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

The Valentinos — “It’s All Over Now”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 9, 2023

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

918) The Valentinos — “It’s All Over Now”

The song that quite possibly broke the Rolling Stones in America was this Bobby Womack-penned stunner that the Valentinos (the Womack brothers) had released as a single about a month earlier. Impresario and disc jockey Murray the K gave it to Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham, and the rest is history. The Valentinos took the song to #21 on the R&B chart and #94 on the pop chart. The Stones took it to #26 in the U.S. and #1 in the UK. Two classic voices, two classic versions.

ALO recalls that Murray the K gave him the Valentinos’ 45 at a party at the Dakota in NYC in the Stones’ honor during their first U.S. tour:

“Andy, I love the guys; I think they are fabulous. . . . Feel what’s in your hand . . . . [I]t’s for you and the boys. Just take it home and record it. I guarantee it. . . . I just gave you your very first American hit.” . . . the . . . breaking-out-black-but-not-white . . . smasharoonie . . . .
2Stoned

ALO also says that the song would launch the Stones into the Top 30 in the U.S. “for the very first time.” (2Stones). But what about the Stones’ self-penned “Tell Me“, which according to Billboard reached #24 in the U.S. a month earlier? (https://www.billboard.com/artist/the-rolling-stones/chart-history/hsi/). Well, I guess if you can remember the 60’s, you weren’t really there!

As to the Valentinos, Andrew Hamilton writes that:

Friendly Womack Sr. dreamed of fathering five gospel-singing sons before Friendly Jr., Bobby, Harry, Curtis, and Cecil were conceived. . . . [T]he hard-working laborer/preacher groomed them . . . and audiences watched the Womack Brothers perform at churches with Bobby standing on a crate because he was so small. . . . They met Sam Cooke on a gospel tour with the Soul Stirrers in the mid-’50s. The brothers had a row with their father some years later for singing the devil’s music and were thrown out of the house. Cooke had started SAR Records, discussions had begun for the brothers to sign, and there was no better time than right then. A call to Cooke in Los Angeles produced 3,000 dollars to wire as an advance on future royalties. They brought an old Cadillac and motored . . . to California to record for SAR Records . . . . Their first record was credited as the Womack Brothers in 1961. The two gospel sides . . . pleased their father, but didn’t sell many copies. For their second SAR release, they changed to the Valentinos and instead of singing about the Lord, they [went secular] . . . . SAR issued “Looking for a Love” (March 1962); it became a popular rocker on urban radio, particularly in their hometown where many were stunned to hear Reverend Womack’s sons singing rock & roll. . . . The fourth single, “It’s All Over Now,” was released in August 1964 ands was more country-rock than soul . . . . Their last SAR single surfaced in 1964, the same year Sam Cooke was killed at a motel. . . . [I]n 1965, Barbara, Cooke’s widow, dissolved the company. Bobby . . . married Barbara . . . and started testing the solo waters. . . . [Chess and] Jubilee Records issued [a few more of their singles].
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-valentinos-mn0000572313/biography

As to Bobby Womack’s early days, Steve Huey tells us:

[Bobby’s] upbringing was strict and religious, but his father . . . also encouraged his sons to pursue music as he had (he sang and played guitar in a gospel group). In the early ’50s, while still a child, Bobby joined his siblings . . . to form the gospel quintet the Womack Brothers. They were chosen to open a local show for the Soul Stirrers in 1953, where Bobby befriended lead singer Sam Cooke; following this break, they toured the country as an opening act for numerous gospel groups. When Cooke formed his own SAR label, he recruited the Womack Brothers with an eye toward transforming them into a crossover R&B act. Learning that his sons were moving into secular music, Friendly Womack threw them out of the house, and Cooke wired them the money to buy a car and drive out to his Los Angeles offices. The[y] made several recordings for SAR over 1960 and 1961, including a few gospel sides, but Cooke soon convinced them to record R&B and renamed them the Valentinos. In 1962, they scored a Top Ten hit on the R&B charts with “Lookin’ for a Love,” and Cooke sent them on the road behind James Brown to serve a boot-camp-style musical apprenticeship. Bobby eventually joined Cooke’s backing band as guitarist. The Valentinos’ 1964 single “It’s All Over Now,” written by Bobby, was quickly covered by the Rolling Stones with Cooke’s blessing; when it became the Stones’ first U.K. number one, Womack suddenly found himself a rich man.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/bobby-womack-mn0000064509/biography

Here are the Stones:

At the TAMI show:

On Red Skelton’s TV show. Maybe because Skelton makes lame jokes about their long hair, Mick Jagger seems about to fall asleep:

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.

Dayaks — “So Long, Sad Sack”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 8, 2023

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

917) Dayaks — “So Long, Sad Sack”

Nasty middle America garage rock — nasty vocal, nasty guitar, nasty attitude. Wait, this is from Belgium? Well, they sure put the twerp in Antwerp. “One of the coolest Euro 60s trax… EVER!!!!! Private release and only 4 known copies! Their only 45.” (liner notes to the CD comp Diggin’ for Gold, Vol. 3: A Collection of Demented 60’s R&B/Punk & Mesmerizing 60’s Pop) “Freakin’ superb!” (freakbeats8851, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0gKgf2S-ew)

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 Mourning Reign — “Satisfaction Guaranteed”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 7, 2023

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

916) The Mourning Reign — “Satisfaction Guaranteed”

Alec Palao writes that the Reign “rose rapidly in [San Jose’s] pecking order with a patented repertoire of Anglified raunch, which their deput waxing . . . with its twin guitar leads and angst-ridden vocal, articulated perfectly.” (liner notes to the CD comp Love Is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets: 1965-1970) Jud Cost adds that “[s]potlighting the sneering, Jagger-esque vocals of Beau Maggi [it] is a blistering rocker by the San Jose stalwarts”. (liner notes to the CD Comp Garage Beat ’66 Volume 3: Feeling Zero . . .) And Gilesi says that “[It] is driven along by an awesome main riff and neat guitar-work on the chorus, and we are even treated to a twin-guitar break (unusual for a garage band!). Interesting lyrics too, delivered with swaggering style by singer Beau Maggi.” (https://cosmicmindatplay.wordpress.com/2013/07/09/classic-singles-45-the-mourning-reign-our-fate-satisfaction-guaranteed-1966/) Sundazed Records hardly overstates the case: “[c]apped by the snotty, Jagger-esque vocals of leader Beau Maggi, the thrashing punker ‘Satisfaction Guaranteed,’ is an all-time garage classic.” (https://sundazed.com/c/191-Mourning-Reign.aspx)

All Music Guide tells us that:

Formed in San Jose, California . . . the Mourning Reign were garage band peers of the Chocolate Watchband and the Harbinger Complex. Initially known as the English,* they comprised Frank Beau Maggi (vocals), Johnnie Bell (lead guitar), Steve Canali (rhythm guitar), Charlie Garden (bass) and Craig Maggi (drums). They were highly popular in the suburbs of south and east San Francisco, playing punk-styled material derivative of the Rolling Stones and Yardbirds. The group recorded a cover version of ‘Evil Hearted You’ as their debut in 1966, before completing a compulsive original song, ‘Satisfaction’s Guaranteed’, as its follow-up. . . . [A]lthough two further tracks were completed for a third single, it remained unissued as the Mourning Reign split up in 1968 when several members were drafted to Vietnam.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-mourning-reign-mn0000480127

Let me give Jud Cost the final word: “Savage as the handful of records cut by the Reign were, they couldn’t get arrested in San Francisco. As South Bay musician Ned Torney once put it after his group, the Otherside, was turned down when they auditioned for Filmore Auditorium impresario Bill Graham: “Never tell anyone you’re from San Jose.” (CD Comp Garage Beat ’66 Volume 3: Feeling Zero . . .)

* Beau Maggi says that the band had to change its name to the English as the price for getting to tour with Paul Revere and the Raiders (see http://ontheflip-side.blogspot.com/2009/06/song-of-week-satisfaction-guaranteed.html) Get it?!

Here are the first generation garage revivalists the Chesterfield Kings:

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 Free-For-All/The Great Scots — “Show Me the Way”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 6, 2023

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

915) The Free-For-All/The Great Scots — “Show Me the Way”

It’s been said that the Beatles inspired untold thousands of teenagers across the Americas to buy guitars and head to their garages. Well, if the Beatles actually were a garage band and got to record a single, this is what it would sound like! From “the most kick-ass garage band ever to don kilts” (https://sundazed.com/great-scots-great-lost-great-scots-album.aspx) and “Canada’s answer to the Beatles”! (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-great-scots-mn0000070866/biography) (see #373) comes a Beatlesque garage rocker that “just soars” with a “[c]atchy melody and a great guitar riff. . . . How was this not the A-Side?” (On the Flip-Side, http://ontheflip-side.blogspot.com/2014/03/song-of-week-free-for-all-show-me-way.html)

Nova Scotia Classic Rock tells us that:

[The b]and was formed in 1962 . . . as The Beavers. . . . [w]ell known in Canada for their gimmick matching “Mohawk” haircuts. In December 1964, [they] traveled to New York City to meet with Columbia Records and their manager suggested a name change. It was decided that they should all wear Scottish kilts on stage as a new gimmick to draw attention to the band. (Their hair had grown out by now.)
http://nsclassicrock.mysite.com/greatscots.html

Cub Koda continues the story:

[The Great Scots] was [the] biggest group from Nova Scotia . . . . [and] cut three singles of wild punk music, loaded with solid playing and great screaming vocals. . . . [They] flew down to California in 1965, looking for bigger horizons to conquer. [They] capitalized on their Scottish heritage and wore Nova Scotian tartan kilts onstage, causing quite a stir everywhere they played. [They] sported solid harmonies and a wide musical palette that embraced everything from blues to rock & roll to a smattering of jazz. Their fame in California grew by leaps and bounds, doing guest shots on both American Bandstand and Shindig! . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-great-scots-mn0000070866/biography

What about the name change? Nova Scotia Classic Rock says: “[They] signed with Triumph Records in 1966 and issued two singles as “The Great Scots” and one as “The Free-For-All” on Challenge Records. The idea of releasing a single under a different name was an attempt to get airplay at stations that weren’ t playing The Great Scots – the one-off single was more R&B oriented than their usual British Invasion fare.” (http://nsclassicrock.mysite.com/greatscots.html) On the Flip Side similarly states that ” in an effort to trick jaundiced radio programmers, the band released Show Me The Way . . . under the name The Free-For-All”. (http://ontheflip-side.blogspot.com/2014/03/song-of-week-free-for-all-show-me-way.html) But Jaimie Vernon says that:

They didn’t change their name as a means to break into the US. The Great Scots were already working in the US and when bassist Dave Isner was drafted for the Vietnam War, they decided to not use the name without him – and became the Free-For-All. This single was the last thing they did before returning home to Halifax and disbanding.
Canadian Pop Music Encyclopedia, https://www.45cat.com/record/59339

Yes. As On the Flip-Side says:

Dave Isn[e]r was conscripted into the US Army and sent off to Vietnam. Yep, when you were here on a working visa, you could be drafted. Whoops. The remaining members . . . high-tailed it back to Nova Scotia . . . and their chance at stardom was lost.
http://ontheflip-side.blogspot.com/2014/03/song-of-week-free-for-all-show-me-way.html

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 Sparkles — “No Friend of Mine”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 5, 2023

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

914) The Sparkles — “No Friend of Mine”

Straight outta Lubbock, TX, the Sparkles’ “masterpiece . . . [is] an incendiary effort distinguished by [a] snarling guitar lead and [a] remarkably anguished vocal” (Jason Ankeny, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-sparkles-mn0000431652), with “the band . . . on fire”. (Jeff Jarema, liner notes to the CD comp Garage Beat ’66: Vol. 1: Like What, Me Worry?!) “Some of the hottest garage cuts of the ’60s came out of . . . Texas, and [this] stands near the top of the heap. . . . [with] a tough, driving sound complete with snarling fuzz guitar, while singer Lucky Floyd dishes out a soulful, screaming lead vocal that bristles with anger and hurt.” (Mike Stax, liner notes to the CD comp Nuggets (Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968)) “The passionate, Dylan-esque vocals on this track showcase the talents of Lucky Floyd, while the incredible guitar licks are provided by Gary Nunn. It’s hard to believe that this song did not break out and become a nationwide hit in 1967.” (Joe Knapp, https://musicmasteroldies.com/2011/02/18/new-oldies-no-friend-of-mine-by-the-sparkles/) The song, written by their manager, “is one crazy, snarly song with classic ‘don’t dare me’ styled lyrics. . . . telling the listener that they are not going to stand around and pull their hair out, because, woman, you ain’t no friend of theirs.” (On the Flip Side, http://ontheflip-side.blogspot.com/2011/07/song-of-week-no-friend-of-mine-sparkles.html)

As to the Sparkles, Jason Ankeny tells us that they “date back to 1957 and continued their performing career until 1972 . . . . After . . . the last remaining founding member . . . resigned circa 1965, [Lucky] Floyd and Bobby Smith recruited guitarists Gary P. Nunn and Louie Holt and drummer Jimmy Marriott to form the definitive Sparkles lineup . . . . (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-sparkles-mn0000431652) Then, as Joe Knapp, relates:

The drummer for Roy Orbison, Larry Parks, agreed to produce the band and he got them signed to the Hickory label. Their first release, The Hip, was a major regional hit in the Austin area. They had become the hottest band in town, especially at the University of Texas. They followed this up with a couple more singles . . . . Then, in 1967, they cut this awesome track [“No Friend”]. By this time the group was very polished and tight, having played countless gigs around the Austin area. . . . . The guys put out one more single, Hipsville 29 BC, before Nunn and Holt called it quits. [The rest of the band] moved the whole band to California and changed their name to The Pearly Gate. While working there, they landed a gig playing a rock band on a TV show called Judd For The Defense. Legend has it that they were scheduled to play at a benefit for Bobby Kennedy on the same night he was assassinated. Eventually, they returned to Texas and changed the group’s name back to The Sparkles. At one point, they added a guitarist named Steve Weisberg, who later went on to play with John Denver. In 1972, when Lucky Floyd left for California to join a folk-rock group called Red Wilder Blue, the band finally had to call it quits for the last time.
https://musicmasteroldies.com/2011/02/18/new-oldies-no-friend-of-mine-by-the-sparkles/

Oh yeah, On the Flip Side was asked by Flipsider “One question, is the guy in the background saying Yeah! or is his lunch coming up? Can’t tell.” Flip-Side responded “[Y]es, Jack, I do think his lunch is coming up. If you had to smell Lubbock on a hot Summer night, your lunch would come up too. The smell of cows and their excrement is pretty dang powerful in Lubbock.” (http://ontheflip-side.blogspot.com/2011/07/song-of-week-no-friend-of-mine-sparkles.html)

Pittsburgh’s Swamp Rats also recorded a great version in ’67:

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.

Q’65 — “I Was Young”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 4, 2023

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

913) Q’65 — “I Was Young”

This January ’67 B-side by the Dutch wild boys (see #108, 557) is a slow-burner garage classic (assuming there were garages in the Hague).

