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

The Fabulous Four — “Rotten Rats”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 19, 2023

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

957) The Fabulous Four — “Rotten Rats”

’66 “classic fuzz pop” (Nostalgoteket, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=1v0eUUANk1o) — “[t]hat fuzz…. can never get enough!” (eektherigo, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fAFd1G5hlaE&pp=ygUdVGhlIGZhYnVsb3VzIGZvdXIgcm90dGVuIHJhdHM%3D). This song is a cosmic riddle — a band that hit it big with covers of “Puff the Magic Dragon” and other such songs releases an absolute killer fuzz garage A-side. To add to the mystery, they put the songs on the same album. And the ultimate enigma — the band was from Sweden, and their version of “Puff” (which Richie Unterberger calls “awful” (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-fabulous-four-mn0000788637)) was produced by Benny Andersson (see #929), who also played the piano. Yes, ABBA’s Benny Andersson! “Whoa! The wildest garage track to ever come outta Sweden! Obliterating fuzz.” (Popsike.com, https://www.popsike.com/Fabulous-Four-Rotten-Rats-1966-60s-Garage-Fuzz/150575099333.html)

I am far from the only one intrigued. Nostalgoteket writes that “Rotten Rats” “is not representative of . . . Fabulous Four . . . . This is like another band kidnapped them and recorded Rotten Rats for them.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=1v0eUUANk1o) Micke (who owns a record store in Stockholm (Mickes Skivor (Micke’s Discs)) says (courtesy of Google Translate) “Now, it almost sounds like some obscure American garage band from the middle of the decade. . . . It is highly unlikely that it is the same band” as the others on the album. (http://www.mickes-cdvinyl.se/wordpress/2011/01/12/svenska-lp-skivor-91-fabulous-four-after-all/)

As to the Fabulous Four, Micke tells us that:

[T]hey had a couple of slightly soft hits in the years 66-67. . . . Puff The Magic Dragon, Island In The Sun, Rhythm Of The Rain and Don’t Go Out In The Rain were the four songs that the group got to [to the top of the charts] in the span of a year. . . . It’s undeniably difficult to talk away a song – Puff The Magic Dragon – which was number one for three weeks on Tio I Topp. But still . . . four covers of four songs that are pretty boring from the start. Is it a band worth wasting any time on? . . .

[T]hey were a really open and raucous live band; something that only sporadically manifested itself on vinyl and then predominantly on the group’s b-sides. . . . Somewhere in 1966, film producer Janne Haldoff got into the action. At some point, before the guys had their first hit, he had heard the fabs’ song After All and concluded that this gang would fit perfectly as songwriters for the soundtrack of his upcoming film Lifet Är Stenkul, a film about being young around the latter half of the sixties. The boys accepted, Lalla [Hansson] and Uffe Arvidsson sat down behind the writing desk to put together something that would be both good and end up within the frame of the film. . . .

[The band’s album was s]hall we say a fragmented record to say the least . . . . The two-headedness is interspersed with soft ballads performed in a way that makes the Hootenanny Singers appear as a party band. The gravely serious is replaced by turkeys, and game-wise top achievements are interspersed with purely amateur efforts. . . . [I]t is hard when impossible to understand that it is one and the same band that fronts the twelve tracks that make up the record. Sure, variety is fun, but this borders on pure schizophrenia. . . .

The common perception of the Fabs – from those who “were there” – is that the group had hits with covers of well-known songs that did not at all reflect the charisma that the guys displayed live. There are many descriptions that I heard from the group’s perhaps not wild, but obviously loud and heavy gigs in the Stockholm area before they broke through . . . .
http://www.mickes-cdvinyl.se/wordpress/2011/01/12/svenska-lp-skivor-91-fabulous-four-after-all/

Makes the Hootenanny Singers sound like a party band? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!!!

The back cover of the Swedish 45 adds (courtesy of Google Translate):

“Rotten Rats” or “View from Each Garden Window”, as the composers Lalla Hansson and Ulf Arvidsson like to call it, was originally written for Svensk Filmindustri and Jan Halldoff’s feature film “Lifet ar Stenkul”. But when the set was finished, the[y] wanted to release it on disc . . . . [In a deal, Svensk Filmindustria] got “After All” . . . and six more original compositions [in exchange]. The lyrics for “Rotten Rats” were written by the Fabulous Four’s tour manager Urban von Rosen.

Finally, from Svenskpophistoria (courtesy of Google Translate):

Fabulous Four was a pop/rock band from Stockholm. . . . [whose name] was probably inspired by . . . The Beatles . . . . Ulf Arvidsson and Björn Magnusson started the band The Sharks in 1962. Lalla Hansson and Jan Sandelin joined and they changed their name first to The Beatmakers and then to the Fabulous Four. In 1965, the group debuted with the song Boom Boom. Unusually, the Fabulous Four first broke through in Italy with their own song After All from their first and only LP of the same title. The success of After All led to the group being offered to write the film music for the Swedish film director Jan Halldoff’s film Lifet er stenkul. The Fabulous Four themselves appear in the film with a small scene sequence. That same year, in the fall of 1966, the group broke through with Puff (The Magic Dragon), which became the Fabulous Four’s first Top Ten chart hit. The songs on this single are recorded on The Hep Star’s own record label Hep House. The producer is none other than Benny Andersson. He also plays spinet piano on both songs. Island In The Sun, Rhythm Of The Rain and Don’t Go Out Into The Rain were other songs that made it into the Top Ten. In 1968, when the pop wave in Sweden began to ebb, the group disbanded.
https://www.svenskpophistoria.se/FAB/info.html

Here is “Puff”:

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. 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 Beathovens — “Summer Sun”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 18, 2023

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

956) The Beathovens — “Summer Sun”

This ’66 A-side is the one of the greatest moody teen garage rock classics from America’s heartland I have ever heard . . . except that it came from Sweden! Digging for Gold call sit “one of the best Magic 60s Pop songs, EVER!”, and tells us that the band “had a big following in the region [Motala] from where they came, but never really made it in the rest of Sweden”. (liner notes to the Diggin’ for Gold: Vol. 1: A Collection of Demented 60’s R&B/Punk & Mesmerizing 60’s Pop CD comp)

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

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.

Dave Berry — “Champlin House”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 17, 2023

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

955) Dave Berry — “Champlin House”

This autumn ’70 autumnal A-side was written by Godley & Creme who “did the backing, produced it and recorded it”. (barrympls, https://www.45cat.com/record/f13080). The song is “[a]mazingly serious and beautiful” (barrympls, https://www.45cat.com/record/f13080), “sheer magic [which] Dave Berry [see #554, 778, 887] delivers . . . beautifully” (Corporal Clegg, https://www.45cat.com/record/f13080), a “[b]eautifully reflective and melodic slice of art pop . . . unleashed in the UK on Decca in 1970 to no acclaim whatsoever”. (happening45, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWAGwxLYsMY)

Nostalgia Central gives us a grounding:

In 1961 [Berry, born David Holgate Grundy] assumed his stage surname when invited to front The Cruisers . . . . [They] flogged a predominantly Chicago blues repertoire . . . [including] Dave’s idol (and namesake), Chuck Berry. . . . Berry’s big break came when Mickie Most . . . saw him perform . . . and [then] supervised a demo recording session for submission to Decca . . . . [Berry’s] stage presence was almost unclassifiable, and it was not enough for him to simply stand and sing a song. He made a point of appearing from behind pillars (it may take a full five minutes for him to emerge completely) and staring straight ahead while making strange beckoning arm-movements. These abstract hand-ballets would have seemed sinister were it not for the subtle merriment in his oriental eyes. . . . The Crying Game took Berry into the Top Five in September 1964 . . . . [and a] cover of Bobby Goldsboro’s Little Things restored Dave to the UK Top 10, but – apart from a disinclined 1966 recording of the sentimental Mama – this was his last bite of that particular cherry.
https://nostalgiacentral.com/music/artists-a-to-k/artists-d/dave-berry/

Richie Unterberger adds:

Briefly a big star in Britain in the mid-’60s, Dave Berry faced the same dilemma as several other British teen idols of the era: R&B was obviously nearest and dearest to his heart, but he needed to record blatantly pop material to make the hit parade. It was also obvious that Berry was in fact much more suited toward pop ballads than rough-and-tumble R&B, regardless of his personal preferences. At his peak, his output was divided between hard R&B/rockers and straight pop. . . . He made a rather good go of it . . . with romantic pop/rock ballads . . . . [H]e never made the slightest impression on the U.S. market . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/dave-berry-mn0000959279

As to Godley & Creme, 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. . . . If there’s a difference between this music and what they’d perfect on Sheet Music in 1974, 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. All that said, this is fine and imaginative pop with a psychedelic edge . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/album/frabjous-days-the-secret-world-of-godley-creme-1967-1969-mw0003721503

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

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.

The Hellers — “Take 46”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 16, 2023

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

954) The Hellers — “Take 46”

Enjoy a “nice and groovy” (François Couture, https://www.allmusic.com/album/singers-talkers-players-swingers-and-doers-mw0000584275) day, courtesy of the Hellers (see #525-528). If Don Draper worked in San Francisco, he would have written this song, it’s Sterling Cooper material!

Of the album, Record Heaven opines that:

[O]verseen[]by legendary jingle composer Hugh Heller and arranger Dick Hamilton (with a little help from Robert Moog), this zany ’68 album merges sunshine pop with electronica and spoken word to unique effect. An established cult favourite, and a rich source of DJ samples, it’s one of the most bizarre albums to emerge from America in the late 60s . . . .
https://www.recordheaven.net/index.cfm?x=browseLabel&ID=3493&iID=63763&sc=&ob=tl&so=ASC&pp=20&pn=1&showList=false

Who was Hugh Heller and who were the Hellers? Basic Hip tells us that:

The Heller Corporation (Heller-Ferguson, Inc) was an advertising agency based in Los Angeles and produced highly creative commercials and thematic identification music for television and radio. . . . The Hellers did issue one commercial album in 1968, the way, way out “Singers, Talkers, Players, Swingers and Doers” on Enoch Light’s Command label. A sophisticated sound collage of spoken word, sound effects, moog-like “Heliocentric Sounds” and those familiar jingle singers.
https://wfmu.org/365/2003/035.shtml

Sf scene notes that:

[N]ot really a group but an advertising agency who worked for many large and various clients . . . run by Hugh Heller it was extremely successful . . . . top session musicians were used on the recording which was given out to clients of the agency. . . . weird, wonderful and full of electronic effects quite what they were hoping to achieve by this I really don’t know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTDSEO95IT4

François Couture goes deeper:

In 1968, producer Enoch Light commissioned an LP from Hugh Heller, a publicist who used to put together albums of skits and short musical spoofs his agency privately distributed to industry people. Heller teamed up with his agency’s commercial jingle composer Dick Hamilton. Together, they wrote 12 light comedy tracks and brought in visionary electronician Robert Moog ([yes, the] inventor of the Moog synthesizer[!]) to give their project a space-age feel. The result is an unusual cross between Perrey Kingsley’s infamously kitsch outer-worldly music, the Lawrence Welk Show, and The Partridge Family Show — technology, ballroom music and variety show one-liners, all rolled into one. This half-hour of material has aged tremendously, but to most connoisseurs of the genre, that is where its value resides. Some themes are actually nice and groovy . . . but the format chosen (two-minute tunes) means that nothing gets developed and what you hear on first listen is what you get: thirty minutes of collaged commercial jingles. The album failed to sell, but attained a certain cult status.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/singers-talkers-players-swingers-and-doers-mw0000584275

Check out the site’s new page: Stick It to the (Fish)Man: Feedback — the coolest comments I have received!

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

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.

Bill Fay — “Some Good Advice”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 15, 2023

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

953) Bill Fay — “Some Good Advice”

I’ve played the B-side (see #774), here’s the “haunting” A-side (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited) by Bill Fay (who has quite a cult around him and has had quite a second act!). Oh, and “[n]ever listen to what anyone is telling you”!

Fay recalls that:

My producer Peter Eden brought with him The Fingers, a band from Southend. There was no rehearsing as such, the songs were recorded at Decca studios spontaneously there and then in the morning, after which I overdubbed organ and Mellotron, and Peter mixed them in the afternoon. I was great to play with the band and was all over too soon.
liner notes to the CD reissue of Bill Fay

As to Fay, Grayson Haver Currin notes that:

[He] stumbled into music in the ’60s. As a college student in Wales, he began to forsake his electronics curriculum for writing songs featuring piano and harmonium. His demos found their way to Terry Noon, briefly Van Morrison’s drummer and a budding music impresario, who helped Fay secure a contract with an imprint of Decca Records and assemble a sharp studio band.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/15/arts/music/bill-fay-countless-branches.html

Richie Unterberger gives his post-single and pre-rediscovery history:

British singer/songwriter/pianist Bill Fay cut two albums for Deram during the early ’70s that became bona fide cult classics. His self-titled debut appeared in 1970 and was linked by comparison to recordings by Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, but Fay’s songs were more cosmic in scope lyrically and featured pop-orchestral arrangements. 1971’s Time of the Last Persecution . . . won the lion’s share of media attention because of its rather dire and apocalyptic subject matter. There was even speculation by music journalists about the decaying state of Fay’s mental health that proved to be nonsense. Fay’s records fell into obscurity, and he virtually vanished from music for more than two decades.

Fay issued . . . his lushly orchestrated self-titled debut [album] in 1970. While critical notice was favorable, there was precious little airplay, and the label’s marketing department had virtually no idea how to place his work. Though Bill Fay sold poorly, the label chose to record a follow-up in hopes of building interest. . . . Given its gaunt, haunted-looking cover photo of the artist, as well as the deeply pessimistic spiritual subject matter about the world coming to an end, journalists speculated Fay was a hopeless drug addict and/or mentally ill. Some even claimed he was homeless and raving on the streets. None of it was true. . . . Due to poor sales of both albums, Fay was released from his contract and Deram eventually deleted both recordings. They subsequently became cult classics and were reissued in 1998; they were finally greeted with nearly universal acclaim.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/bill-fay-mn0000073553/biography

Fay graciously says that:

Decca . . . wasn’t too sure what was going on musically — what musical styles might become successful, and therefore rewarding to them, or not. Someone once said that Decca’s policy was to throw many pieces of musical mud at a wall in the hope that some of it would stick. I was one of those pieces that fell off the wall, along with others, but I had a chance before, my contract expired, to make a single and two albums that featured a lot of musical contributions from others and a lot of diversity in content. I’m thankful to Decca for that and for the freedom . . . to do it.
liner notes to the CD reissue of Bill Fay

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

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.

Him & the Others — “She’s Got Eyes that Tell Lies”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 14, 2023

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

952) Him & the Others — “She’s Got Eyes that Tell Lies“

This B-side of the band’s only single (’66) is “brilliant and one of the top five freakbeat rarities”. (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited) Man, it kicks butt! Don’t take my word for it. Thomasbaumgartner3032 says that “[t]he song is fantastic, it’s brutal, is strong, lots of soul[], punky too, incredible” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOOBiX-soDc). When carolewiles3685 commented that “My dad Colin played lead guitar in this band”, K.__Oss responded that “Your father single-handedly played the heaviest guitar ever put on record before punk or metal was ever invented.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOOBiX-soDc)

Some even say that this song represented the birth of heavy metal. Mannyruiz1954 writes that “This is where garage psych gives birth to heavy metal. Jeezuz the crunch sounds like Tony Iommi” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOOBiX-soDc) and t.d.p.t7903 writes “First Heavy Metal song ever?” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0rJSm_Ag6o&t=4s) Nope, no relation to the Eagles’ “Lyin’ Eyes”!

When Lennie Shaw, the band’s bassist, discovered the song on YouTube along with rhapsodic comments, he commented himself that:

I didn’t think for one minute that somebody would be playing our record again.

Thanks mate, that’s the best thing about music it’s when people actually like it, it so makes your day, so thanks again.

Thanks to everyone for their wonderful comments about our record from the sixties. regards Len H&TO. Bass player.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOOBiX-soDc, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0rJSm_Ag6o

That warms my heart. What a nice guy.

As to the band, Discogs tells us that:

Him & The Others were formed in 1964, when drummer Keith Giles and bassist Lennie Shaw left their former group and decided to start a new group with local vocalist George Demetrious. After placing adverts in Melody Maker, guitarists Colin Roche and Geoff Gibbs completed the line-up. The group soon built up a following playing top clubs around London and the home counties, and supported many of the major top acts, as well as backing group to chart singer Peter Fenton. They also appeared in the British made film, Mini Weekend, filmed during one of their many gigs at top London club, Tiles. They made one record . . . which received rave reviews, but never achieved chart success. In 1967, following Lennie Shaw’s departure from the group, they changed their name to The Hand. With Geoff Gibbs switching to bass, they become more progressive/blues orientated. The band split up completely around a year later. George and Geoff went on to form George Paul Jefferson, Keith Giles joined progressive band Fortes Mentum [see #904] whilst Colin Roche went back to his love of the blues forming a band with Paul Rodgers who later went on to form Free.
https://www.discogs.com/artist/1187609-Him-The-Others

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

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.

The Sea-Ders — “Undecidedly”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 13, 2023

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

951) The Sea-Ders — “Undecidedly”

From the land of the Cedars came Lebanon’s mixed Christian/Muslim Sea-Ders, who made it as far as Swingin’ London. It sure was a different world! The B-side of this ’67 UK single is a “curious, and unexpected, gem” (Aquarium Drunkard, https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2010/08/03/the-sea-ders-thanks-a-lot/), “which decorated a typical British pop/rock tune with some Middle Eastern-like guitar riffs and harmonies”. (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-sea-ders-mn0001465045)

Aquarium Drunkard tells us that:

Instead of spiraling into over the top eastern-flavored otherness (like so many of their peers at the time) the Sea-Ders, having landed in London . . . embraced a more primal, early Kinks-esque, approach to . . . songwriting. Coming from Beirut their take on the genre was already unique with succinct flourishes of psych and freakbeat coupled with their inherent cultural influences. Like so many non-western takes on the genre, the end result is a curious, and unexpected, gem.
https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2010/08/03/the-sea-ders-thanks-a-lot/

Linda Abi Assi and Bernard Batrouni bring us the Sea-Ders:

[T]he Sea-Ders’ drummer, Zouhair Tourmoche, better known by his stage name, Zad Tarmush. . . . met the other band members in 1961. “Back then, in the late 1950s, early 1960s, there were no radio stations playing rock & roll in Lebanon.” Instead, he eagerly waited to listen to Radio Cairo on Friday nights, hoping to catch . . . Cliff Richard and the Shadows. “I was hanging in a music store one afternoon and in came these two short guys, Raymond Azouri and Joe Shehade. Fats Domino’s “Blueberry Hill” was playing and I started drumming along to it on a wooden bench. Ray and Joe were impressed that I could keep up with the rhythm, and they asked me to join their band. . . . I knew these guys, they were talented. . . . [T]hey used to sing songs by the Everly Brothers with perfect pitch and harmony. They sounded exactly like the original artists. So at the age of 16, I stopped going to the mosque to pray to Allah and rock & roll entered my head in a very big way.”

By 1962, the guys went by the name “Top 5” . . . became the first ever rock band to appear on stage in Lebanon. . . . [and] developed a following, performing in hotels and universities in Beirut and, on weekends, in special clubs where there were no drugs and alcohol allowed . . . . “While people were talking about politics and religion, we didn’t get involved. All we wanted to do was play music . . . . If you were born Christian, you’d tend to suffer little or no hassle if you followed a musical career inspired by European influences. However, as I was the only Muslim in the band, I had to endure a great deal of insults, verbal abuse, and all other forms of stupid prejudices, all of which were hinged on one idea: that a decent Muslim boy would never abandon his culture and follow decadent Western behaviour.” . . .

[A]s Beatlemania swept across the world . . . . [“l]uckily, I had a nose like Ringo Starr . . . . We decided to grow our hair long and we looked just like them[“]. . . . [T]hey made a name for themselves in Lebanon . . . capable of replicating the Fab Four’s sound (and looks) down to a T. “They even called us ‘the Beatles of Lebanon,'” Zad recalls.

In 1966, the band started to write their own stuff. . . . [Their] first [single], “Thanks a Lot,” went on to sell well in the country. . . . [and] ended up on the desk of . . . Dick Rowe at London’s Decca Records, who promptly offered to sign them. . . . Raoul Hajj and Joe Samaha left before the big move and in came lead guitarist Albert Haddad to replace them, with Ray taking up the bass. Albert Haddad also happened to be a good buzuq player, an instrument that soon became ubiquitous to the band’s sound. “It wasn’t intentional[] . . . . We wanted to be a true rock band and never once thought of adding an Oriental twist to our music. . . . We were young, we were hippies and we felt like we belonged to the entire world culture. . . . [The producers at Decca] told us: look, you’re Lebanese so play Oriental music. . . . One of the Decca producers suggested we use the buzuq in our songs, so we did[.]” . . . During a 3-month gig at the PickWick . . . in Leicester Square, actors Victor Spinetti and John Hurt . . . came down to hear them . . . . Paul McCartney and George Harrison stopped by to see the band playing “this weird instrument.” The Sea-Ders released “For Your Information,” their first single in the UK, in 1967. But the record never made it to the charts. Still, Decca followed it up with the release of an EP, which included 8 original songs. “It was a complete and utter failure[“] . . . . In 1969, with their visa coming to an end, Ray, Joe and Albert returned to Lebanon but Zad decided to stay in the UK. . . . He became a British citizen in 1974, and made a living working as a schoolteacher.

https://projectrevolver.org/features/interviews/searching-for-lebanons-sea-ders/

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

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.

Jo Ann Garrett — “Walk on By”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 12, 2023

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

950) Jo Ann Garrett — “Walk on By”

Jo Ann gives us a horn-infused, slow burn “killer version of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s ‘Walk on By’ (with loads of wah-wah guitar)”. (Steve Krakow, https://chicagoreader.com/music/local-soul-sensation-jo-ann-Jarrett-disappeared-from-the-biz-in-her-20s/). After listening to her tour de force performance, you’ll never listen to the song the same way again.

Steve Krakow:

Garrett was a Chicago sensation in the late 60s and early 70s, but she didn’t break out nationally . . . . Her reputation as a talented soprano singer caught the attention of her [DuSable High School] classmate Cormie Vance, who sang with R&B vocal group the Para-Monts . . . . Vance urged Garrett to audition for WVON DJ and club owner Pervis Spann. Garrett passed the audition, which got her a spot at a talent show at the Regal Theater. She took second place . . . and . . . ended up with record contracts. . . . [H]er music career was being managed by Spann and Robert “Bob” Lee, who owned a small local label called Hawk Records . . . . Beginning in 1966 [Spann] co-owned the south-side venue known simply as “the Club” . . . . Garrett began performing regularly [there] and around the city, and soon she . . . . cut two dreamy soul ballads . . . . Chess Records picked up the recordings and released them as Garrett’s first single, and the record did well locally in spring 1966. . . . [Then] the ethereal “Thousand Miles Away” (a remake of the 1957 Heartbeats hit) . . . . earned a lot of Chicago airplay and enough attention in markets outside the city that Garrett could tour. In 1968, Garrett . . . began working with a fledgling company called Duo . . . . Garrett’s debut . . . fared very well locally, and Garrett released several more excellent singles with Duo over the next few years . . . . [I]n 1969, [Chesa] released her lone LP, Just a Taste . . . . contain[ing] a few tunes that had previously been local favorites—alongside the excellent psych-soul number “It’s No Secret[]” . . . “Walk on By” . . . and a smoky, jazzy rendition of the Nat King Cole classic “Unforgettable.” Chess released a single from the album . . . but neither it nor the album made much of a splash at the time. . . . . The last Garrett release that I can find any evidence of online is an R&B-adjacent 1972 single for the Duke label . . . . After that point, it looks like she retired from music.
https://chicagoreader.com/music/local-soul-sensation-jo-ann-garrett-disappeared-from-the-biz-in-her-20s/

MichaelSmith-yb5bb says that Jo Ann “went to DuSable High School in Chicago and live in the ‘Hole’ in the Robert Taylor projects. She and my sister were classmates. Her brother Larry was mine. We all were glad she made it. Lovely voice.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAxQIbnHYCY)

Here is Dionne:

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

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.

John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band — “Love”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 11, 2023

https://youtube.com/watch?v=MUTz3LQEq1Q%3Ffeature%3Doembed

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

(song first featured as) #113) John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band — “Love”

On this 22nd anniversary of 9/11, the only thing I could think of to play that was remotely appropriate was John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band‘s “Love” from 1970, one of the most beautiful, delicate and consoling songs ever written. I present it along with five wonderful cover versions, by Barbra Streisand, the Lettermen (yes, the Lettermen), Shirley Bassey, Jimmy Nail, and Beck.

The Beatles Bible says:

“Love”, the tenderest moment on John Lennon’s debut solo album, was a simple love song inspired by his feelings for Yoko Ono. “‘Love’ I wrote in a spirit of love. In all that shit, I wrote it in a spirit of love. It’s for Yoko, it has all that connotation for me. It’s a beautiful melody and I’m not even known for writing melody.” Lennon had recorded a guitar demo of ‘Love’ in Bel Air, Los Angeles, where he stayed in the summer of 1970 while undergoing Primal Therapy with Dr Arthur Janov. The recording is the only one of the time that lacked the anger or bitterness that coloured much of [the album]. Back in England, ‘Love’ was recorded at EMI Studios, Abbey Road. Lennon again played a simple acoustic guitar part, over which he sang his plaintive lyrics. . . . After recording a satisfactory take, Lennon asked Phil Spector to add a piano part. . . . ‘Love’ was not released as a single in John Lennon’s lifetime, although he considered issuing it as one. It received considerable radio airplay from stations who baulked at the prospect of playing ‘Mother’, Lennon’s eventual choice of single in the US.
https://www.beatlesbible.com/people/john-lennon/songs/love/

Sam Kemp adds:

Clocking in at around three-and-a-half minutes, it is actually quite astonishing that Lennon manages to convey so much of the emotion he felt for Yoko Ono in the time it takes to brew a cup of tea. . . . ‘Love’ is one of the most minimalist songs Lennon ever released, featuring just two musicians, Lennon himself on guitar and vocals, and Phil Spect[or] on the piano. . . . [It] is a remarkably stark track, as if he wanted to avoid anything that might detract from his adoration. The stripped-back, elemental sound that Lennon pursued on ‘Love’ feels almost like an extension of the primal therapy that he and Yoko Ono took part in following the break up of The Beatles in 1970. It’s as if all that screaming into the wind allowed Lennon a period of calm in which he was able to sit down and write something honest, sensitive, and undeniably vulnerable. . . . [I]t’s possible that, at least in some ways, it was intended as a gift to Ono. “With Yoko, I really knew love for the first time,” he once said: “I’d never met anyone who was my equal in every imaginable way. My better, actually. The dream came true”.
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/how-john-lennon-created-love-yoko-ono/

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” or “follow” my Facebook page by clicking here.

Barbra Streisand (from her ’71 album Barbra Joan Streisand):

https://youtube.com/watch?v=RpK0Ggcup4U%3Ffeature%3Doembed

The Lettermen (from their ’71 album Love Book, and a B-side):

https://youtube.com/watch?v=sE4_YKFqeRg%3Fversion%3D3%26rel%3D1%26showsearch%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26iv_load_policy%3D1%26fs%3D1%26hl%3Den%26autohide%3D2%26wmode%3Dtransparent

Shirley Bassey (from her ’72 album I, Capricorn):

https://youtube.com/watch?v=oze69jttt64%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Jimmy Nail (from his ’95 album Big River, and an A-side):

https://youtube.com/watch?v=V592jcrwvO0%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Beck (from a ’14 Starbucks compilation):

https://youtube.com/watch?v=qsrx0R8cudA%3Ffeature%3Doembed

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

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

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.

Eric Burdon & the Animals — “White Houses”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 10, 2023

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

949) Eric Burdon & the Animals — “White Houses”

Ah, the Eggman. Protesting inequality and proclaiming “[y]ou better get straight”, this “surprisingly lyrical . . . piece of piercing social commentary about America in early 1968” (Bruce Eder, https://www.allmusic.com/album/every-one-of-us-mw0000654427) was a surprising choice for an A-side in November ’68 (better get straight?!), but hit #67 in the U.S. anyway. It’s “elegant mid-tempo pop jazz with urban visions, a good guitar solo . . . and outstanding Latin percussion”. (Aloha Criticon, https://www.alohacriticon.com/musica/reediciones-discos/eric-burdon-the-animals-every-one-of-us-1968/)

The song comes from the Every One of Us album (see #513), of which Bruce Eder says:

Eric Burdon & the Animals were nearing the end of their string, at least in the lineup in which they’d come into the world in late 1966, when they recorded Every One of Us in May of 1968 . . . . The group had seen some success, especially in America, with the singles “When I Was Young,” “San Franciscan Nights” and “Sky Pilot” over the previous 18 months, but had done considerably less well with their albums. Every One of Us lacked a hit single to help drive its sales, but it was still a good psychedelic blues album, filled with excellent musicianship . . . . [T]he group as a whole would pack it in with the waning of 1968.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/every-one-of-us-mw0000654427

In the other hand, Jeff Burger says that Every One of Us . . . is [a] most forgettable [album] . . . with songs like … “White Houses” . . . sounding like filler from a group that has run out of ideas.” (https://americanahighways.org/2020/03/29/review-the-animals-second-act-plus-a-new-gordon-lightfoot-cd/amp/). Burger, show me the beef!

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

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.

Mark Eric — “Move With the Dawn”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 9, 2023

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

948) Mark Eric — “Move With the Dawn”

Brian Wilson’s greatest lost album is actually . . . Mark Eric Malmborg’s A Midsummer’s Day Dream (see #326)! Stop Smile-ing — stop smirking! It IS “one of the lost slices of pop perfection from late 60’s Southern California” (Bill Wikstrom, http://talkaboutpoppopmusic.blogspot.com/2009/10/mark-eric-midsummers-day-dream.html), a “beautiful album” that “catch[es] the tail end of LA’s pop innocence perfectly, just as it was gone forever”. (https://www.lpcdreissues.com/item/a-midsummer-s-day)

From the album comes today’s track “Move with the Dawn”. Bad Cat Records says that:

[It] may have been recorded in 1969, but [it] sure sounded like Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys circa 1966-67. Sporting some tasty horn charts . . . [it] served to showcase Eric’s likeable voice and knack for nailing that Southern California sunshine pop sound. And the secret sauce on this one was the fluid and melodic bass line.
http://badcatrecords.com/ERICmark.htm

Bad Cat goes on about the album:

[The LP is] probably the best Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys album they never released. . . . Interestingly, Eric and his collaborator/arranger former Animals guitarist Vic Briggs apparently wrote these twelve tracks as demos intending to place them with other acts. . . . but the results were so impressive that Revue decided to release it as a Marc Eric effort. Musically the album was already several years out of step with popular tastes so it shouldn’t have been a surprise to see the parent LP and singles vanish directly into cutout bins.
http://badcatrecords.com/ERICmark.htm

As does Larry:

Mark Eric’s music has been described – accurately – as some of the best Beach Boys material not actually created by Mr Wilson and his henchmen. . . . [H]e seems to have internalized the post-Pet Sounds vibe, mixing it with a healthy dose of Sunshine Pop. . . . I’m always amazed that someone was able/willing to pull something like this off in 1969. There were certainly legions of Brian Wilson fanboys appropriating his sound (ironically or not) in the 80s and 90s, but for someone to dig this deep into that sound, and pull it off so well while the Beach Boys prime was still in the ether (as it were) was remarkable. . . . [R]ecord store basements of the world are packed floor to ceiling with 45s by acts that were dead set on imitating the Beach Boys, Beatles, Byrds, Rolling Stones and others, most of whom made a hash of it. To hear an entire album so well done, in regard to songcraft, arranging and performing, yet so obviously derivative is a remarkable and rare thing.
https://ironleg.wordpress.com/2013/09/01/the-california-sunshine-of-mark-eric/

About Mark Eric, Bryan Thomas tells us:

L.A. native Mark Eric was leading the Southern California dream life in his teens — surfing by day and writing songs about girls by night — before his musical talents drew him to Hollywood. He was 16 when he met Russ Regan, then at Warner Bros., but his first break came while waiting in the lobby of label honcho Lou Sadler’s office. There he met Bob Raucher, an engineer at local KHJ radio station . . . . Raucher took a liking to the suntanned surfer/songwriter, and, under his “personal management,” Eric was soon recording at Gold Star studios in Hollywood. One of his songs was later recorded by the Four Freshmen . . . . Subsequent sessions by Eric, backed with studio musicians, led to another meeting with Regan, now heading up UNI . . , who signed the promising soft pop singer to the label. Eric only recorded one album . . . which was released in 1969 on UNI’s R&B subsidiary, Revue Records. . . . One of [Erik’s] songs, “Fly Me a Place for the Summer,” was later recorded by the Mike Curb Congregation [see #57] for an airline commercial. . . .

Eric’s charming, somewhat imperfect falsetto (in a somewhat obvious homage to Brian Wilson) hints at a subterranean layer of loneliness throughout. His self-penned, broken-hearted Beach Boys-style ballads . . . are, in fact, the perfect vehicle for his faltering upper-register voice. .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mark-eric-mn0000273359, https://www.allmusic.com/album/a-midsummers-day-dream-mw0000663846

Oh, and Black Cat informs us that “Eric subsequently turned his time and attention to modeling, commercials and acting, briefly appearing in a number of early-1970s television shows including The Partridge Family and Hawaii 5-0.” (http://badcatrecords.com/ERICmark.htm)

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

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.

Módulos — “Ya No Me Quieres”/“You Don’t Love Me Anymore”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 8, 2023

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

947) Módulos — “Ya No Me Quieres”/“You Don’t Love Me Anymore”

This was the Spanish prog band’s first A-side (‘69), “a sweet pop song with psychedelic features and a Hollies-style rhythm in which [Robles’] melodic touch and taste for exquisite arrangements could already be appreciated.” (Aloha Picky, https://www.alohacriticon.com/musica/grupos-y-solistas/modulos/) It is “a sweeping [song] . . . with a sensational organ introduction and closing. . . . a splendid pop tune, with Pepe[ Robles’] voice at its peak. Here commercial progressive music was born.” (https://web.archive.org/web/20070928121447/http://www.guateque.net/modulos.htm) Trigger alert for all Taylor Swift fans — did Did T-Swizzle nick the melody?!?!

As to Módulos’ early years (they broke up in ’79), Aloha Picky tells us that:

Within the sound fauna of rock in Spain at the end of the 60s there were forgettable emulators of the most significant groups of the British Invasion, with a special predilection for imitating the first compositions of the Beatles . . . . [T]he Modules [was] led by the great singer Pepe Robles. They both established themselves as pioneers of psychedelic and progressive music in the Peninsula, with writing in the style of groups such as: Vanilla Fudge/The Nice/Procol Harum/Gentle Giant . . . As in extensions of pop songs with high quality melodies that express his homage to the Beatles, his favorite band, the Hollies or the Californian vocal groups, and baroque cuts, beautifully arranged and produced that are so reminiscent of the wonders of Left Banke’s baroque pop as to the classical compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach. All of this was executed in a splendid manner, however they were excellent instrumentalists, with significance for the omnipresent keyboards of Tomás Bohórquez and the guitar of Robles, one of the best vocalists in the history of rock music in Spanish who impregnates his songs with heartbreak a captivating sad and melancholic tone. The Modules arose in Madrid in 1969, when the singer and guitarist Pepe Robles . . . who was also in charge of playing bongos and playing wind instruments, such as the flute or the oboe, He was requested by the producer of the Hispavox label . . . impressed by his talent . . . to lead a new musical group.
https://www.alohacriticon.com/musica/grupos-y-solistas/modulos/

Abraham says (at the Spanish Progressive Rock Encyclopedia site — so you know it’s authoritative!), courtesy of some goofy computer translation, that:

Modulos was an extraordinaire band formed in 1969, unfortunately too late for the classic rock of the 60’s and when the spanish labels were not decided for supporting the winds of change coming from the outside. Modulos created an own and distinctive sound without loosing the commercial punch . . . . In their sound they mixed the inherence of 60s’ spanish pop español with the intensity of Vanilla Fudge, the Cantatas of J. S. Bach or the delicious touch of Le Orme. That exceptional band was formed up by Pepe Robles, singer of a very large register, composer and remarkable guitarist. The rhythm section was for other two talented players: Emilio Bueno on bass and G. Reyzabal on drums and also on violin. Finally the chief on Hammond was Tomas Bohorque, howling like never heard before. In addition he played accordion and triangle, providing a characteristic “clinc”. . . . Innovative and avant-garde, they take care of their sound to the maximum. They were very professional (the first having an office in Madrid). Their first presentation was prepared until the smallest details. But that was never recognised. Too hard for their time, with too weak words compared to those of bands caming later. Their influences could be found in bands like Vanilla Fudge, Cream, Young Rascals, Italian progressives and lately Yes, but their hippism led them also to the west coast bands. They were pionneers and really good. Not an usual band. Their first three singles become hits but it was their first LP their actual “hit”. . . . Pure velvet, round in shape and content. For the first time in Spain a band gave more importance to the Long Play than to the singles. No one can miss hearing it.
https://www.dlsi.ua.es/~inesta/Prog/SPE/modulos.html#:~:text=Modulos%20was%20an%20extraordinaire%20band,change%20coming%20from%20the%20outside

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

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.

The La De Da’s — “Find Us a Way”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 7, 2023

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

946) The La De Da’s* — “Find Us a Way”

’67 B-side and album track by New Zealand’s own La De Da’s (see #216, 846). This “soulful” and “snarling” (https://www.lpcdreissues.com/item/find-us-a-way) song with a “frantic, sweaty beat” (https://www.audioculture.co.nz/profile/the-la-de-da-s) helped chart a new direction for the band.

Andrew Schmidt tells us:

In their 12-year journey through New Zealand and Australia in the 1960s and 1970s, The La De Da’s never took a backward step. They conquered New Zealand with a passionate live show, a string of hard, uncompromising chart singles and two of the best NZ albums of the 1960s. Changing gear from R&B to psychedelia, The La De Da’s shifted base to Australia in 1967 and 1968 where they released New Zealand’s first rock opera, The Happy Prince. In England in 1969 they captured a fine version of The Beatles’ voodoo rocker ‘Come Together’ at Abbey Road studios before returning to Australia and success as pioneering festival blues rockers. . . .

Auckland’s finest R&B group dipped into their own strong collection of songs in May 1967 for successful [second] album Find Us A Way. They were billing themselves live as “Soul Blues”, which nicely sums up the churchier, more gospel feel of their new record. While the band still found a frantic sweaty beat on ‘Find Us A Way’, ‘I Gotta Woman’, ‘Tell The Truth’, ‘Cool Jerk’ and ‘Gimme Some Lovin’, they left room for the sunny pop of ‘Sonny Boy’ and spacier keyboard-led originals ‘All Purpose Low’, ‘Thank You For The Flowers’, ‘Rosalie’ and ‘Beside Me Forever’. Meeting the two strands in the middle was the fine organ-led, gospel inclined soul of ‘Goodbye Sisters’ – a take on The Artwoods’ third single from April 1965 – and their version of The Marvelettes’ ‘Too Many Fish in the Sea’ from 1964.
https://www.audioculture.co.nz/profile/the-la-de-da-s

Milesago.com gives us the definitive La De Das:

Formed in New Zealand at the very start of the beat boom, they were . . . . practically the only major group [Kiwi or Aussie] to emerge from the beat boom of 1964-65 who managed to ride out the massive musical changes of the Sixties and adapt to the new scene in the Seventies, emerging as one of Australia’s most popular hard rock groups during the first half of the Seventies. . . . [T]hey started off as blues/R&B purists . . . . moved into their ‘mod’ period – with covers of Ray Charles, Motown and Northern Soul favourites, replete with tartan trousers, satin shirts and buckle shoes. . . . [and then] plunged headlong into psychedelia (the obligatory concept album, covers of songs from West Coast outfits like Blues Magoos, paisley shirts, sitars, long hair and moustaches). They almost came unstuck after the inevitable — and ultimately futile — attempt to “make it in England”. . . . limped back to Australia, regrouped, and bounced back . . . .

The second LP, Find Us A Way showed the band taking a more progressive direction, with a deliberate move away from their R&B roots and taking in new influences from acts like The Spencer Davis Group, who were themselves starting to take some major steps away from their earlier style. This time the album contained some original compositions as well as stage favourites. Although they were apparently unhappy about not being not consulted over the final track selection or the cover art, it also sold very well. [Its] release . . . in May 1967 coincided with The La De Das’ first exploratory trip to Australia. Although they had their sights set ultimately on the UK, the only logical way to get there was via Australia, so they . . . flew to Sydney. The trip started fairly well . . . [including] a support slot on the historic homecoming shows at the Sydney Stadium by The Easybeats . . . . Unfortunately it was pretty much downhill from there on. . . . While they toiled away unhappily in Sydney, living in a squalid Kings Cross hotel and appearing at Dayman’s Op Pop disco, two Singles were culled from the Find Us A Way” album for release in NZ. Both did extremely well in spite of the band’s absence — the first, “All Purpose Low”/”My Girl”, was released in June and went to #3 on the NZ charts, followed in August by “Rosalie”/”Find Us A Way” which reached #5.
http://www.milesago.com/artists/ladedas.htm

* The name? —

“The lads realised pretty quickly that “The Mergers” didn’t really reflect the toughness of their music . . . . They decided on something a bit more hardline — The Criminals — but Phil’s mother was less than impressed and after rehearsals one night at the Wilson house she jokingly suggested instead that they call themselves “something nice, like the la-de-das …”. Phil [Key] loved it, and the name stuck.”
http://www.milesago.com/artists/ladedas.htm

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

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.

The Chantelles — “I Want that Boy”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 6, 2023

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

945) The Chantelles — “I Want that Boy”

British girl group goes to town on an obscure number out of America. ‘65 effervescent fun that hit Radio Caroline’s Top 40! (https://nostalgiacentral.com/music/artists-a-to-k/artists-c/chantelles-the/). It is “a strong example of a British production that holds its own against American ones. . . . The strong lead and backing voices on the up-tempo song power onwards with full orchestration from start to finish”. (Kingsley Abbott, 500 Lost Gems of the Sixties)

As to the Chantelles, Kingsley Abbott says that “[p]reviously, they had been known as the Lana Sisters, a three-piece London trio that once included a young Dusty Springfield, and the Fifties-styled sister act morphed into a mini-skirted, white-booted, mascara-daubed sassy group.” (500 Lost Gems of the Sixties)

Nostalgia Central tells us more:

Led by Riss Chantelle (formerly known as Iris Lana), British girl group The Chantelles cut some high-quality material in the mid-1960s [and] made numerous TV appearances . . . . The trio formed in 1965 and consisted of Iris ‘Riss’ Chantelle (née Long), Sandra Orr and Jay Adams. Riss led the group, which had evolved from The Lana Sisters, in which Dusty Springfield launched her career in the late 1950s. After establishing a name for themselves as a live act, The Chantelles landed a contract with Parlophone, and in April 1965 issued I Want That Boy as their first single. . . . The follow-up, The Secret Of My Success, proved disappointing but the girls bounced back in October 1965 with pop gem Gonna Get Burned. . . . The group was invited to appear in the 1965 crime caper Dateline Diamonds, alongside Kiki Dee and The Small Faces. In it, The Chantelles performed the ballad I Think Of You and the more danceable Please Don’t Kiss Me. Both songs were issued on a single in April 1966, timed to coincide with the film’s release. Switching to Polydor they cut the single There’s Something About You in 1966. A[] dance floor filler on the northern soul scene, the track has since become their most in-demand single. Switching labels again (to CBS) in 1967, The Chantelles released an updated version of the Gershwin standard The Man I Love. Their final single for the label, Out Of My Mind . . . was issued only in Germany and the US, in 1968 . . . . Nola York joined the group in its later stages after Jay quit the group. When the group disbanded in 1968 Riss became Nola’s manager. Nola has since enjoyed success on the stage in London’s West End, while Riss formed her own music publishing company . . . .
https://nostalgiacentral.com/music/artists-a-to-k/artists-c/chantelles-the/

“I Want that Boy” was first released earlier in ‘65 by Sadina, who was actually country singer Priscilla Mitchell (married to Jerry Reed). Anthony Reichardt expands:

The two met in 1957 while Reed was recording for NRC records and Mitchell was background vocalist. They married in 1959 and had their first daughter, Saidina, in 1960. . . . Priscilla found time to record a few tracks for ABC Paramount in 1963 as a member of the folk group, The Appalachians. By the time 1965 rolled around, their daughter’s name was no doubt the inspiration for crediting Priscilla’s debut Smash single as by (the simpler spelling) SADINA. Produced by Jerry Kennedy, the Ray Stevens arrangement treads into Shangri-las territory with the spoken intro between the lead singer and the background vocalists against an infections drum beat. A cleverly constructed pop record that deserved a better fate, it unfortunately came and went unnoticed. . . . [W]hen Miss Mitchell teamed up with Country & Western singer Roy Drusky later that same year, the two recorded a series of stereotypical country ‘cheating songs’ that ultimately produced some hits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlQFJzJ3tOA

The Lime Popsicle notes that “[s]he recorded duets with Roy Drusky (as well as solo recordings) and scored a #1 Billboard Country hit with ‘Yes, Mr. Peters’ during the same year”. (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OmkLYnskLEA&pp=ygUWU2FkaW5hIGkgd2FudCB0aGF0IGJveQ%3D%3D)

Here is Sadina:

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

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.

Flying Circus — “3667”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 5, 2023

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

944) Flying Circus — “3667”

I’ve asked before, what is it about trains and folk music and the blues? I should have added country music. This Australian band had two members — New Zealand vocalist Doug Rowe and guitarist Jim Wynne — who “were both dedicated steam-train enthusiasts”. Wynne wrote this country rock “commemorati[on of] the scrapping of an old [New South Wales] Railways steam engine”. (http://www.milesago.com/artists/circus.htm). It is a lovely and bittersweet elegy.

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

The Flying Circus[,] one of the most misunderstood, overlooked and underrated Australian groups of the ’64-75 period[,] . . . was formed in August 1967 by New Zealand-born singer, songwriter and lead guitarist Doug Rowe. . . . He got [to] know bassist Bob Hughes, another [Sydney Morning] Herald journo, who shared his interest in country rock. Doug and Bob began jamming regularly . . . [and] met Jim Wynne. . . . [An] . . . aspiring promoter, John Sinclair, was taken to a rehearsal . . . . [which] impressed Sinclair so much that the following month he presented them at the first dance he promoted . . . . Two weeks later he was driving them to gigs and in [January of ’69] he became their manager. Shortly after this, the band was offered their first major engagement — a short tour of New Zealand. . . . [They] play[ed] a mixture of country, bluegrass, folk and rock, drawing on a wide range of influences including . . . . Doug Rowe began making demo tapes of original songs . . . . The Flying Circus signed a contract with EMI’s Columbia label in late 1968. . . . [T]hey were offered a song called “Hayride”. Originally recorded by Gary Lewis & The Playboys . . . . [it] was trite, formulaic bubblegum pop, [but] it had obvious commercial appeal. . . . Released in February 1969, it . . . reach[ed] #4 in Sydney and #24 nationally. . . . [T]heir second single . . . . was even dumber than its predecessor, but . . . “La La” turned out to be an even bigger hit, going Top Ten across the country in June and peaking at #8 in Sydney. . . . [B]oth . . . had virtually nothing to do with the [band’s] real musical interests . . . . Jim Wynne later recalled: “We were so glad to be in a studio that we would have recorded nursery rhymes. As it turned out, that’s pretty much what happened.[“] . . . [T]hey had the effect of immediately branding Flying Circus as a one-dimensional bubblegum act . . . . As Doug Rowe ruefully observed: “‘La, La’ sealed our fate and made it impossible for us to break out and be honest about the music we played.” . . . [Y]ounger fans drawn to their concerts by the pop hits were bemused by the group’s serious stage demeanour and their country-rock repertoire. . . . During 1970 [t]he Flying Circus worked hard to leave behind the pop image and establish themselves as a serious country rock group. . . . Prepared In Peace [from which today’s song is drawn] . . . was a major step forward . . . and it remains one of the lost gems of early ’70s Australian rock. . . . consist[ing] almost entirely of original country-rock songs . . . . It was dominated by the songs of Doug Rowe . . . but also included Jim Wynne’s “3667” . . . . one of many Flying Circus songs with a railway theme — Jim** and Doug were both dedicated steam-train enthusiasts. . . . It was critically lauded, and while not a major commercial success, it so[ld] quite respectably . . . . [I]t was a pioneering record for Australian music and a landmark of the local country-rock-harmony style. . . . Flying Circus [soon after] became permanent residents of Canada . . . . [where they] found audiences much more receptive than at home . . . .
http://www.milesago.com/artists/circus.htm

* The Circus’ name was “apparently inspired by the . . . ‘Red Baron’ fad which derived from the popular Charles Schultz Peanuts comic strip and The Royal Guardsmen’s novelty single ‘Snoopy vs The Red Baron'”. (http://www.milesago.com/artists/circus.htm)

* “In [James Wynne’s] early years he had worked part-time as a fireman on the New South Wales railways, which supplemented his income and allowed him indulge in his passion for steam engines, which became a feature in the songs he wrote for Flying Circus, and featured prominently in his [later] paintings.” (http://www.milesago.com/artists/circus.htm)

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

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.

I Shall Be Released: The Third Bardo — “Lose Your Mind”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 4, 2023

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

943) The Third Bardo — “Lose Your Mind”

Another snarling, swirling, garage psych classic by the Third Bardo* (see #97) — this one finally released decades after its time. Come listen, you have nothing to lose but your mind!

Per Blue Magoo:

[The Third Bardo was a] bloody excellent NYC band. Vocals that shriek, guitars that glide in and out of “another dimension” and a bass line that pulsates like a heartbeat, The Third Bardo had it all and then in a flash, they were gone.
http://tyme-machine.blogspot.com/2009/05/third-bardo-lose-your-mind-us-1967-ep.html?m=1

Richie Unterber gives some history:

The Third Bardo recorded just one single, “I’m Five Years Ahead of My Time,” which appeared on Roulette in 1967. . . . [and] is lauded by many collectors as one of the greatest 1960s garage/psychedelic tracks. . . . [A]lthough it got some airplay on the East Coast, it was pulled off the radio, lead singer Jeff Monn has recalled, because of perceived drug associations, although in fact there are no overt drug references in the lyrics. . . . the group laying down ominous psychedelia with Eastern-influenced melodies and odd sound effects. Six tracks were recorded at the Third Bardo’s one and only session, much of the material co-written by Rusty Evans, who had helped craft similarly strange stuff for the Deep. . . . [I]ust one [other] song, its B-side “Rainbow Life,” was released. . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-third-bardo-mn0000570564

Cosmic Mind at Play adds:

Though short-lived, the band did play hip Manhattan clubs such as Arthur’s and Ondine, and appeared on Upbeat, the Cleveland-based syndicated television show. . . . After the Third Bardo broke up in 1967, Monn went solo and released an album for Vanguard in 1968 called Reality [see #98, 284], then changed his name to Chris Moon for The Chris Moon Group LP that came out on Kinetic in 1970.
https://cosmicmindatplay.wordpress.com/2014/04/30/classic-singles-97-the-third-bardo-im-five-years-ahead-of-my-time-rainbow-life-1967/

* Cosmic Mind at Play says that the band’s name was “taken by lead singer Jeff Monn from The Tibetan Book of the Dead and refers to the moment after death when the consciousness is reborn into a new body.”(https://cosmicmindatplay.wordpress.com/2014/04/30/classic-singles-97-the-third-bardo-im-five-years-ahead-of-my-time-rainbow-life-1967/)

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

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.

George Harrison — “Dehra Dun”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 3, 2023

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

942) George Harrison — “Dehra Dun”

This charming little number that George Harrison wrote during the Beatles’ visit to Rishikesh — but never released — may appeal to children is actually quite sophisticated. It’s about the neighboring town of Dehradun and some in India think it was written as a paean. For example, “[t]he words of the haunting song capture the gypsy-like spirit of the town, especially as it used to be in the sixties.” (Deemagclinic, https://deemagclinic.com/2020/05/24/dehradun-song/) However, Harrison’s motivation might have been anything but. Hannah Wigandt writes:

A frustrated George Harrison wrote [“Dehra Dun”] during The Beatles’ Trip to India in 1968. [As we all know, they] attended a retreat at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram in Rishikesh to learn about Transcendental Meditation. However, George and John Lennon were the only students who completely committed themselves to learning. . . . Dr. Jenny Boyd interviewed her former brother-in-law . . . . [and] George recalled [that s]everal people went off to shop and flit about. He found it amusing because the ashram had everything to offer them, yet they still looked elsewhere for pleasure. They didn’t know they had a good thing right in front of them. The Maharishi . . . was offering to teach them valuable skills. However, all they wanted to do was go shopping and site seeing. . . . George explained. . . . “[t]here is an expression ‘beggars in a goldmine,’ and that’s what we are.[“] . . . [George] said [the song] was about “seeing people going along the road trying to head for this place called Deradune.” “Everyone was trying to go there for their day off from the meditation camp[.] I couldn’t see any point in going to this town. I’d gone all the way to Rishikesh to be in meditation and I didn’t want to go shopping for eggs in Deradune!” A verse in the song included: “See them move along the road/ In search of life divine/ Unaware it’s all around them/ Beggars in a goldmine.” . . . George was not pleased that Paul McCartney spent most of his time at the ashram writing songs instead of meditating, which was the whole point of going to India.
https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/george-harrison-unreleased-song-tragic-human-nature-wrote-during-the-beatles-trip-india.html/

Oh, and Christine Pemberton writes: “[T]his awful ditty . . . is now firmly stuck in my head. . . . To be honest, the lyrics aren’t that bad – it’s that wretched chorus, “Dehra Dehra Dun Dehra Dun Dun Dehra Dehra Dun Dehra Dun Dun”. (https://christinepemberton.me/?p=22580)

Here is George performing a snippet for the Anthology doc:

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

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.

Virgin Sleep — “Secret”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 2, 2023

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

941) Virgin Sleep — “Secret”

A seemingly “commercial” ’68 Brit psych masterpiece, that didn’t sell, telling the tale of woodland creatures with a secret to tell about the firefly’s dance . . . “Dragonflies tell it to the trees. Butterflies hear it in the breeze. They go tell it to the queen of the bees. Now she knows.” C’mon, it was the 60s!

Dinnes Cruickshank says that “‘Secret’ was truly commercial, and boasted just the right amount of strings and Moody Blues-ish mellotron, but somehow this seemingly infallible cocktail failed to produce the hit and Virgin Sleep quietly slipped from view.” (liner notes to The Great British Psychedelic Trip Vol. 2: 1965-1970 CD comp)

Of the Virgin Sleep, Vernon Joynson says:

This psychedelic outfit came from . . . London and were originally know as The Themselves. ‘Love’ was a Troggs-influenced 45 based on a Buddhist chant . . . with a sitar plucking in the background. . . . Their second “A” side, “Secret”, was more commercial with a string arrangement and mellotron. The band were definitely grade one psych-pop.
The Tapestry of Delights Revisited

And Bruce Eder adds:

Originally known as the Themselves, the Virgin Sleep was formed in 1966 . . . . Following their name change, the group was signed to English Decca’s Deram label in 1967, and they debuted on record that year with “Love,” a punkish piece of psychedelic rock with strong Eastern overtones (including a sitar twanging in the background). Their follow-up recording, “Secret,” released in 1968, was dominated by the sound of a Mellotron and a small string orchestra.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/virgin-sleep-mn0002303572

I know, I know, a Mellotron and strings!!! More Mellotron!

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

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.

Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell — “Baby Don’t Cha Worry”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 1, 2023

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

940) Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell — “Baby Don’t Cha Worry”

OK, everybody knows of the classic duets between Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, both of whose lives were cut tragically short. But many have not heard this gem, an infectious, musically adventurous and deeply satisfying version of a “groovy” (Andrew Hamilton, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/johnny-jackey-mn0001271802) ‘63 Johnny & Jackey single.

Jason Ankeny tells us of Tammi:

Singer Tammi Terrell joined forces with the immortal Marvin Gaye [see #229] to create some of the greatest love songs ever to emerge from the Motown hit factory; sadly, their series of classic duets . . . came to a[] . . . halt with her premature death. . . .

Thomasina Montgomery . . . by the age of 13 . . . was regularly opening club dates for acts including Gary “U.S.” Bonds and Patti LaBelle & the Bluebelles. In 1961, she was discovered by producer Luther Dixon and signed to Scepter. Credited as Tammy Montgomery, she made her debut with the single “If You See Bill[]” . . . . After James Brown caught [her] live act, she was signed to his Try Me label, issuing “I Cried” in 1963 and also touring with his live revue. . . . While performing with Jerry Butler in Detroit in 1965, [she] was spotted by Motown chief Berry Gordy, Jr., making her label debut with “I Can’t Believe You Love Me.” When subsequent outings . . . earned little notice, she was paired with Gaye, who previously recorded duets with Mary Wells and Kim Weston. His chemistry with Terrell was immediate and in 1967, they entered the pop Top 20 with the magnificent “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” the first in a series of lush, sensual hits authored by the husband-and-wife team of Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson. “Your Precious Love” cracked the Top Five a few months later and in 1968, the twosome topped the R&B charts with both “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” and “You’re All I Need to Get By.”

[A]fter an extended period of severe migraine headaches, in 1967 she collapsed in Gaye’s arms while in concert . . . and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Although the tumor forced Terrell to retire from performing live, she continued to record with Gaye even as her health deteriorated; however, as time went on, Valerie Simpson herself assumed uncredited vocal duties on a number of hits . . . . [Terrell] . . . died . . . on March 16, 1970 [age 24]. Gaye was so devastated by her decline and eventual passing that he retired from the road for three years; her loss also contributed greatly to the spiritual turmoil which informed . . . What’s Going On.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/tammi-terrell-mn0000164093/biography

Here is Tammi’s solo version of the song:

Here is Johnny & Jackey’s original:

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

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.

The Tikis — “Bye Bye Bye” (Warner Brothers single version): Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 31, 2023

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

939) The Tikis — “Bye Bye Bye” (Warner Brothers single version)

Before turning Bizarre, Santa Cruz’s Beatlemaniac Tikis issued three singles, including this gorgeous pop rock confection following in the long tradition of singers warning girls just how much of a jerk they are.

Bruce Eder:

The Tikis were a surf/British beat-style quartet from Santa Cruz, CA, who released a pair of above-average singles for Autumn Records in 1965. . . . Rhythm guitarist Dick Scoppettone had played folk music with his high school friend Dick Yount as members of a group called the Couriers until early 1964, when the British Invasion hit America. Finding themselves under the spell . . . they joined up with drummer Ted Templeman and Ed James on lead guitar to form the Tikis in the spring of 1964. The group’s sound was a mix of Merseybeat and more homegrown music, Beatles songs interspersed with surf, and car songs by the Beach Boys and others. They became popular in the Santa Cruz area and, seeing the success of their neighbors the Beau Brummels [see #713] on Autumn Records, began pestering the label with demos. In May of 1965, the company . . . signed the group. They debuted with a Beatles-like single called “If I’ve Been Dreaming,” and followed it up with “Bye Bye Bye,” neither of which charted. . . . The Tikis . . . lucked out when Warner Bros. purchased Autumn and their recording contract. . . . Warner Bros. was a relatively new label with a minimal roster of the rock & roll acts, and was eager to exploit the groups that it inherited from Autumn. The group was placed in the hands of Lenny Waronker, a young staff producer, who discovered a new Simon & Garfunkel song entitled “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy),” which he decided to record with the Tikis. This recording, more elaborate than anything the group had ever attempted (and involving 18 musicians backing [the Tiki singers]), was such a departure — and a source of concern, that it would cost them their established audience in Santa Cruz — that the group insisted on using another name for the single’s artist credit. As a result, it was released credited to Harpers Bizarre. The record rose to number 13, and suddenly the Tikis . . . were history.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-tikis-mn0000919986/biography

Alec Palao notes that “Bye Bye Bye” “was recorded in differing arrangements, the slower [Beau] Brummels-esque take . . . appearing as a third single after the group moved to Warner Bros. following Autumn’s demise.” (liner notes to the Love Is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-1970 CD comp) I like thie WB version the best, and it is the one I feature today.

Here is the Autumn single version:

And here is the song, appearing as the first part of a medley appearing on Harpers Bizarre’s third album (from ’68):

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

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.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: