophonist and bandleader Klaus Doldinger, this psych-funk ultra-rarity was recorded and released in Germany in 1969. Featuring superb Beatles and Cream covers, as well as nine funky, punchy originals . . . . With original copies changing hands for well over $600, it makes its welcome reissue debut here.
https://www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/motherhood-the-i-feel-so-free-cd/ZG.9104CD.html

As to Doldinger, Marios tells us:

Klaus Doldinger, best-known for leading the excellent fusion group Passport in the 1970s and ’80s, has had a diverse and episodic career. He started out studying piano in 1947 and clarinet five years later, playing in Dixieland bands in the 1950s. By 1961, he had become a modern tenor saxophonist, working with such top visiting and expatriate Americans as Don Ellis, Johnny Griffin, Benny Bailey, Idrees Sulieman, Donald Byrd, and Kenny Clarke, recording as a leader for Philips, World Pacific, and Liberty. His late 60’s recordings were under the name “Motherhood”. They released two albums “I Feel so Free” in 1969 and “Doldinger’s Motherhood” in 1970, both for the label Liberty. In “I Feel so Free” featuring nine funky, punchy originals and two covers from Beatles and Cream. The original vinyl copies changing hands for well over 500 euros. However, in 1970, he initiated a long series of fusion-oriented sessions for Atlantic that featured his tenor, soprano, flute, and occasional keyboards with an electric rhythm section. In addition to writing music for films (including Das Boot) and television in Europe, Doldinger has remained active as a player who occasionally explores his roots in hard bop into the late ’90s, but because he has always lived in Europe, he remains underrated in the U.S.
http://therockasteria.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-motherhood-i-feel-so-free-1969.html

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The Small Faces — “You Need Loving”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — October 1, 2023

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

969) The Small Faces — “You Need Loving”

Three years before “Whole Lotta Love”, the Small Faces’ Steve Marriott gave Robert Plant every inch of his “Loving”. Sure, the words may have come from Willie Dixon (who famously and successfully sued Zeppelin), but the soul of the song came from the Faces’ “emotive revamp of Muddy Waters’ ‘You Need Loving’ which certainly set the ears twitching of young Faces’ fan Robert Plant”. (Andy Neill, liner notes to the CD reissue of the Small Faces’ eponymous debut LP on Decca). As decristo1021 says, “even the most diehard Plant fan has to admit that Robbie aped Steve’s delivery to a ‘t’…it’s uncanny….” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpnF62TNYoM) On the other hand, Michael Hann argues that:

“Whole Lotta Love” may have borrowed from both Willie Dixon and the Small Faces, but the song wasn’t the same as either of its pieces of source material: what Zeppelin took, they transformed. They were derivative only in the sense that they took from existing forms; what they did with those forms created rock’n’roll of a new form, one as at home with folk or blues or proto-metal.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2016/apr/12/led-zeppelin-other-peoples-records-transformed-borrowed

And the Small Faces also originally credited the song to themselves (in this case, Marriott and Lane).

Anyway, here’s the story as told in Ken Sharp’s interview with Marriott and Ian McLagan:

SHARP: I was going to ask you about “You Need Lovin'” . . . . Supposedly Robert Plant was a huge fan and would come to all the shows, did you remember him from those days?

MCLAGAN: Oh yeah, he was a little kid, used to go out and get us cigarettes and drinks. Steve was doing Muddy Waters, we were doing “You Need Lovin’,” Zeppelin got it from us.

SHARP: When you hear “You Need Lovin’,” Steve did his own innovations vocally on that, all the vocals Plant copied lock, stock, and barrel. How did you feel about that, were you flattered, because I don’t think it ever bothered Steve too much that Zeppelin copied it?

MCLAGAN: I think it’s great, I think it’s fine with me, it’s not like they owe the Small Faces any money, if anything they should pay Muddy Waters, so should’ve we, you know.

MARRIOTT: Willie Dixon wrote it, called it “Woman, You Need Love” or something like that. It was fantastic, I used to love it! Muddy Waters recorded it, but I couldn’t sing like Muddy Waters, so it wasn’t that much of a nick. Whereas Robert Plant could sing like me. That’s basically where it’s at. I had to make up a lot of my own phrasing — I couldn’t sing like Muddy Waters, Long John Baldry had that down. I was a high range and Muddy was a low range, so I had to figure out how to sing it. So I did, and that was our opening number for all the years we were together, unless we had a short set. That’s where Jimmy Page heard it. He asked about it, and Robert Plant used to follow us around at the time — he was like a fan, a very nice chap. That was one of his favorites. . . . When I heard “Whole Lotta Love” I couldn’t believe it. I was astounded, quite astounded. The phrasing was exact. I thought “Go on my son, get on with it!” I couldn’t believe it, but I was glad someone took it and did something with it. It was always a good song, but the phrasing was direct. As I said, he could sing like me . . . . he took that note for note, word for word. It’s terrible, innit? It’s funny — you gotta laugh.
https://web.archive.org/web/20110206173349/http://www.ianmclagan.com/sf/songs.htm

As to the album, Sing365 says:

In May 1966, the Small Faces released their fourth single for Decca, the catchy powerhouse pop of Hey Girl. Like Sha La La La Lee, it was a song in the mainstream pop mould, far removed from their rhythm & blues beginnings. Nevertheless, it gave the Marriott/Lane songwriting team, a chance to prove that could could write their own hit singles. Released simultaneously with Hey Girl on 10 May 1966 was the band’s eagerly awaited debut album called, simply enough, Small Faces. The album was hailed as one of the most exciting releases of the year and contained some great tracks, as well as showcasing Steve Marriott’s gruff and soulful yearning tones to great effect. Numbers like One Night Stand and Don’t Stop What You’re Doing stood up well against the out and out rave-ups of Come on Children and You Need Loving. . . . The whole sound and feel of the album was a mutant hybrid of Booker T & the MGs meets the Who, via dashes of Motown thrown in for good measure. The great British public certainly went for it and the album hoisted itself to the number three spot where it stayed for a good few weeks.
https://web.archive.org/web/20150227123416/http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/The-Small-Faces-Biography/F8E5DA87548CAE3F48256D9C000E4651

Here are the Faces live:

Here is Zep:

Here is Muddy Waters:

Here is Willie Dixon:

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Frabjoy and Runcible Spoon (Godley and Creme) — Today”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 30, 2023

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

968) Frabjoy and Runcible Spoon (Godley and Creme) — “Today”

From another contender for the greatest lost album of the 1960’s comes a “beautiful ballad” (David Wells, liner notes to the Frabjous Days: The Secret World of Godley and Creme 1967-1969 CD comp), a “primal, brilliant, pre-10cc” cut (Dave Thompson, https://web.archive.org/web/20220603185543/https://www.goldminemag.com/columns/frabjous-days-with-godley-creme) that is truly God-like and the cream of the crop.

Mark Deming tells us that:

In 1970, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme would score their first serious hit with the oddball stomp of Hotlegs’ “Neanderthal Man,” and in 1973 they would become half of 10cc, who would release some of the smartest, wittiest, and best-crafted British pop of the decade. Dial back to 1969, and the two were veterans of the U.K.’s beat music scene who’d evolved into a pop-psychedelic duo called the Yellow Bellow Room Boom. Giorgio Gomelsky, who had previously helped guide the careers of the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds. signed them to his Marmalade Records label and gave them a different (and similarly whimsical but clumsy) stage name, Frabjoy & Runcible Spoon, in hopes of transforming them into a British answer to Simon & Garfunkel. . . . [T]hey released only four poor-selling songs under that banner before Marmalade Records went under, and the album they’d been working on was doomed never to see the light of day.* Thankfully, the tapes survived, and the British reissue label Grapefruit Records has released an approximation of that long-lost LP . . . . [including] seven unreleased tracks that were completed for the aborted . . . album [and] the four rare tunes that did see release . . . . Godley & Creme were showing off the compositional skills that would be the hallmark of their later work . . . . The pair were also well on their way to perfecting their vocal blend . . . . If there’s a difference . . . it’s in the absence of their pointed satiric wit, and a gentler melodic style more beholden to folk and pop-psych and lacking the splendid and shameless hooks that would reinforce the jokes on 10cc’s albums. . . . [T]his is fine and imaginative pop with a psychedelic edge . . . a splendid look at the juvenilia of one of the most fascinating partnerships in British rock.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/frabjous-days-the-secret-world-of-godley-creme-1967-1969-mw0003721503

Dave Thompson adds:

Kevin Godley, a former member of Graham Gouldman’s Mockingbirds, and Lol Crème, once Godley’s bandmate in the early-’60s group the Sabres. . . . had studied for diplomas in graphic design . . . . [B[y the end of 1968, the pair were making demos . . . . Gouldman . . . was working as a session man at Giorgio Gomelsky’s Marmalade label, and one day asked Godley to join him at a session. Gomelsky took one listen to Godley’s ethereal falsetto and promptly offered him and Crème a deal. As Frabjoy and the Runcible Spoon, the duo began work on an album in September 1969. Basic tracks were recorded at Gouldman and Mindbender Eric Stewart’s own Strawberry Studios, with that pair as backing musicians. A single, “I’m Beside Myself,” appeared in early 1969, while another track from the sessions, “To Fly Away,” appeared on Marmalade’s 100% Proof label sampler . . . . Unfortunately, Marmalade folded only shortly after this pair of releases and the Frabjoy album was abandoned. . . . [T]he quartet returned to Strawberry to set in motion the sequence of events which would, three years later, see them emerge as 10cc.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/frabjoy-the-runcible-spoon-mn0001919409

* As Lol Crème put it: “Giorgio ran out of money, and out of people who were prepared to lend him more, and the whole thing fizzled out[.] But we did get the single out of it, and that tot us a few radio plays.” (liner notes to Frabjous Days: The Secret World of Godley and Creme 1967-1969).

Godley and Creme’s pre-10cc Band Hotlegs did release a version of “Today” in ‘71:

Here is a version they released as coming from the band Festival, which was “one of the many aliases 10cc used, in order so that they could release a bunch of tunes on different labels”. (Mr. Bashpop, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYrs4OkiVWk):

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Thomas and Richard Frost — “Where Are We”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 29, 2023

“Where Are We” starts at the 16:00 mark

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

967) Thomas and Richard Frost — “Where Are We”

From another contender for the greatest lost album of the 1960’s — Thomas and Richard Frost’s (actually Thomas and Richard Martin) psychedelic classic Visualize (see #209, 211, 247, 385, 595, 775). “Where Are We” is another stellar cut — “a twee ballad that could be right off of the latest Belle and Sebastian album” (Patrick, https://johnkatsmc5.tumblr.com/post/163800724834/thomas-and-richard-frost-visualize-1969-70-us). Richard Frost recalled it to be a “Paul Simon influenced tune. [It[ was a song Tom and I could reproduce well in concert, since it’s clearly an acoustic guitar driven number.” (liner notes to the CD “re”issue of Visualize)

Alec Palao says that“[t]he unreleased album Visualize . . . taken with its attendant singles . . . is a sparkling and heartwarming gem of late 1960s pop”. (http://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2013/12/thomas-and-richard-frost-visualize-1969.html?m=1) Palao gives some background:

[T]he thundering mod sound of the Martins power trio Powder; whose own LP, recorded while the group was based in Los Angeles and employed as Sonny & Cher’s road band, remained frustratingly unissued, and indeed acted as a precursor to the creation of the masterpiece [Visualize]. [A]fter the Powder debacle, the Martins returned to northern California to lick their wounds and demo some more introspective material. . . . [Their] innate . . . pop sensibility lingered in new compositions like “She’s Got Love” [see #211]. It was to be the latter tune that caught the ear of promo man John Antoon, who signed the Martins to his . . . publishing imprint, assumed managerial duties and got the duo signed to Imperial Records under the nom de disque Thomas & Richard Frost. As a single, the simple, catchy “She’s Got Love” was to achieve a modicum of success as a turntable hit, reaching only the lower half of the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1969, but with strong regional airplay across the country, upon the back of which the Frosts were able to tour. Back in LA, Rich and Tom made the scene with their pals Rodney Bingenheimer and Frank Zinn, enjoying a brief but eye-opening spell as bona fide pop stars. Plans were big for the Frosts, with a full, lavishly orchestrated, album release, but it was all to fall apart as the follow-up singles stiffed and parent label Liberty/UA decided to wind down Imperial.

The proceedings are imbued with the Zeitgeist of Los Angeles in its last throes of pop innocence, and the Martins heart-on-their-sleeve Anglophilic sensitivity is less derivative then remarkably refreshing, with superbly recorded arrangements that any late 1960s pop fan will cherish.
http://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2013/12/thomas-and-richard-frost-visualize-1969.html?m=1

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I Shall Be Released: The Action — “Climbing Up the Wall”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 28, 2023

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

966) The Action — “Climbing Up the Wall”

Here is a “[w]onderful track [– y]ou can hear the acid being dropped” (Dean Swift, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIZvFj8DBUM) from another top contender for the greatest lost album of the 60’s (see #393, 429). Matthew Sweet calls the album that never was “melodic mayhem … fueled by an emerging psychedelia … approached with a spirt of abandon” (liner notes to the Rolled Gold CD comp). It came from “[a] mod band made up of genuine mods” (Andrew Sandoval, liner notes to the Rolled Gold) that changed with the times. As guitarist lan King recalled:

Gone were the days of the pill-popping mods who seemed to rave all night long. Different drugs came onto the music scene . . . so attitudes and passions changed. We were no exception. We began to experiment with new ideas, writing songs even, which was very exciting. We wanted to play our own stuff, instead of doing covers all the time.”
liner notes to Rolled Gold

As to the album, Matt Collar says:

The term “lost classic” is applied liberally and often erroneously to unreleased recordings that resurface years later in a maelstrom of hype. However, for . . . the Action, the term is not only justified, it is painfully bittersweet. . . . [This] goes beyond “lost classic” — it is the influential masterpiece no one was ever allowed to hear. . . . By the time they recorded [Rolled Gold‘s] demo tracks in 1967, the band had grown weary of the musically limited mod scene, which was on its last legs. . . . Prefiguring the coming psychedelic movement, the songs were epic, heartfelt, melodic socks to the gut . . . think The Who’s Tommy meets The Byrds’ Fifth Dimension. Unbelievably, EMI — AIR’s distributor — was not interested, and the tracks were shelved. . . . Playing like the brilliant missing link between mod and psychedelic rock, [it] is experimental without being silly or twee and emotionally mature without being pompous and boring. . . . [Some t]racks . . . are as good, if not better, than anything that charted during the late ’60s . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/album/rolled-gold-mw0000661275

As to the Action, Bruce Eder tells us:

In the mid-’60s, the Action had a strong grassroots following among British mods. But despite the support of George Martin, they never managed anything close to a hit record. The Action were the most soul-oriented of the mod groups, favoring guitar-oriented covers of Motown tunes and R&B dance numbers of the day . . . . Martin’s production put the emphasis on Reg King’s impressive vocals and the group’s high vocal harmonies, in the process getting a unique sound. . . . The Action changed members and their sound as the decade progressed, and were reborn as Mighty Baby. The band started out in North London during 1963 as quartet called the Boys . . . . [who] went out of existence in 1964, but didn’t split up, instead reconfiguring themselves as a five-piece. . . . the Action. [T]hey developed a tougher, harder sound that quickly made them favorites among mod audiences. The Action had a sound similar to the Small Faces . . . . They were discovered by George Martin, who signed them to his newly founded AIR Productions in 1965 and got them a recording deal at Parlophone Records . . . . The Action debuted with an excellent single of “Land of a 1000 Dances” b/w “In My Lonely Room,” which failed to make the charts despite being an irresistible dance number and lovely ballad respectively, performed with genuine flair and inspiration, not to mention an authentic white soul sound from Reg King that was as credible as anything emanating from England at the time. The Action’s second single, “I’ll Keep on Holding On” . . . released in early 1966, was just as good . . . as their first, but saw no greater chart success. The Action maintained a serious following among the mods . . . but they couldn’t get a break with their records and were unable to get the exposure that would have bumped them to the next level. . . . [B]y late 1966 and early 1967, they were doing smooth soul-styled material . . . . [and] by mid-1967 the[y] had evolved . . . into a progressive folk-rock-based sound . . . . Though Martin still supported the music the Action were making, their lack of success meant that AIR could no longer keep them on the label and they were let go in 1967. They . . . soon were back in the studio cutting a new batch of songs that were all composed by the band and featured a heavier, more psychedelic sound. They sent the tape around to various labels, but were unable to drum up enough interest to sign a deal. . . . Reg King subsequently left the band to pursue a solo career, and . . . the outfit that remained, rechristened Azoth. . . . They eventually transformed themselves into a pure psychedelic outfit, Mighty Baby . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-action-mn0000029067/biography

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Nick Garrie — “The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 27, 2023

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

965) Nick Garrie — “The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas”

From Nick Garrie (see also #3, 19, 41, 65, 104, 137, 245, 362, 493, 871), here is the haunting and majestic title track of The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas, another top contender for the greatest lost album of the 60’s. If Nick’s French record company’s owner hadn’t committed suicide on the eve of Stanislas’s release, who knows what might have been. Stunning songs — I was transfixed the first time I heard them and I have been a huge fan of Nick and his music ever since. My wife indulged me when I turned 50 and we made a pilgrimage to Gstaad, Switzerland to meet Nick and hear him perform at a ski lodge. He tried to teach me to ski properly, but told my wife I was a lost cause! Oh, and I later learned that Madonna was in Gstaad at the same time!

John Clarkson writes:

Nick Garrie’s 1969 album, ‘The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas’, is now seen to be a psychedelic folk/pop masterpiece. It has, however, only recently gained this reputation and for over thirty five years was largely unheard. The son of a Russian father and Scottish mother, Garrie’s early years were divided between Paris, where his Egyptian stepfather worked as a diplomat, and Norwich, where he attended a boarding school. He recorded ‘The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas’ at the age of twenty in Paris with Eddie Vartan, who was a then fashionable French producer and the brother of the actress Sylvie Vartan. Garrie originally intended the album to have a sparser sound, but when he turned up at the studio on the first day of recording he found that Vartan had employed a 56-piece orchestra to expand on his more tender arrangements. The finished result is a compelling oddity and merges together Garrie’s wistful melodies and often abstract lyrics with Vartan’s colourfully extravagant orchestrations. It is . . . much deserved of the cult status it has since come to gain. Lucien Morrisse, the owner of Disc AZ, Garrie’s record label, committed suicide before ‘The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas’ was ever released and for years it languished in obscurity, eventually starting to attract fan interest when tracks from it began to leak onto the internet. . . . only finally s[eeing] official release when it came out on CD on Rev-Ola Records in 2004. . . .
https://pennyblackmusic.co.uk/Home/Details?id=18614

Here are excerpts from a vintage interview (2010) that Clarkson conducted with Nick:

JC: What did you feel troubled about when you were writing ‘Stanislas’?

NG: I wrote most of it when I was between nineteen and twenty. I was at Warwick University at the time, but I had spent so much of my life living in France that I had been called up for the French army as a national. Although I was eventually released from it, for a year I couldn’t go in to France and so I was essentially homeless.

. . . .

JC: The suicide of Lucien Morrisse led to ‘The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas’ remaining unheard for over three decades. Even before he died, you, however, imply again in your autobiography that Disc AZ didn’t know quite what to do with you and how to promote you. Do you think that too was a factor in ‘Stanislas’ remaining undiscovered for so long?

NG: Absolutely, because it was never released at all. It was not as if it came out. No one ever heard it. I would go in to see them. We would talk about it. They would say that it would be in the shops next month and it never was. It went on like that for about six months, at the end of which I had had enough. To be honest as well at that stage I didn’t really like it much either. I didn’t like the arrangements, so after his suicide I gave a couple of copies to my stepfather and for me it was finished. I didn’t listen to it again or even really talk about much for years.

JC: How do you think it stands up now? Do you like it better?

NG: I do like it now, but I still don’t hear it through everybody’s ears. I have had a lot of correspondence with people who really love it, people from all over the world who say how much it has moved them, so it seems a bit churlish to say now that I didn’t really like it. They were songs, however, that I didn’t really recognise at the recording stage and again for a long time afterwards. . . .

JC: There is the story about Eddie Varden introducing you to a fifty six piece orchestra which you didn’t know about until you turned up at the studio. What did you expect the songs to sound like? Were they going to be just you and your acoustic guitar or were they going to involve a band?

NG: . . . . I knew that it wouldn’t be my guitar work because I wasn’t a good enough guitarist. I am still not, but I suspected that would be the basis of it. The first song that I started recording was ‘Stanislas’. I had no idea that was what we were playing though. [Eddie] would shove me in the booth and prompt me when and what I had to sing. He was using these mainly classical musicians who were all wearing cardigans and who didn’t think much of me anyway because I was a pop artist. But having said that he was really, really nice and was in many a sort of uncle or father figure to me.

JC: It seems that you had quite an odd relationship with him really because at one level he was very praising and told you that he thought that you would be the next Bob Dylan, but at another level he would do something like that and not tell you what was going on.

NG: I realised years afterwards that it was a terrific investment for them, this orchestra playing for two weeks with this guy who completely unknown completely unknown. I just never expected it and didn’t feel in a position to say very much about it. I think as well that it was just the way it was in those days. . . .

JC: How did ‘The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas’ gain it audience? Do you know?

NG: I had just started teaching when I found out about it. I had done a PGCE course late in life and I typed in Nick Garrie as a joke because I hadn’t used the name since ‘Stanislas’ and I couldn’t believe it when there was all these pages on it. I don’t know for sure, but I believe there was a company called Acid Ray who were in Korea and they must have bootlegged some tapes as they put out a compilation album called ‘Band Caruso’ with ‘Wheel of Fortune’ on it. I think that was the first thing on the web and it did quite well, so that is probably how the name got about. Things went from there.
https://pennyblackmusic.co.uk/Home/Details?id=18614

Here is a demo:

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Billy Nicholls — “Daytime Girl”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 26, 2023

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

964) Billy Nicholls — “Daytime Girl”

The glorious B-side side to “Would You Believe” (see #2) “sounds like it should have been a top of the pops classic record” “that would have fit perfectly on The Zombies’ Odyssey and Oracle”. (https://johnkatsmc5.tumblr.com/post/180490928324/billy-nicholls-would-you-believe-1968-mega-rare/amp).

“Girl” is also on one of, if not the, greatest “lost” albums of the ’60’s — Billy Nicholls’ Would You Believe (see #2, 64, 144, 428, 757). As David Wells says, “lost classic is a much abused term amongst pop historians, but it’s difficult to know how else to describe Would You Believe.” (Record Collector: 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records: High Times and Strange Tales from Rock’s Most Mind-Blowing Era) Euphorik6 is spot on in observing that the “album is a distillation of a time – whatever made swinging London swing is captured in these tracks” (https://johnkatsmc5.tumblr.com/post/180490928324/billy-nicholls-would-you-believe-1968-mega-rare/amp), as is Rising Storm in observing that “the album is still the epitome of sixties Britsike, a bunch of fine acid-pop songs rendered with glorious harmonies and superb lysergic arrangements that wouldn’t have disgraced George Martin.” (https://johnkatsmc5.tumblr.com/post/180490928324/billy-nicholls-would-you-believe-1968-mega-rare/amp). As Graham Reid notes, “[t]he album . . . reminds again of how much British psychedelic music was driven by different traditions (brass bands, pastoral classical music, music hall singalongs, strings . . .) than electric guitars which were so prominent in America at the time.” (https://www.elsewhere.co.nz/weneedtotalkabout/8107/we-need-to-talk-about-billy-nicholls-would-you-believe-care-for-pet-sounds-inna-english-accent-g). And as MusicStack says. “this soundtrack to a Swinging London that never was contains songs so great ([including] “Feeling Easy[]”. . . . ) you’ll swear you’ve heard them before.” (https://www.musicstack.com/album/billy+nicholls/would+you+believe)

Rising Storm explains that:

When [Andrew Loog] Oldham fell out with the Stones in 1967 he redirected all his resources into making the youthful Nicholls a star of the psychedelic pop scene. The results were the single “Would You Believe”, which hit the racks in January 1968, and the like-titled album that followed in short order. The single has been described as “the most over-produced record of the sixties”, and with reason; a modest psych-pop love song, it’s swathed in overblown orchestration including baroque strings, harpsichord, banjo (!), tuba (!!), and demented answer-back vocals from Steve Marriott. A trifle late for the high tide of UK psych, it failed to trouble the charts. Unfazed, Oldham and Nicholls pressed on with the album, Nicholls providing a steady stream of similarly well-crafted ditties and a bevy of top-rated London sessionmen providing the backings . . . . The album was ready for pressing just as the revelation of Oldham’s reckless financial overstretch brought about Immediate’s overnight demise, and only about a hundred copies ever made it to wax . . . .
https://johnkatsmc5.tumblr.com/post/180490928324/billy-nicholls-would-you-believe-1968-mega-rare/amp

In words that I could have written myself, John Katsmc5 notes that “[i]t’s an absolute tragedy that this never got released, as it would DEFINITELY be hailed now as a solid gold true 60’s classic right up there with Pet Sounds, Blonde On Blonde . . . .”

It all come back to Pet Sounds. Oldham himself explains:

Pet Sounds changed my life for the better. It enhanced the drugs I was taking and made life eloquent and bearable during those times I set down in London and realised I was barely on speaking terms with those who lived in my home and understood them even less when they spoke – that’s when Brian Wilson spoke for me. My internal weather had been made better for the costs of two sides of vinyl.
2 Stoned

David Wells explains that:

[Oldham] was desperate to create a British corollary to the American harmony pop sound of the Beach Boys and the Mamas & Papas, and his nurturing of many Immediate acts only makes sense when considered from this perspective. But many of the label’s early signings . . . were merely pale imitations of the American model, copycat acts rather than originators who were further hamstrung by a lack of songwriting talent. And then along comes Billy Nicholls — a superb singer, gifted songwriter and as green as the Mendip hills. Oldham . . . quickly latched onto the manipulative possibilities. [H]e could turn his back on cutting unconvincing facsimiles of Brian Wilson tunes in order to mastermind his own three-minute pocket symphonies. Fired up by this grand conceit, Oldham commandeered the Nicholls sessions, recreating the American harmony pop sound in a resolutely English setting courtesy of a string of virtuosos production techniques, multi-layered harmonies and plenty of Wilsonesque baroque instrumentation. . . . [The album] can be see both as a magnificent achievement and an outrageous folly — how . . . Oldham thought he could recoup the budget that he’d bestown on the album is anyone’s guess.
liner notes to the CD “re”-issue of Would You Believe

Nicholls himself observed that “Andrew had a great belief in the songs I was writing . . . and fortunately we had Andrew’s money to spend fortunes on the orchestration.” (liner notes to the CD reissue)

Oh, if you would like to have the original vinyl, I found a copy online — for $15,000!(https://www.rockaway.com/nicholls-billy/billy-nicholls-would-you-believe-immediate-lp-32801)

Here is the song’s coda on the LP:

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Ann Benson — “High Flying Bird”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 25, 2023

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

963) Ann Benson — “High Flying Bird”

A shattering version of the folk/folk rock classic by an almost wholly unknown singer (her sole album from ’69 saw “[o]nly 500 copies” pressed). (Showery Records, https://www.discogs.com/release/6720660-Ann-Benson-High-Flying-Bird) Many who love Ann Benson’s performance have bemoaned the lack of any available information about her, as when Tony G. pleaded on March 1, 2015, that:

I fell in love a few years back with an album called High Flying Bird by Ann Benson. It was released in 1969 on the Aspen label (most likely a private pressing.). I am enamored by it. My search has proved fruitless on finding information on Ms. Benson. What happened to this beautiful voice? Anyone have any history on Benson?!?
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=156581

Ah, the joys of poking around the internet. Tony G’s note appeared on the Mudcat Cafe, an online folksong database and forum (mudcat.org). Well, a month later, on April 12, Dave Ross responded that “Ann Benson is alive and well, and still sings (and plays guitar) for friends. She lives in Portola Valley, CA. I just got home from a delightful concert put on by Ann and her life & musical partner, Iris Harrell.” (https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=156581)

And then, on April 30, Ann Benson herself responded! From her posts, I offer you:

April 30: “I’m fairly gobsmacked that anyone still has the record I made in 1969, much less that they’re still listening to it. . . . First of all, I’d like to invite you to a little concert at the Ladera Community Church on Alpine Road in Portola Valley next Saturday, May 7 at 7:30 (it’s kind of a small venue, so please get there by 7 pm to get a good seat). Our band More Joy plays folkish, countryish music: Paula on violin/fiddle, Spike on bass & guitar, Ginger on keyboards, me on guitar and voice, and Iris on voice. Iris and I live now in Santa Rosa, but our band is still down on the Peninsula, so we sing two concerts a year, for now, in Portola Valley. Our second concert will be at 7:30 on Oct. 8 at the same venue. . . . Thank you for your interest in my music; I’m very grateful.”

May 1: “Thanks for asking about releasing High Flying Bird onto CD. I hadn’t though of that, but I have the master somewhere in storage, and if it’s still viable, we could think about it. Don’t know how much it would cost, and I can’t imagine that there’s a big audience. But when I go through the boxes we’ll see… . The theme of the songs on our band’s current concert is “Peace begins at home.” . . . After High Flying Bird, I didn’t make any other records. Life happened, and actually we haven’t much done any music for the last 30 years. So it’s way fun to get back to it after all these years.”

June 8: “I guess in 1969 I was listening to the usual suspects: Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot, Ian and Sylvia, Buffy Saint Marie, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Eric Andersen, Frummox, Willis Alan Ramsey, The Limelighters, and others whose names I don’t remember. I think I got the song “High Flying Bird” from Judy Henske.”
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=156581

Then, I happened upon an August 13, 2008, story from The Almanac, a Menlo Park/Atherton/Portola Valley/Woodside California paper — “30-year engagement for Iris Harrell, Ann Benson”:

After almost 30 years together, Iris and Ann are preparing to get married. On Sept. 7, they will marry at Ladera Community Church, and then their home will fill with more than 150 guests for the wedding reception. . . . “We’ve always said, in our lifetime we’d like to be able to get married. In our lifetime,” Ann says. Now they finally can: This past May, the California Supreme Court ruled that gay couples could marry. They were married once before. In 2004, when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered the city to start issuing marriage licenses to gay couples, they were among the 4,000 couples who dropped everything to rush to the city hall. They waited in line two days before getting married. Ann said she found it so moving, she cried the whole way through. A year later, the state Supreme Court ruled that the mayor had overstepped his authority, and all of those marriages were annulled. This time, with the Supreme Court squarely behind the marriages, they’re hoping they can stay married.
https://www.almanacnews.com/news/2008/08/13/30-year-engagement-for-iris-harrell-ann-benson

Ann relates in the story that:

“I came out at 18[] . . . . It was in the ’60s, and in the South. [If parents or neighbors found out you were gay] the least that you’d get is kicked out of college, and maybe out of your own family. And that still happens. But also, it was not unusual for you to be committed and have electroshock, if not lobotomy — I’m not kidding. This is what happened. There was no community — you thought you were the only one, and you’re just as homophobic as anybody, because that’s how you were raised. That’s our legacy, and you have to undo that for yourself. Which gives me a lot of compassion for straight people who really don’t get it, because that’s how I was raised, too. I didn’t get it either until I came out. And then, for me, it was totally natural. It’s who I was.”
https://www.almanacnews.com/news/2008/08/13/30-year-engagement-for-iris-harrell-ann-benson

Unjustly obscure artists from the 60’s are/were real people and have/had real lives! They are/were not mythical, mysterious, shadowy, objects of veneration. Well, not just mythical, mysterious, shadowy, objects of veneration!

At least 25 versions of the Billy Edd Wheeler composition “High Flying Bird” have been recorded. (https://secondhandsongs.com/work/134166/all) Richie Unterberger writes that:

“High Flying Bird,” in addition to being a great folk-based song, is a pivotal song in the birth and history of folk-rock. As heard in its original version, as recorded by Judy Henske around late 1963 for her early 1964 High Flying Bird album, there is no other song recorded prior to early 1964 that so much anticipates the sound of folk-rock. It would make its way into the repertoire of numerous early folk-rockers as well, though the first version remains the most powerful. Henske was known primarily as a folk singer when she recorded this as part of her second album, but with a full band backup, the arrangement came close to rock. . . . The brooding, minor-keyed melody of “High Flying Bird” is ideally complemented by a lyric juxtaposing the soaring flight of a bird with the nailed-to-the-ground despondency of the narrator, so broken up over a failed affair that she sounds on the verge of wishing for death to put her out of her misery. . . . “High Flying Bird” was worthy of being a hit single, but wasn’t, perhaps in part to Elektra Records’ non-presence in the 45 market at the time. Several other acts, usually in the folk-rock camp, would record “High Flying Bird” later in the 1960s, but somehow it never did get to be a hit. Among those who tried were the Jefferson Airplane, the Au Go Go Singers (with a pre-Buffalo Springfield Stephen Stills on lead vocal), the We Five, Richie Havens, Carolyn Hester, and H.P. Lovecraft. Of these versions, the Jefferson Airplane’s is certainly the most well known, although it wasn’t released until the 1970s, years after they had recorded it at one of their first sessions in late 1965. . . . Although the 1964 version by the Au Go Go Singers, a folk group with the pre-Buffalo Springfield Stephen Stills and Richie Furay, is obscure, it’s actually pretty good. . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/song/high-flying-bird-mt0030350843

Here is Judy Henske:

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The Bee Gees — “You’ll Never See My Face Again”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 24, 2023

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

962) The Bee Gees — “You’ll Never See My Face Again”

An achingly beautiful song from the ’69 double LP Odessa. As Todd Totale says, “throughout the double record, the Gibbs incorporate elements of chamber-pop, progressive rock, psychedelia, and country-rock all woven together with their unmistakable harmonies. It’s a glorious ride . . . .” (https://gloriousnoise.com/2008/bee_gees_odessa) Indeed it is. Bob Stanley notes that “in 1969, while others were paring back and amping up, the Gibb brothers were building a wall of sound that owed more to Edward Elgar than Phil Spector, let alone Muddy Waters.” (https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12655-odessa/) God bless the boys for doing that and giving us these songs.

Seth K:

[Odessa is] one of the trippiest, most complex examples of soft AM pop ever. While the band’s first three albums experimented with arrangements and were ambitious in their own right, Odessa shows The Bee Gees at their most far-reaching. With tentative titles such as Masterpeace and An American Opera, there’s no doubt they were thinking about the album as a whole, not just songs and singles. . . . [with] incredible songwriting, and a “This is our album and we’ll do whatever the f*ck we want” sort of approach . . . . Although their previous records shared a melancholic undercurrent, there are moments in Odessa that are downright devastating, forever raising the bar for sad music.
https://www.tinymixtapes.com/delorean/bee-gees-odessa

Bruce Eder adds:

The group members may disagree for personal reasons, but Odessa is easily the best and most enduring of the Bee Gees’ albums of the 1960s. It was also their most improbable success, owing to the conflicts behind its making. The project started out as a concept album . . . but musical differences between Barry and Robin Gibb that would split the trio in two also forced the abandonment of the underlying concept. Instead, it became a double LP — largely at the behest of their manager and the record labels; oddly enough, given that the group didn’t plan on doing something that ambitious, Odessa is one of perhaps three double albums of the entire decade . . . that don’t seem stretched, and it also served as the group’s most densely orchestrated album. . . . The myriad sounds and textures made Odessa the most complex and challenging album in the group’s history . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/album/odessa-mw0000192945

Barry Gibb himself, in conversation with Alexis Petridis, says:

“I think Odessa was an attempt to do a rock opera[] . . . It sort of turned itself into a bit of a mish mash, but our intentions were honourable. I think we wanted to do something that could be put on stage. There was supposed to be a thematic thing going on[] . . . but it just kind of wandered off into the distance.” [It was] completed amid such acrimony that Robin left the band weeks after its release. Then the album flopped, plunging the band into further turmoil. “For four years we couldn’t get arrested,” says Gibb, of a period during which the band split up, reformed and found themselves reduced to playing supper clubs. “It was a really, really disturbing time when we knew we were good, but no one wanted to listen.” . . .

Perhaps the public’s muted response to Odessa is unsurprising. The Bee Gees were a weird band even by the standards of the late 60s. Their output zigzagged wildly between intense ballads destined to become standards . . . and baroque pop-psychedelia with imponderable lyrics . . . . But no record encapsulated the Gibb brothers’ majestically skewed pop vision like Odessa, which amid the usual gorgeously orchestrated heartbreak, featured mock national anthems, country and western and a title track that . . . [included] harps, flamenco guitars, mock-Gregorian chanting, a burst of Baa Baa Black Sheep, lyrics about icebergs and vicars and emigrating to Finland. Quite what Odessa’s concept was supposed to be remains a mystery, but it’s the kind of album you listen to rapt, baffled as to what’s going to happen next.

Gibb thinks Odessa’s weirdness had less to do with the era’s psychedelic excesses than the peculiarities of the brothers’ upbringing. “Our music became so speckled because we had all these insane influences from growing up in Australia . . . it was a pop scene unto itself. Then we were five weeks at sea going to Australia, five weeks at sea coming back. We’d been inside the pyramids, been to India, up the Suez Canal, in the Sahara Desert. . . . By the time we arrived back in England, we’d had all these unusual cultural influences pounded into us. I really think that has a lot to do with our songwriting, these strange songs, unusual lyrics and abstractions.”
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/jan/30/bee-gees-odessa-forgotten-album

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The In-Keepers — “The Cobweb Threads of Autumn”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 23, 2023

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

961) The In-Keepers — “The Cobweb Threads of Autumn”

Here is a song appropriate for the first day of autumn, a ’69 B-side that is “a baroque sunshine pop psych wonder” (happening45, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcRoOjECQQM), a “[p]erfect hippy trippy song” (rogbrown1458, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkZ-GYiFP7s), an “[i]nteresting combo of sunshine pop, strings and a touch of psych”. (thomassmith8721, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loQUodZLxpA)

Almost nothing is known about the In-Keepers, unless someome wants to tell me! Forumuser does tell us that:

This band consisted of some of the members of “The Swingin Six”. I know two of their names: John Summerville & Steve Burnett. I believe they later went on to become a band called “The Open Road”.
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/anyone-familiar-with-the-late-60s-band-the-in-keepers.142936/

Burnett was in the Swingin Six, a folk group that put out an album in ’67 (https://www.discogs.com/artist/4820920-The-Swingin-Six) A band called the Open Road did release a folk rock album in ’71 (https://www.discogs.com/artist/790218-Open-Road-2). But neither Burnett nor Summerville are listed as members.

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Lulu — “Take Me in Your Arms and Love Me”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 22, 2023

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

960) Lulu — “Take Me in Your Arms and Love Me”

Here is Lulu’s fantastic version of Gladys Knight and the Pips’ ’67 A-side (written by Cornelius Grant, Rodger Penzabene and Barrett Strong). The GKP version only reached #98 in the U.S., but ascended to #13 in the UK (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladys_Knight_%26_the_Pips#Top_Twenty_singles), which may explain why Lulu covered it.

Vernon Joynson says that “Lulu had a great R&B voice and must have grimaced at some of the material she had to record with Mickie Most.” (The Tapestry of Delights Revisited). Well, maybe that’s true for “Boom Bang-a-Bang”, but her voice and impish charm, and John Paul Jones’ arrangement, take “Take Me” into the stratosphere.

As to Lulu, Mark Deming tells us:

In the United States, Lulu is often thought of as a one-hit wonder, having scored a memorable number one hit in 1967 with the bittersweet and evocative “To Sir, With Love” . . . . In the United Kingdom, however, [she] . . . . would become an enduring star in pop music, on television, on-stage, and in the movies . . . . Lulu was born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie . . . in Glasgow, Scotland. . . . After years of competing in talent contests, she was invited to join a local pop group, the Gleneagles, when she was 14. . . . [I]n 1962, the group was spotted by Marion Massey, who saw potential in the combo, in particular their charismatic lead singer. Massey became their manager, changed Marie’s stage name to Lulu, and dubbed the band the Luvvers. In 1964, Massey landed a recording deal for the group with Decca Records, and Lulu & the Luvvers’ first single, an enthusiastic cover of the Isley Brothers’ “Shout,” was a hit, rising to number seven on the U.K. singles charts. More chart successes followed . . . along with a steady stream of television, radio, and concert appearances that led to Melody Maker magazine naming Lulu Britain’s most promising new act of 1965. In 1966, Lulu . . . made her debut as a solo act. She signed a record deal with Columbia Records (the British label affiliated with EMI), struck a production deal with Mickie Most (best known for his work with the Animals, Donovan, and Jeff Beck), and set out on several concert tours . . . . In 1967, Lulu made her big-screen debut in the coming-of-age drama To Sir, With Love, in which she played . . . a student who learns important lessons about maturity and self-respect from teacher Sidney Poitier. The film became a hit in the U.K. and the U.S., and Lulu’s emotional reading of the theme song rose to the top of the American pop charts . . . . In the U.K., “The Boat I Row,” “Let’s Pretend,” and “Love Loves to Love, Love” were all major hits that year. . . . In 1968, Lulu became the star of her own television series . . . which aired . . . until 1975 — and scored more hit singles in the U.K. with “Me the Peaceful Heart,” “Boy,” and “I’m a Tiger.” In 1969, she made news when she wed Maurice Gibb . . , though the marriage would only last four years. Lulu also represented England in the Eurovision Song Contest that year, and her song, “Boom Bang-a-Bang,” not only won the competition for England but became a major U.K. hit, peaking at number two on the sales charts.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/lulu-mn0000321321/biography

Here are Gladys Knight and the Pips:

Here is Cilla Black:

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Johnny and Jackey — “Someday We’ll Be Together”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 21, 2023

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

959) Johnny and Jackey — “Someday We’ll Be Together”

In ’61, “the Detroit duo of Johnny Bristol and Jackey Beavers . . . had a modest regional hit with a sprightly [and fantastic] R&B tune called ‘Someday We’ll Be Together.’ . . .”(https://theboombox.com/diana-ross-supremes-someday-well-be-together/) As 1969 drew to a close, Diana Ross and the Supremes “scintillating remake” (Andrew Hamilton, https://www.allmusic.com/album/cream-of-the-crop-mw0000205513) became their last A-side and last #1.

Bryan Wawzenek explains:

Eight years earlier, back when the Supremes were still the Primettes, the Detroit duo of Johnny Bristol and Jackey Beavers . . . had a modest regional hit with a sprightly R&B tune called ‘Someday We’ll Be Together.’ . . . By [1969], Beavers had moved on to Chicago’s Checker (Chess) Records, but Bristol made his mark at Motown, producing big hits for Edwin Starr, Gladys Knight and Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. In the summer of ’69, Bristol was reworking ‘Someday We’ll Be Together’ for Jr. Walker & the All-Stars, maintaining the original’s hypnotic guitar hook while adding strings, via the Detroit Symphony, and soaring backing vocals that sweetened the chorus. After Bristol had the track nearly completed, Gordy happened to hear it and decided that it should instead become Diana Ross’s debut solo single. The label head requested that Bristol bring Ross in to record a lead part as soon as possible. Ross took a few runs at the vocal, but for whatever reason, the magic wasn’t happening. Bristol later said, “Diana wasn’t in the greatest of moods. I suggested to Mr. Gordy that I go in the other booth and just sing along with her, just a little soulful thing to kind of help.” With Bristol’s harmonizing and gentle words of encouragement, Ross achieved what the writer-producer had hoped for. The only problem was that the Motown engineer had mistakenly recorded Bristol’s vocal part along with Ross’s. This turned out to be a happy accident, as everyone decided the track was better with Johnny’s contribution . . . . Gordy [then] altered the plans once more. ‘Someday We’ll Be Together’ wouldn’t begin Ross’s solo years, it would become her last single with the Supremes. It didn’t seem to matter that . . . the other Supremes (Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong) weren’t on it at all. . . . Regardless . . . . [it] hit No. 1 . . . . Ross performed the song in her last appearance as a Supreme on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ in December, and it was the last song she sang with Wilson and Birdsong at a Las Vegas farewell show in January, 1970. Gordy got the big send-off he wanted.
https://theboombox.com/diana-ross-supremes-someday-well-be-together/

Songfacts adds that “Johnny Bristol . . . struggled to get the sound he wanted from Ross, so he went into a different vocal booth to augment her, shouting encouragement while she was recording. These exhortations made it onto the final product: That’s him coaching Diana through the song, offering ‘sing it pretty’ and ‘you better’ along the way.” (https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-supremes/-well-be-together)

As to Johnny & Jackey, Andrew Hamilton tells us that:

Johnny Bristol and Robert “Jackey” Beavers enjoyed a five-record career on Gwen Gordy and Billy “Roquel” Davis’ . . . Anna Records and Gwen and Harvey Fuqua’s Tri-Phi label. Bristol . . . met Beavers . . . when the Air Force transferred him to Fort Custer in Battle Creek, MI, where Beavers was stationed. After competing with each other in Air Force talent shows, the two singer/songwriters decided to form a musical duo. Battle Creek was home to the El Grotto Lounge, a rocking, bucket-of-blood establishment where Junior Walker & the All Stars performed as the house band. Johnny & Jackey progressed from talent shows to cash money gigs at the El Grotto, backed by the All Stars, and were discovered by Gwen Gordy, who signed them . . . and became their manager. [Two] single[s were] released in . . . 1960. . . . [but] only got local recognition . . . . Anna dissolved when Davis left to form Check Mate Records, encouraged to do so when Gwen Gordy switched her affections from him to Harvey Fuqua. Gwen Gordy and Fuqua started Tri-Phi & Harvey Records and Johnny & Jackey went along. Their first Tri-Phi single, “Carry Your Own Load” (1961), received more exposure than previous singles, but never charted very high . . . . “Someday We’ll Be Together,” released January 1962, lacked a full-blown promotional effort but got some play in surrounding states. . . . [T]he duo performed at bars and venues in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Pennsylvania . . . . “Someday” sold millions when Bristol cut it using Diana Ross & the Supremes; Beavers co-wrote it with Bristol and Fuqua. The final Johnny & Jackey single, the groovy “Baby Dontcha Worry,” did little; Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell later recorded it on one of their albums [see #940]. . . . [When] Gwen and Harvey Fuqua fold[ed] and thr[e]w in with Motown. . . . [t]he duo became Motown artists and songwriters by default; Bristol stayed but Beavers left, opting to try his luck with Roquel, who was now Chess Records’ A&R director. Bristol started writing and producing with Fuqua for the Spinners, but really hit his stride on Gaye and Terrell’s first album, Edwin Starr’s “25 Miles,” David Ruffin’s “My Whole World Was Empty (The Moment You Left Me),” and Diana Ross & the Supremes monster. Bristol . . . married Iris Gordy, Barry Gordy’s niece. But when dissension with Motown began (Johnny wanted to sing) and his marriage hit the skids, he left, divorced his wife, and started producing acts like Tavares and singing again. . . . He scored his biggest solo success when “Hang on in There Baby” assaulted both the R&B and the pop charts. Initially, Beavers’ move to Chess appeared promising, and he enjoyed his biggest single, “Sling Shot,” on Checker Records. But the deal was short-lived and he moved on to record for a string of labels with little success. While flops, they’re valued Northern soul items, including “Come Back My Love” on Nation, “Singing a Funky Song for My Baby” on ZS7, “Bring Me All Your Heartaches” on Grand Land Records, and “We’re Not Too Young to Fall in Love,” credited as the Jackey Beavers Show. . . . [Beavers is] credited with [having written] more than 110 songs . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/johnny-jackey-mn0001271802

Here are the Supremes:

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

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

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The Humane Society — “Eternal Prison”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 20, 2023

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

958) The Humane Society — “Eternal Prison”

This ’68 B-side from a Simi Valley, California garage is “great, dark brooding psych” (liner notes to the Tony the Tyger Presents . . . Fuzz, Flayke,s & Shakes: Vol. 1: 60 Miles High CD comp), a “cryptic quasi-punk monolgue[]” (Alec Palao, liner notes to Where the Action Is: Los Angeles Nuggets 1965-1968 CD comp) Even more far out, “[i]t goes beyond the boundaries of imagination and beyond the Cosmos. Words can’t describe the trip and the journey through other dimensions.” (JoeGongora2200, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhRzCD436wY)

“They’re gonna put you in a prison. They’re gonna leave you without living.”

Jason Ankeny tells us about the Society:

Simi Valley, CA, psych-punks the Humane Society formed in 1965 as the Innocents . . . . [T]he band was discovered . . . while performing on a flatbed truck parked outside a local record store. [Their] debut single, “Tiptoe Through the Tulips With Me” — recorded just prior to Tiny Tim’s smash novelty rendition . . . was a hit in Los Angeles, but it was the flip side, “Knock, Knock,” for which the group is justly celebrated: a savage, disarmingly visceral slab of proto-punk genius . . . . After Liberty rejected a proposed follow-up, the Humane Society landed at New World for their second single, 1968’s “Lorna” [(“Prison” is the B-side), which] received scant attention, and the band dissolved soon after.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-humane-society-mn0000766521/biography

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

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

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

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