Bruce Eder gives us some history:

The Dutch quintet could have held their own with [the Pretty Things or the Yardbirds] or the Animals without breaking a sweat . . . . Q 65 have remained one of Europe’s best-kept star-caliber musical secrets for more than 30 years. . . . [They] first got together in 1965, in the Hague . . . “the Liverpool of the Netherlands,” with a music scene that had been thriving since the end of the ’50s. . . . The group’s professed influences were American soul acts . . . yet somehow, when they performed, what they played came out closer in form and spirit to the likes of the Pretty Things . . . and the Yardbirds than it did to any of those soul acts, at least at first. . . . With two successful singles under their belt, the group’s debut album, Revolution, followed in 1966. [It] was a powerful blues-rock album . . . . The album sold 3,5000 copies, a respectable number in the Netherlands, and established the group sufficiently to rate a spot playing with the Small Faces, the Spencer Davis Group, the Kinks, and the Pretty Things when they toured Holland. During 1967, they didn’t release any LPs, but did get a solid extended-play single out called Q Blues, which did well at home. Their music during this period reached what was arguably its peak . . . . The group continued trying to make it as a blues-rock band for most of 1967. Their sound began to change late in the year, just as music was turning psychedelic, and around the time just before Wim Bieler was drafted into the army. His exit heralded the end of the Q 65’s classic period. [The band, with some new members, formed] a new, more psychedelic-oriented outfit, which eventually evolved into a group called Circus, which lasted, in varying lineups, for the year of 1968. . . . In 1969, a second Q 65 album was released, entitled Revival and made up of singles and latter-day tracks. The music was still powerful and very intense — perhaps too much so — if not as accessible. Had the lineup stayed intact, the group might even have found an audience. . . . [T]he Q 65 split up at just about this point.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/q-65-mn0000379341

High Times calls them ugly, slobs, and less intelligible than a New York cab driver, and it means that as a compliment! —

Dutch punks from the ’60s [were] an entire generation of long-haired, kicks-crazed maniacs who invented “punk” . . . . One listen to [Q’65’s] lead vocalist is as good as a thousand when you’re talkin’ about comprehending Wim Bieler’s “command” of the English language. If articulation is your bag, you’d be better off hanging out with a New York cab driver! . . . [T]hese guys are damn ugly. . . . [and] are worshipped on a cult level worldwide largely due to their wild looks and pre-punk approach to playing R&B. In their heyday, they were in direct confrontation with the Outsiders [and there were] fist fights between their opposing fans at shows . . . . Q’65 were total slobs in their aggression; unintelligible forerunners of the Stooges. . . .
https://hightimes.com/culture/dutch-punk-in-the-1960s/amp/

Here is some silent video of the band performing the song matched with the recorded version:

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 Plague — “Go Away”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 3, 2023

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

912) The Plague — “Go Away”

The Kinks were a snotty garage band from Albuquerque, New Mexico? Well, no, but if they had been, “Go Away” would have been their song. The A-side of the Plague’s only single is an “organ punker with snarly vocals and frenzy single-note guitar bending!” (https://www.discogs.com/artist/1295747-The-Plague-7), a “[m]anic string-bender tellin’ some chick to ‘get lost’!!” (liner notes to the CD comp Teenage Shutdown: I’m a No-Count: 19 Top Teen Punk Stomp Classics!) that “exemplifies the British influence on local punk bands”. (liner notes to the CD comp Pebbles: Vol. 5)

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: Edwards Hand — “New York City Rain”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 2, 2023

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

891) Edwards Hand — “New York City Rain”

(see #151, 663, 813)

For song #911, how could I not play “New York City Rain”, a melancholy but brimming with hope soft rock classic by the exquisite Edwards Hand? “NYC Rain” is from the duo’s sadly unreleased (until 2015) ’71 album Rainshine, which David Wells says “extended the earlier Simon & Garfunkel comparisons but added an understated country rock feel”. (David Wells (with special thanks to John Miller), http://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2016/09/edwards-hand-rainshine-1971-uk.html)

Oregano Rathbone calls Rainshine “very much the keeper you’d anticipate, given its provenance. Soft-rock sceptics may initially struggle with the earnest balladry of . . . but [it’s] slow-release allure is cumulatively inescapable.” (https://recordcollectormag.com/reviews/album/rainshine) David Wells explains that:

Rainshine was recorded in April 1971 . . . under the aegis of George Martin. His vocal and orchestral arrangements were, of course, peerless … [and] David Dowd’s guitar work provided the sympathetic, laid-back feel that was required. . . . [Almost] everything was performed live with an absolute minimum of overdubs, with Rod [Edwards] on piano and Roger [Hand] on acoustic guitar. The duo’s harmonies were sumptuous . . . . Most importantly of all, however, the new songs were superb. . . . The album was completed in less than three weeks and duly dispatched to the American branch of RCA. [Manager] Lonnie Poncher was standing by to set up a US tour, secure in the knowledge that, whereas Rod and Roger had previously requested an orchestra, they were now a tight, self contained five-piece unit. Their future seemed rosy, but . . . . RCA were extremely unhappy about the change in style from the hard rock approach of [EH’s second album] Stranded (see #813); they didn’t hear a potential hit single, and refused to release the album. “When we gave them Stranded, we were concerned that they wouldn’t like it as it was essentially a progressive rock album”, recalls John Miller. “Instead they loved it. When it came to the next album, they wanted another prog rock set – but instead we gave them Rainshine. They were horrified. They told us that America had plenty of Simon & Garfunkel-style soft rock acts of their own, and that there was no market for an English band doing the same thing. Lennie Poncher unexpectedly announced his retirement, so we had nobody in our corner, and RCA turned down the LP. George (Martin) was really shocked – he’d never had an album rejected before!” It was a sad end to Edwards Hand, who, in Roger’s words, “went out with a whimper”. John Miller was already producing in his own right, and he suggested that they form a production company together . . . . This led to the three of them opening their own recording studio, Redan Recorders, and a new career as arrangers and record producers. Nevertheless, it should be mentioned that Rod and Roger did make one more album together: The Butterfly Ball And the Grasshopper’s Feast, released . . . in 1975. . . . However, it is the long-lost Rainshine that effectively constitutes the duo’s final work together: throughout their four albums that they recorded under the banners of either the Picadilly Line (see #806) or Edwards Hand, Rod and Roger were always searching for their own style. They believe that, on Rainshine, they finally found it.
http://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2016/09/edwards-hand-rainshine-1971-uk.html

As to the history of Edwards Hand, Forced Exposure tells us that:

Rod Edwards and Roger Hand formed this breezy, psychedelic pop outfit after briefly recording as The Picadilly Line. Sadly, th[eir first album] album never made it to a British release as their record label folded, which subsequently took their EMI deal and UK distributor contract away at precisely the wrong time. This is therefore a genuine lost UK ’60s gem that received glowing reviews upon its release in the U.S.
https://www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/edwards-hand-edwards-hand-cd/FLASH.005CD.html

Marios adds some more background:

In 1968 CBS abandoned the idea of a follow up album for the Picadilly Line and looked instead for commercial success through singles. When the singles also failed to hit the charts CBS started to lose interest in the band . . . . American manager Lennie Poncher . . . offered them a US management deal [and] secured a record contract with CRT records, a new operation set up by the tape manufacturing conglomerate. . . . [T]hrough the force of his personality [he] secured the services of George Martin to produce Rod and Roger’s new album. . . . [T]hey were to be the first group produced by George after the Beatles. . . . [A]s musical director George worked closely with the duo planning, pruning, orchestrating, recording and mixing the material. . . . [T]hey also attracted the cream of the UK session musicians. . . . The reviews were excellent and a buzz was in the air but GRT had moved too soon too fast and they lacked the depth of experience of a major label. They did not have the promotion, the organisation or quite simply the men hitting the radio stations. . . .[A]lthough Edwards Hand’s [first] album garnered critical acclaim in the USA, the GRT label folded almost immediately after release of the album taking the band’s first steps at a career with it.
http://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-edwards-hand-edwards-hand-1968-uk.html

Marios then discusses Stranded:

Having worked with George Martin on their self titled debut, Edward’s Hand began recording at Morgan Studios in 1970, attempting to create a harder and more progressive sound than before. There where no nervous second album vibes here! The album is comprised of evocative and intelligent progressive pop songs immaculately produced featuring Edward’s and Hand’s distinctive harmonies to the fore. . . . Clearly more confident and adventurous lyrically on this album, Edward’s Hand also had more time with George Martin during the pre-production stages.
http://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2012/06/edwards-hand-stranded-1970-uk-wonderful.html?m=1

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.

Thor’s Hammer — “I Don’t Care”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 1, 2023

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

910) Thor’s Hammer — “I Don’t Care”

Thor’s Hammer (see #518)— from Iceland, of course — went by the name of Hljómar (The Sound of the Chords) back home. The band gave us mortals this “brash mod stomper[] . . . with snarling vocals, Keith Moon-like drumming, and fuzz guitar” (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/thors-hammer-mn0000584715/biography), “pure 1966 punk rock [with] distorted guitar . . . angst and nihilism riddled lyrics . . . [and] calculated lead vocalist’s sneer”. (Anorak Thing, http://anorakthing.blogspot.com/2010/11/icelandic-freakbeat-mayhem.html)

Guitarist Gunnar Þórðarson said that Drummer Pétur Östlund “was a wild man”. (liner notes to the CD comp Thor’s Hammer from Keflavik . . . with love) Alec Palao notes that Östlund “had the rare Keith Moon-like ability to dementedly pummel his drum kit without ever losing the beat, and when combined with Gunnar’s unrelenting fuzztone, the energy level on tracks like ‘I Don’t Care’ . . . is pushed to virtual breaking point. ” (liner notes to Thor’s Hammer from Keflavik . . . with love)

Richie Unterberger recites Thor’s saga:

Thor’s Hammer was the most notable ’60s Icelandic rock band . . . . In part that’s because they were able to record in London for Parlophone, and even get a solitary 45 released in America in 1967. . . . In the mid- to late ’60s, they made quite a few recordings, the best of them in a ferocious mod, British Invasion style reminiscent of the early Who and sub-Who groups like the Eyes. . . . Thor’s Hammer formed as Hlijomar . . . in Keflavik, Iceland, in 1963. In a small, isolated country that didn’t even have television in 1963, a rock band of any kind was a novelty. They became extremely popular [there] and began recording for the Icelandic market in 1965, also supporting some visiting British acts on their Icelandic tours. They named themselves Thor’s Hammer for English-sung recordings made in London and released on the Parlophone label.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/thors-hammer-mn0000584715

Mike Stax adds:

Their initial releases were sung in their native tongue, but the group and their record company quickly realized that to export the group’s popularity, they would need to sing in English and adjust the band’s name accordingly. In late 1965 Thor’s Hammer traveled to England for recording sessions which included ones for tracks that were to be used in an upcoming movie starring the band, called Umbarumbamba. . . . The song was released on an EP, issued in conjunction with the movie in the fall of 1966. The film was something of a flop, however, and the record consequently sold poorly. Though the band’s popularity was fading in their home country, they pursued their international ambitions with a 1967 single for Columbia Records. However, the single — cut by U.S. session men, with the band’s vocals added later– sank without a trace. In Iceland, the group’s career . . . eventually recovered and they thrived in a more progressive vein until their final split in 1969.
liner notes to the CD comp Nuggets II (Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969)

Now, Umbarumbamba wasn’t a feature — only 15 minutes long, it is a “stylized account of an Icelandic country dance.” (https://www.icelandicfilms.info/films/nr/783) Supposedly, the film has never been screened since. Well, I want to see it! If anyone who reads this blog has done so, let us all know!

I am not sure what Umbarumbamba means — Google Translate tells me that it’s English equivalent is Umbarumbamba. Maybe one problem here is that Iceland don’t have the best international marketers — naming their country Iceland when it is so beautiful while Greenland gets to call itself Greenland (what a joke)! Maybe if they had named it Ummagumma, it would have been a blockbuster.

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.

Hendrickson Road House — “I Wondered If You Knew”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — July 31, 2023

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

909) Hendrickson Road House — “I Wondered If You Knew”

On gossamer wings, this song takes off for a brief moment, and then the flight is over. It’s from then 19 year old Sue Eakins’ “lost classic of the West Coast psychedelic folk genre” (https://www.lpcdreissues.com/item/hendrickson-road-house), “[s]o good [a] slice of acid West Coast folk that it’s difficult not to go overboard” (Jan Zarebski, http://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2012/08/hendrickson-road-house-hendrickson-road.html), “one of the great holy grails of the psych/folk rock world”. (https://thatrealschitt.wordpress.com/2011/06/05/the-hendrickson-road-house-reissue-is-a-reality/)

LPCD Reissues says “Recorded to showcase the prodigious talents of teenage singer/songwriter Sue Eakins, the Hendrickson Road House album was issued in 1970 as a limited edition pressing by the Ojai-based Two:Dot studio/label. Widely regarded these days as one of the rarest vinyl artefacts to emerge from the late 60s Californian counterculture, the LP now sells for in excess of $1000 on the rare occasions that copies surface.” (https://www.lpcdreissues.com/item/hendrickson-road-house)

Jan Zarebski adds that:

Lost for more than 40 years and coveted by a handful of acolytes willing to exchange $1,000 for a copy, this is a rediscovered gem so pure it makes all previous claims to that title look like uneducated sycophancy. The sophisticated jazzy undertow . . . and sparse, intelligent arrangements are bound together by a female vocal so delicious, it could be picked and eaten. . . . [T]he album is littered with unique and varied touches of class in all departments.
http://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2012/08/hendrickson-road-house-hendrickson-road.html

Finally, Aaron Milenski:

This rare, moody folkrock album is one of the few from the era in which the creative force is a woman, Sue Eakins. It isn’t much like all of the Airplane- wannabe bands, either. [It] has a distinctive sound with mildly jazzy arrangements, subtle lead guitar, a tad of autoharp, smooth vocals and a definite late-night feel. The guitar playing has a bit of a westcoast influence, though it’s not the least bit heavy. The closest comparison would be the Serpent Power songs with Tina Meltzer on lead vocals [see #873]. . . . local Ojai [California] 19 year-old Eakins (listed as “Akins” on the sleeve) sings all of the songs, and the album has a coherence not often felt in the genre.
The Acid Archives, 2nd Ed. (Patrick Lundborg, ed.)

Check out That Real Schitt’s cool interview with Sue Eakins: https://thatrealschitt.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/the-sue-akins-interview/.

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.

Donovan — “The Land of Doesn’t Have to Be”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — July 30, 2023

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

908) Donovan — “The Land of Doesn’t Have to Be”

This “brilliant” (Diego Olivas, https://peanutbutterpope.wordpress.com/2017/07/29/special-review-26-a-gift-from-a-flower-to-a-garden-donovan/), “dreamy and whimsical” (Lorne Murdoch, Donovan: Breezes of Patchouli: His Studio Recordings: 1966-1969) song comes from “Donovan’s 1967 hippie epic ‘A Gift From a Flower to a Garden’. . . . [which finds him] writing and singing about love, the sun, making wishes, tinkers, hermits, starfishes and more, and it’s pretty damn great.” (Peanut Butter Pope, https://peanutbutterpope.wordpress.com/2017/07/29/special-review-26-a-gift-from-a-flower-to-a-garden-donovan/) What’s so funny ’bout peace, love, the sun, making wishes, tinkers, hermits, and starfishes?!

Perhaps because GFFTG yielded only one minor hit in the U.S. (“Wear Your Love Like Heaven” reaching #23) and none in the UK, the album has been unfairly overlooked.

Bruce Eder writes of the album that:

Rock music’s first two-LP box set, A Gift from a Flower to a Garden overcomes its original shortcomings and stands out as a prime artifact of the flower-power era that produced it. The music still seems a bit fey, and overall more spacey than the average Moody Blues album of this era, but the sheer range of subjects and influences make this a surprisingly rewarding work. Essentially two albums recorded simultaneously in the summer of 1967, the electric tracks include Jack Bruce among the session players. The acoustic tracks represent an attempt by Donovan to get back to his old sound and depart from the heavily electric singles (“Sunshine Superman,” etc.) and albums he’d been doing — it is folkier and bluesier (in an English folk sense) than much of his recent work.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/a-gift-from-a-flower-to-a-garden-mw0000691015

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.

Ralph McTell — “Daddy’s Here”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — July 29, 2023

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

907) Ralph McTell — “Daddy’s Here”

From the “Streets of London” comes a stunning and poignant from the first note song from McTell’s second album (Spiral Staircase). The autobiographical folk song “expresses well [a] child’s anxiety that accompanies the increasingly rare visits of his [absentee] father”. By the way, I reserve the right to play “Streets of London” sometime in the future, at least the Spiral Staircase version. So sue me!

Paul Jenkins delves into “Daddy’s Here”:

McTell faced a difficult childhood. His father walked out on his family when Ralph was only three. . . . [and] reappeared periodically, but his last visit came in 1951. On that occasion young Ralph interrupted his parents’ row and “burst out with a string of invective that stopped both my parents in their tracks” . . . . “Why don’t you go away and leave us alone?” he recalls shouting at him. . . . McTell admits that “most of my songwriting is autobiographical” . . . . It’s only natural, then, that many of McTell’s songs should concern fathers and fatherhood. His earliest song to touch on the topic is “Daddy’s Here”, from the 1968 Spiral Staircase album. Told in the first person and played in a slow, wistful way, the song expresses well the child’s anxiety that accompanies the increasingly rare visits of his father. Touchingly, the child’s first thought is for the effect the visit will have on his mother . . . . The child appreciates the effect his father’s desertion has had on his mother . . . . Such compassion is a McTell trademark. On the other hand . . . the . . . mother leaves the boy and his brother alone in order to speak in private with her husband, prompting the boy’s agonizing question: “How could we know you’d only took a walk/To a neighbour’s for a quiet talk?” . . . Mirroring the boy’s anxiety are the dying sunshine he sees “flickering on a grey wall”, and the growling dog he hears in the hall. The anxious children are reduced to “playing guessing games”, wondering what the latest twist in the plot of their lives will be. . . . To ease their fears, the boy and his brother tell each other stories. Soon enough, however, order is restored to their lives. The everyday, comforting details of “radio, celery, and Sunday tea” signal a return to normalcy. Life is better without the interloping father, and somehow the boy knows that he will no longer bother them.

Fortunately, a surrogate father appeared in McTell’s life. The caring actions of this kind man are described in “Mr. Connaughton”, from the 1987 album, Bridge of Sighs. The Irishman who lived above the McTell family for a time helped the boy experience many of the normal father-son activities he would otherwise have missed: building a soapbox cart, and fixing up a motorbike. Even more important, though, was the daily emotional presence of a man who realized how much the boy needed him . . . .
http://www.ralph-mctell.co.uk/essay.html

Mark Deming delves into Ralph McTell:

Best remembered for writing the classic and much-covered song “Streets of London,” Ralph McTell is one of the most enduring figures on the British folk scene. A talented guitarist and songwriter who also possesses a strong and expressive voice, McTell has enjoyed a long and successful career in the U.K . . . [but] he’s only attracted a cult following in the United States . . . . Early efforts such as Spiral Staircase . . . were the foundation of [his] reputation with his often witty and just as frequently poignant songwriting and warm, rich vocals. . . . [I]n the ’80s he scored unexpected success composing music for children’s television . . . .

McTell was born Ralph May in Farnborough, Kent, England . . . . Ralph’s father Frank McTell . . . abandoned the family in 1947, and Winifred McTell raised her sons . . . on her own in the South London town of Croydon. Frank showed an interest in music at an early age, and when he was seven, his uncle gave him a harmonica and he learned to play. When the skiffle boom hit the U.K., Ralph bought a used ukulele and . . Zz quickly taught himself to play and formed a band. . . . [When he] had grown tired of school he] signed up for the Junior Leaders Battalion of The Queen’s Surrey Regiment. Military life proved even worse than education, and after six months he was discharged and he enrolled in college, studying art. . . . McTell immersed himself in beat literature and American folk, jazz, and blues music. . . . [H]e took his cues from Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Robert Johnson, and Blind Willie McTell, taking his new stage name from the latter. . . . [H]e he took off to travel along the south coast of England and the rest of Europe, where he made his way around hitchhiking and busking. . . . [He] tried out a conventional career as a teacher but continued playing folk clubs around London. He began a long tenure at Les Cousins in the Soho section of the city and there he began to make a name for himself. A music publisher was impressed by McTell’s early songs and secured a recording deal for him. His first album, 8 Frames a Second, was released . . . in 1968; Capitol Records issued it in North America, to little response. . . . McTell began attracting a large audience as a live act, mixing vintage blues and original material in his sets. In 1969, McTell issued his second album, Spiral Staircase (which featured his first recording of “Streets of London”), with the third, My Side of Your Window, following several months later. . . . [I]n December [1969 he] was headlining his first major London concert. . . . [and i]n May 1970[ he] sold out the Royal Festival Hall and was booked to play the Isle of Wight Festival . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ralph-mctell-mn0000863774/biography

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.

Los Shakers — “Rompan Todo”/”Break It All”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — July 28, 2023

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

906) Los Shakers — “Rompan Todo”/”Break It All”

I’ve played songs that I’ve called Beatlesque, and I’ve played a song that I called “the greatest early Beatles imitation I have ever heard” (see #849). But hands down, the greatest Beatles fascimile of all time — “the Realest Fake Beatles to ever record” (Gaylord Fields, https://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2008/07/fake-beatles-no.html) and “one of the most uncannily Beatlesque bands from anywhere, at any time” (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/por-favor%21-mw0000102599) — were from Uruguay. Yes, Uruguay. In fact, they were part of what Wikipedia cheekily calls “the Uruguayan Invasion” of Latin America. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Shakers) I am talking of Los Shakers, or the Shakers, and today I feature a brilliant song that could easily have ended up on the soundtrack to A Hard Days’ Night. In fact, the song, “a fast-moving rocker bubbling over with frothy excitement” (Mike Stax, liner notes to the CD comp Nuggets II (Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969)), could have gone to #1 worldwide if it had the Beatles’ name on it. Of all the “brilliantly bogus Beatle songs on their first LP . . . [this is the] standout tune”. (Gaylord Fields, https://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2008/07/fake-beatles-no.html)

The song received the honor of placement on Nuggets II, and Mike Stax wrote that:

[I]n 1964 [Los Shakers] . . . began to peddle the new Mersey Sound — Montivideo style. This was a potentially embarrassing recipe, to be sure — other bands around the world certainly made fools of themselves trying — but [Los] Shakers proved to be an entirely more convincing proposition. Not only did they have the musical smarts to pull off the sound, but in the Fattoruso brothers they also possessed a strong songwriting team who could dash off Beatles-flavored original material with disarming ease. Their first single in 1964, . . “Rompan Todo” . . . . became a massive hit all over South America, and the group toured across most of the continent to rapturous receptions.
liner notes to the CD comp Nuggets II (Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969)

Richie Unterberger tells us that:

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

They were at their best, perhaps, when mimicking the A Hard Day’s Night-era Fab Four, as they did on their 1965 debut LP, Los Shakers . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/los-shakers-mn0000360089/biography, https://www.allmusic.com/album/por-favor%21-mw0000102599

Gaylord Fields adds:

Hugo, Osvaldo, Pelin and Caio . . . were as uncannily accomplished at bringing forth the psychedelic Pepperisms as the Merseybeat. . . . [T]he language they actually sang in . . . was a charmingly imperfect English. [They cast a] magical spell . . . . The group . . . play[ed] . . . jazz[] when they contracted Beatlemania after a screening of ¡Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Paul, John, George y Ringo! (or A Hard Day’s Night, as it’s known to the gringos). Signed to EMI’s Odeon label in Argentina, Los Shakers issued three spectacular LPs in their 1965-68 recording lifespan (actually, four, if you count their U.S. only re-recordings of their early songs . . . ).
https://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2008/07/fake-beatles-no.html

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

Squeezed in between mighty Brazil and Argentina, Uruguay has historically served as a geopolitical buffer zone, a nation whose own political and cultural identity has been overshadowed by its powerful neighbors. Yet during the 1960s this small country generated some of the most original rock found anywhere in the hemisphere. Foreign influences abounded, from the Anglo-rock invasion by the U.K. and the U.S., to the commercialized pop of Argentina and the cultural remixings of the Brazilian tropicalistas. Uruguayan rockers chewed on these influences and spat them back, mockingly at first and more somberly as the night of political repression fell. Uruguay was long known as the Switzerland of South America. It had a stable, two-party political system with a large middle class. The military had stayed out of politics and wasn’t expected to come back. When Beatlemania hit the Western Hemisphere, Uruguayan youth were especially ready to join in the revelry. “Discódromo,” a freewheeling radio program (and, later, TV show) started by Rubén Castillo in 1960, had already exposed the youth of Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital, to the teen culture emerging abroad. . . . [With] Los Shakers. . . . Uruguay’s era of English-language música beat had begun. Other groups soon followed, notably Los Mockers, whose artful impersonation of The Rolling Stones was the counterpart to Los Shakers. . . . By the mid 1960s, scores of so-called “beat bands” were performing across Uruguay. They did so in spaces ranging from the semi-underground cuevas (caves), as they were known, to the ritzy hotels and private clubs that dotted the country’s beach resorts. Except for Los Shakers . . . these bands essentially performed covers of foreign hits. Moreover, they all sang in English. They did so not sheepishly but with unabashed exuberance . . . . As Esteban Hirschfield, organist for Los Mockers, later remarked in an interview, there was “no shame” in imitating the Stones “as closely as possible.” “On the contrary,” he reflected, “we were proud of it.” Singing in English seemed the obvious ticket for staking a claim to a world beyond Uruguay. . . . By 1968, the cultural climate for making music was undergoing a radical shift. A self-confidence established over the previous years had laid the foundations for greater experimentation. The political situation had shifted as well. Los Tupamaros, an urban guerrilla group, captured the headlines with a spate of kidnappings in the name of revolutionary justice. . . . In June 1968, the president declared a state of emergency, suspending numerous constitutional protections. Uruguay was now on a slippery slope that lead to direct military rule in 1973. . . . [But] for a brief period, English-language Uruguayan rock dominated the South American pop charts.
https://www.npr.org/sections/altlatino/2011/07/25/137627714/shakers-and-mockers-uruguays-place-in-latin-rock-history#English3

Here is the Audio Fidelity version:

Here is another clip with more great Beatles- style shenanigans by the band:

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: Tony Rivers and the Castaways — “Mr. Sun”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — July 27, 2023

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

905) Tony Rivers and the Castaways — “Mr. Sun”

Here’s a really neat unreleased in the ‘60s UK pop psych nugget with a total Beach Boys vibe. Maybe if it were named “The Warmth of Mr. Sun” . . .

David Wells writes that in 1967 “the new lineup of the Castaways that [Rivers had] assembled broke away that autumn to form Grapefruit with George Alexander. Before the split, though, they had recorded a handful of extremely high quality demos, including an outstanding new Rivers song called “Mr. Sun.” (Let’s Go Down and Blow Our Minds: The British Psychedelic Sounds of 1967 CD comp)

Bruce Eder tells us more about TR&C:

Led by Tony Rivers, this group started out doing R&B-based material in the early ’60s. Originally signed to EMI’s Columbia label, they covered songs by Jackie Wilson in their early days, and had a special penchant for recording songs from American artists, regardless of the idiom. As the decade progressed, they moved into more of a pop and harmony based sound, recording songs like “She” and, in 1966, a single of their version of the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows.” They jumped to Parlophone later that year, and then Immediate, where they stayed for one single, “Girl Don’t Tell” b/w “Girl From Salt Lake City,” then released a single through Polydor. They split up in 1968 when Rivers, with Ray Brown and Kenny Rowe, formed Harmony Grass, a more overtly psychedelic outfit.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/tony-rivers-the-castaways-mn0001341073/biography

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.

Fortes Mentum — “Marrakesh, Pt. 1”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — July 26, 2023

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

904) Fortes Mentum* — “Marrakesh, Pt. 1”

This is not your daddy’s “Marrakesh Express”! This exquisite ‘69 B-side by London’s Fortes Mentum has more of a “Charge of the Light Brigade” vibe!

Maggie Regan tells us that:

Danny Beckerman was a staff writer at Morgan Music in 1966 and wanted to get a band together to record his own material. He decided on talented London musicians Frank Bennett on vocals, Ron Regan on bass, Keith Giles on drums, Alan Ward on Organ and Barry Clark on lead guitar. Originally Danny didn’t want to be part of the band but as they all got on well together the other guys persuaded him to join them and so was born, Sons of Chopin??? Their first single was refused by the BBC, they wouldn’t play it under copyright rules because, wait for it…… they were not actually the, Sons of Chopin!!! So instead ‘Saga Of A Wrinkled Man’ became the first single from the newly named [Fortes Mentum]. . . . They released three singles as Fortes Mentum. Despite a good following, the band never made any money although they performed all over London and the UK including such famous venues of the time like The Whisky A Go Go and the Starlight Ballroom in Crawley, as well as the usual college gigs and such. In March 1969 they were offered a unique opportunity to work in Germany. Unfortunately Alan and Barry had very good ‘day jobs’ and they didn’t want to give them up. They were replaced by Rod Creasy on keyboards and Paul Coles on lead guitar. This line up worked the famous Top 10 Club in Hamburg and the K52 Club in Frankfurt. It was at the Starlight Ballroom later on that Frank and Danny had a falling out. Danny decided to pursue his career in songwriting and so left the band. The inimitable Bob Flag (ex-Riot Squad) joined on saxaphone and flute. Fortes Mentum then toured with David Bowie amongst others but prestige doesn’t pay the rent and the band disbanded around a year later due to lack of gigs. The band had known agents such as The London City Agency/Capital Artistes but earning a living was hard in those days. The scene went a bit dead, even though the band were getting terrific write ups.
http://www.fortesmentum.com/

* HarvestmanMan says: “If the name [in Latin] was supposed to mean ‘strong mind’ (just one), it’d be ‘fortis mens’… if it was supposed to mean ‘strong minds’ it’d be ‘fortes mentes’. Someone never completed their language classes in school… ;)”. (https://www.45cat.com/record/2400). Harsh!

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.

Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band– “Hi Hi Hazel”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — July 25, 2023

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

903) Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band — “Hi Hi Hazel”

This hilarious A-side by American expatriate soul stomper Geno Washington and his Ram Jam Band reached #45 in the UK, and jumped an additional three spots to #42 when released as a single by the Troggs the following year (unbeknownst to the Troggs themselves, David Berglas, https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Record-Mirror/60s/67/record-mirror-1967-08-19-s-ocr.pdf). The song was written by the songwriting team of Phil Coulter and Bill Martin. Coulter recalls that:

We came up with a half-spoken, laid-back, honky-tonk song called “Hi Hi Hazel” and did a great demo, featuring a young Scots singer called John Drummond . . . . The biggest act on the London R&B club scene right then was a black American singer called Geno Washington. He was hugely popular but had never had a hit. Bill decided that Geno was our man and he set off to Pye Records . . . . Bill was hell of a salesman. On 15 July 1966, “Hi Hi Hazel” was released as a single by Geno . . . . This was our first big shot and we were thrilled to have even achieved that single release. The real bonus would be if it could only get into the charts. . . . Although it stalled at number 45, as far as we were concerned, we’d had our first hit. We took further encouragement from the fact that the song was then included on the first album by the Troggs. We began to feel we were definitely on the right track and kept writing furiously.
Bruised, Never Broken

The Fringe by the Sea Festival enthuses about Geno:

His love of Blues and Soul music soon found him jamming with local bands in and around Ipswich and eventually led him to London where he caused a sensation singing with top R&B acts Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames and Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band at the legendary Flamingo Club in Soho. The rest, as they say, is history. Geno teamed up with some of London’s hottest musicians and Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band very quickly became established as the most exciting live band in Britain, regularly topping the bill over World famous artistes, as nobody in their right mind wanted to go on stage after a Geno show!
https://www.fringebythesea.com/geno_washington/

davidrolfe3350 recalls that:

I played in their support band at the Majestic Ballroom in Reading around 1967. I was 16. . . . Hi Hazel was in the charts. The place was heaving. Gino’s player/manager then, I think he was on trumpet, asked if we would leave our Vox amps on stage to boost theirs. We did. At the end of Gino’s set he did Hi Hazel – more funky than the above version – and there was a classic “euphoric” stage invasion and our stuff, as well as much of theirs, was damaged. Their manager took me to one side, looked around the wreckage, took out one of the biggest wad of fivers I had ever seen and started counting out for a long time and then handed me the cash and apologized for the trouble. Meanwhile, Gino was “giving autographs” to the large number of female fans craving his attention. Heady days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei7wYtj5vYQ

Of Geno’s genealogy, John Bush tells us that:

Initially stationed in England for the Air Force during the early ’60s, American soul shouter Geno Washington fronted a British group known as the Ram Jam Band for a series of moderate U.K. chart hits during 1966-1967. Though he was born in Indiana, Washington had the grit of a deep soul testifier like Wilson Pickett or Don Covay. While stationed in East Anglia, Washington became known as a frequent stand-in at gigs around London. When guitarist Pete Gage saw him at a club in 1965, he asked Washington to join his new group . . . . Geno Washington stayed in England after his release from the Air Force, and the band earned notice around the Southeast for an infectious live show that packed dozens of up-tempo R&B/soul nuggets into a half-hour. Signed to Piccadilly by early 1966, the group just broke into the Top 40 with “Water.” Though it was their highest-charting single, Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band hit the charts three times in the next year with “Hi-Hi Hazel,” a cover of “Que Sera Sera,” and “Michael.” The band’s first two LPs — Hand Clappin’ Foot Stompin’ Funky-Butt…Live! and Hipsters, Flipsters, Finger-Poppin’ Daddies! — were much better documents of the band at work, and both hit the British Top Ten. Still, Geno Washington recorded only two more albums with the Ram Jam Band before splitting by 1970. . . . [In 1980,] Washington earned his only number one hit (of a sort), when Dexys Midnight Runners took the tribute track “Geno” to the top of the charts. . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/geno-washington-mn0000201996/biography

The Troggs:

Grandma’s Tonic (#95 in Australia):

Gary and the Hornets (#96 in the U.S.)

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.

Tangerine Peel — “Talkin’ ‘Bout a New Day”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — July 24, 2023

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

902) Tangerine Peel — “Talkin’ ‘Bout a New Day”

From the pen of ’70s superstar songwriter/producer Mike Chapman comes this ode to mindfulness (starting at 20:54 on the album) with a propulsive groove and the immoral words “I walked to the corner, looked at the trees and listened to the bees, and the dogs bark.” Within a few years, Chapman would be talkin’ ’bout a new wave!

It comes from an album with many strong points, but of which Vernon Joynson says “[t]he best thing . . . was the psychedelic artwork on the sleeve. The contents were very disappointing.” (The Tapestry of Delights Revisited)

Bruce Eder unpeels the Tangerine:

Tangerine Peel was best known during the second half of the 1960s as a five-man psychedelic band, specializing in a slightly light but pleasant brand of the music. Their principal claim to fame was the presence of future songwriter/producer Mike Chapman in their ranks during the late ’60s, when they cut records such as their version of the Bee Gees’ “Every Christian Lion-Hearted Man Will Show You,” cut for British United Artists in 1967. Subsequent singles included “Solid Gold Mountain” and “Talking to No One” for British CBS, and “Never Say Never Again” and “Play Me a Sad Song and I’ll Dance” for British MGM. Chapman left before the group recorded its one and only LP, Soft Delights, in 1970. By that time, the group had abandoned its psychedelic influences in favor of a more conventional pop/rock sound.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/tangerine-peel-mn0001626969

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 Strawberry Alarm Clock — “Sit with the Guru”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — July 23, 2023

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

901) The Strawberry Alarm Clock — “Sit with the Guru”

This ’68 A-side (reaching #65) and track from the Strawberry Alarm Clock’s second album (see #127, 272) is “jaunty and poppy, with an aggressive guitar vying for supremacy with the lovely, melodic vocal work. . . . [It’s a] garage psych classic . . . [that] pretty much has it all: blistering electric guitar, lush vocals . . , ringing keyboards, enjoyable slapdash drumming, and hippie lyrics. There’s even a sudden, sitar-led freakout section towards the end.” (Jeremy, https://www.unwindwithsac.com/songs/sit-with-the-guru)

Richie Unterberger tells us that:

[Vocalist/keybordist Mark] Weitz came up with [“Guru”] as an attempt to get a follow-up single for “Tomorrow” . . . . [Guitarist Ed] King says it was “written to please the record company,” and Weitz recalls, “I called Ed over to my house, we worked out the bridge, and the song was finished musically. ‘Sit with the Guru’ had lyrics written by an outside UNI [the label]-hired writer, Roy Freeman . . . . I guess you might say it was with the flow of the times, especially since we were indoctrinated into Transcendental Meditation for a brief period of time while on a Beach Boys tour of the southern U.S. Originally the song ended too normal. We came up with the middle eastern horn raga thing. I remember that UNI didn’t like that ending. It dirtied it up. In a way they were right, but we kept it that way anyway. We were fighting that kind of thing all the time.”
http://www.richieunterberger.com/sac1.html

Speaking of those hippie lyrics — here’s a representative taste:

“Yesterday’s invalidated
Hip mankind on, turn your mind on
Sit with the guru
Meditation, ooh! . . .

Lyrically, “Sit With The Guru” is a jumble of such new-agey descriptions of an evening with some all-important ‘guru’. Who is it exactly? Well it may be an actual person, or LSD or some similar drug, or the experience itself. Maybe it’s something else entirely. Ultimately it doesn’t really matter. . . . In this song, the lyrics are actually more psychedelic than the music, at least until the trip really starts and the atonal, arrhythmic sitar takes over for a few brief seconds.
https://www.unwindwithsac.com/songs/sit-with-the-guru

Of the Clock’s second album, Wake Up . . . It’s Tomorrow, Bruce Eder tells us:

Strawberry Alarm Clock toured nationally for the second half of 1967 and much of 1968 off the success of “Incense and Peppermints” [see #704 for the genesis of ‘I&P’] . . . . The five-man version of the band cut a follow-up single, “Tomorrow[]” . . . that reached number 23 nationally in early 1968. The song had lots of great hooks, vocal and instrumental, with a killer feedback-soaked guitar break . . . . [A]long with the rest of the album, it also benefited from the presence of vocal coach Howard Davis who was brought in to help the members push the harmony singing displayed on Incense and Peppermints to new levels of sophistication. . . . Despite the success of “Tomorrow,” the album . . . never sold as well as it should have, mostly because Uni Records was late in getting it out, a month after “Tomorrow” had started its run up the charts. . . . [But the album] was much more an expression of the five members, complicated by the sometimes very direct (and sometimes interfering) influence of the record label, which was always looking for the most accessible, commercial sound, and also by some disagreements. . . . [T]he album did fit together in its odd way . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/strawberry-alarm-clock-mn0000633079/biography

As to SAC, Bruce Eder:

Strawberry Alarm Clock occupies a peculiar niche in the history of ’60s rock. Their name is as well known to anyone who lived through the late-’60s psychedelic era as that of almost any group one would care to mention, mostly out of its sheer, silly trippiness as a name and their one major hit, “Incense and Peppermints,” which today is virtually the tonal equivalent of a Summer of Love flashback. But there was a real group there, with members who had played for a long time on the Southern California band scene, who were proficient on their instruments and who sang well and generated four whole LPs . . . . The band’s origins go back to Glendale, CA, in the mid-’60s, and a group then known as the Sixpence. It was 1965 and all things British were still a selling point, so the name made as much sense as anything else. Their lineup was formed from the members of various other bands coming together . . . . They mostly did covers of then-popular hits and developed a considerable following in Glendale and also in Santa Barbara, playing there so often that a lot of histories have them coming out of Santa Barbara.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/strawberry-alarm-clock-mn0000633079/biography

The SAC “perform” “Guru” on The Dating Game (and try to get a date!) —

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.

Jon Plum — “Alice”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — July 22, 2023

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

900) Jon Plum — “Alice”

UK baroque splendor! “Alice” is “a heavily orchestrated melancholic pop ballad” (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited) “with [an] intense Barry Ryan-ish vocal and a superb production courtesy of Ray Singer, an acolyte of Mark Wirtz”. (Bon Stanley, liner notes to the CD comp Tea & Symphony: The English Baroque Sound: 1968-1974) Not to say the lyrics are depressing, but the chorus goes “With head as heavy as a millstone, and her eyes a raging glacier, she went out to find her love but all in vain.”

Jon Plum was not a person. Jon Plum was singer Jonathan Edward Kennett and writer David Roy Plummer. “Their two singles for Simon Napier-Bell’s SNB label were both excellent, but ‘Alice’ has the edge”. (Bob Stanley, liner notes to the CD comp Tea & Symphony: The English Baroque Sound: 1968-1974)

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.

1910 Fruitgum Company — “Mr. Cupid”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — July 21, 2023

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

899) 1910 Fruitgum Company* — “Mr. Cupid”

Not bubblegum — power pop — from 1910 Fruitgum Company, who would rather have been playing Vanilla Fudge anyway!

Jason Ankeny tells us:

The prototypical bubblegum group, the 1910 Fruitgum Company was the brainchild of Buddah Records house producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz, also the masterminds behind such phenoms as the Ohio Express and the Music Explosion. The . . . formula was a simple one: they enlisted anonymous studio musicians . . . and prolifically recorded lightweight, fluffy pop songs which found an eager audience in fans looking for an alternative to the edgier rock music of the late ’60s. With the 1910 Fruitgum Company, the[y] . . . scored their first major hit, the 1968 Top Five smash “Simon Says,” launching the bubblegum craze; that same year they also scored with the singles “1, 2, 3 Red Light” and “Goody Goody Gumdrops,” all three issued as title tracks from the group’s first trio of LPs. 1969’s “Indian Giver,” the title cut from the Fruitgum Company’s fourth album, was their last Top Five hit, and after one last LP . . . the group disbanded; some of its members later resurfaced in the Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/1910-fruitgum-company-mn0000501692/biography

But 1910 Fruitgum was not a collection of anonymous studio musicians! As band member Frank Jeckell explained in a conversation with Gary James:

Frank Jeckell – We formed in the Winter of 1966 – 1967. . . . I had a band with four pieces and the drummer left the band. I approached two other guys and the five of us became the original 1910 Fruitgum Company.

Gary James – Where were you playing? Clubs?

Jeckell – We were mostly a high school, garage band. We didn’t do much in the way of clubs. (laughs) Swim clubs, teen dances, things like that.

James – Swim clubs? I never heard that one before.

Jeckell – Well, we would have these in the area of New Jersey where we lived, which was Linden, not too far from Newark airport. There were suburban areas and one of the things that people would do for Summer entertainment was join a swim club. Basically it was a big pool and you could go in there and have lunch. You paid your money and your kids would spend some quality time there, and you knew where they were.

James – And the band would play while the kids were splashing around in the pool?

Jeckell – Exactly. . . . Geoff and Jerry Katz, the producers we ultimately signed with, who produced the hits for us, first came to hear us at a swim club. (laughs)

. . . .

James – According to Rolling Stone’s Encyclopedia Of Rock ‘n’ Roll, The 1910 Fruitgum Company was…

Jeckell – A studio band. What a lie.

James – “A faceless studio assemblage formed by the Kasnette-Katz production team for Buddah Records to record Bubblegum Pop.” Is that accurate?

Jeckell – (laughs) No, no.

. . . .

James – Did you write any of your material?

Jeckell – We wrote quite a few of the albums cuts, though we did not pen any of the hits.

. . . .

Jeckell – We were doing covers of some of the more heavier stuff. We used to do “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” by Vanilla Fudge. And stuff by Hendrix and stuff by Cream. We were much closer to a Hard Rock band than anything. We did some lighter stuff. We did some Beatles stuff, Rolling Stones stuff. But we didn’t play Bubblegum music and we didn’t intend to play Bubblegum music. Suddenly we made this song they gave us into a hit and we were Bubblegum superstars, so to speak. (laughs) The first of the genre.
http://www.classicbands.com/1910FruitgumCompanyInterview.html

* Frank Jeckell: “[T]he name of the group came from an old gum wrapper that I found in a jacket pocket when I was looking for some retro clothes to wear. I tried this suit on and I found this gum wrapper in the pocket and that kind of led to the name.” (http://www.classicbands.com/1910FruitgumCompanyInterview.html)

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: