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.”
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.
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 . . . .
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.
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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)
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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.
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.
* 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)
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The heart of Moby Grape’s ability was in their unique three-way guitar cross-talk, and it has never been more apparent than on “Murder in My Heart.” Based on a simple, bluesy groove and chord changes, its basic feel has been said to have been inspired by Stephen Still’s “For What It’s Worth.”* The guitars all interweave patterns over the melody and groove, creating a tapestry of crunchy white noise.
Co-written by lead guitarist Jerry Miller & drummer Don Stevenson, “Murder in My Heart For The Judge” leads off with its fun and funky chorus, riding a big, slow, Bob Mosley bass groove, with one of them getting lower than the bass leaning into the chorus with a faux-soulful “Iiii’ve” . . . . Meanwhile, guitarists Skip Spence, Miller & Peter Lewis are all playing off of and around the beat, Lewis soloing even before then get into that chorus. Their interplay gets even weirder as the first verse — sung from the perspective of a scumbag who’s probably guilty as f*ck, but still can’t help himself. . . . In the end, after the book has been thrown by the mean old judge, the guitars take over. There’s a solo in one speaker, while the rhythm guitars remain slightly disjointed, like they can’t believe they’re going to spend the rest of their lives in the joint. Then suddenly one of them thinks “f*ck it” and launches into a solo the other speaker, just as the drums start kicking into a short sharp rave up that just as you think is going to take off gets slammed shut behind the jail guitar doors.
I don’t know about “scumbag”, as Alex Palao points out that the song “dated back to Miller and Stevenson’s Frantics days, in subject matter at least, referring as it did to a legendary run-in over parking tickets.” (liner notes to the Love Is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets: 1965-1970 CD comp)
As to Wow, Mark Deming writes:
Between the time that Moby Grape released their brilliant self-titled debut and when their second album Wow appeared in 1968, a little thing called Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band happened, and for the next few years it was no longer enough for a band with some claim to importance to just play rock & roll, even if they approached it with the freshness and imagination Moby Grape displayed on their first LP. Bowing to the pervading influences of the day, Wow is a far more ambitious album than Moby Grape, trading in the latter’s energetic simplicity for an expansive production complete with strings, horns, and lots of willful eccentricity . . . . [R]epeated listening reveals this album has plenty of strengths despite the excess gingerbread . . . . Wow lacks the rev-it-up spirit of Moby Grape’s masterpiece, but [the trio] guitar work is just as impressive and richly layered, and the group’s harmonies and songwriting chops are still in solid shape. . . . Moby Grape’s . . . many virtues . . . are visible on Wow despite the layers of studio excess, which sapped the momentum and charm of this band without snuffing them out altogether.
[The] follow-up, the double-LP Wow, was one of the most disappointing records of the ’60s, in light of the high expectations fostered by the debut. The studio half of the package had much more erratic songwriting than the first recording, and the group members didn’t blend their instrumental and vocal skills nearly as well. The “bonus” disc was almost a total waste, consisting of bad jams.
As to the band, Unterberger tells us:
One of the best ’60s San Francisco bands, Moby Grape, were also one of the most versatile. Although they are most often identified with the psychedelic scene, their specialty was combining all sorts of roots music — folk, blues, country, and classic rock & roll — with some Summer of Love vibes and multi-layered, triple-guitar arrangements. All of those elements only truly coalesced for their 1967 debut LP. Although subsequent albums had more good moments than many listeners are aware of, a combination of personal problems and bad management effectively killed off the group by the end of the ’60s.
Matthew Katz, who managed the Jefferson Airplane in their early days, helped put Moby Grape together around Skip Spence . . . a legendarily colorful Canadian native whose first instrument was the guitar, had played drums in the Airplane’s first lineup . . . . The group’s relative unfamiliarity with each other may have sown seeds for their future problems, but they jelled surprisingly quickly, with all five members contributing more or less equally to the songwriting on their self-titled debut [which] remains their signature statement . . . . Spence departed while [Wow] was being recorded . . . as a result of a famous incident in which he entered the studio with a fire axe, apparently intending to use it on Stevenson. Committed to New York’s Bellevue Hospital, he did re-emerge to record a wonderful acid folk solo album at the end of 1968 . . . he struggled with mental illness until he died . . . . The group broke up at the end of the ’60s . . . .
Dickie Davis (Buffalo Springfield’s manager & “spiritual advisor”) feels that Stephen (Stills) resented the Grape lifting his band’s format [three guitars & four part harmonies] and sound. “He believed they had stolen the idea,” maintains Dickie. “When he wrote For What It’s Worth he based part of the arrangement on Moby Grapes’ Murder In My Heart For The Judge as a kind of revenge”. According to Jerry Miller, there was an affinity between Stephen’s song and a number the Grape performed in their live set. “We had this song called Stop”, confirms Jerry, “and it kind of went ‘Stop, children, can’t you hear the music’…” Adds the Grape’s Peter Lewis, “later when they came to the Avalon, Stephen told me, ‘Hey man, we just cut this song and when we were done we realized it was two of your songs stuck together’. And it was cool. . . . I just told him, ‘who cares’. It wasn’t a case, like now, of ‘I’m gonna sue your ass.’ Some of my happiest memories of those days were of sitting around Bob Mosley’s apartment in Mill Valley with Stephen and Neil and Rickie, smokin’ dope and playing each other our songs.”
John Einarson and Richie Furay, For What It’s Worth: The Story of Buffalo Springfield
The only problem here is that while Moby Grape got together in the late summer of ’66 and Buffalo Springfield released FWIW as an A-side in December 1966, Moby Grape didn’t release Wow until April ’68. Could Jerry Miller have been talking about an early version of “Murder”?
Forget Three Dog Night and Lee Michaels — Nellie McKay gives us a fabulous interpretation:
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
897) Marmalade — “Kaleidoscope”
The Poets (see #47, 86, 223, 489) and Marmalade were Scotland’s greatest bands of the 1960’s. Marmalade’s “Kaleidoscope” is magnificent pop psych — “stupendous and exhilarating” (sara-lorrainegannon8024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KSBhb_ettw), “ transcenden[t] . . . [o]ne of the most overlooked gems of the late 60s psych pop landscape”. (brucebrodeen3229, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mto-3_Gv-VU)
Bruce Eder tell us:
[I]n early 1964, Dean Ford & the Gaylords were signed to EMI-Columbia. . . . By the end of the year . . . [they] had made themselves the top band in Scotland . . . . [T]here was . . . no easy way to get heard in England [and] the group finally took up residence . . . just outside of London . . . . [A] fourth single . . . failed to chart and marked the end of their EMI contract. The Gaylords . . . were at something of a loss as to how to continue. [T]he Tremeloes . . . came to their rescue. . . . admir[ing their] sound . . . they suggested the band sign with their manager Peter Walsh. He was impressed . . . . Walsh[ changed their] name . . . to Marmalade. . . . got them . . . bookings, most notably at London’s Marquee Club . . . . [and] got [them] signed to CBS Records . . . . “I See the Rain,” an original (see #101) . . . become their third CBS single, described by Jimi Hendrix as the best British single of 1967. Somehow it never charted in England but did well in Holland . . . . [I]n early 1968, Marmalade decided to go for the most commercial sound they could live with and cut a pop/rock number called “Lovin’ Things[]”. . . . [that reached] the U.K. Top Ten . . . . Having gone the commercial route, they now found the record company insisting that they stick with it. Songs that they didn’t care for were foisted on them for follow-up singles . . . . [T]heir late-1968 single version of “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.” . . . [was] offered [to] them . . . ahead of . . . The White Album[]. . . . [and] became a number one hit in England and sold millions of copies around the world . . . . [But] it wasn’t really what the group was about. Marmalade was much more influenced by American soul, folk-rock, and progressive rock, but they had become locked into an image as a soft, bubblegum-type pop/rock band. . . . Their contract was up and . . . . English Decca . . . outbid CBS both in monetary terms and an offer of artistic freedom. The group re-emerged . . . with “Reflections of My Life,” a daring original . . . [which] topped the English charts . . . and became a Top Ten American single as well. They followed this up with the equally appealing . . . “Rainbow[]”. These twin hits were followed by the LP Reflections of the Marmalade, which proved to be something less than a success . . . . The LP never found an audience in England, but did in America . . . . By 1970, the band was beginning to show the first real signs of serious internal stress since their founding. . . . [Their] sound [changed] from a progressive pop/rock outfit to a much harder, more straight-ahead rock & roll band. . . .
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The [Houston-based] Pla-Boys . . . were playing their first gig . . . [and] were seen . . . by Ted Eubanks, an avant-garde composer on Houston’s mod scene . . . . [Their act] consisted mostly of [garage] covers . . . . Eubanks liked the way they played more than what they played, and immediately approached them after the show. The band liked his suggestions, and he began putting original numbers into the group’s sets. He also changed their image from clean-cut, matching suits to psychedelic, including beads. In a matter of weeks in 1965, they went from being the Pla-Boys to the Lemon Fog, who quickly became recognized as one of the more formidable bands in Houston. . . . They won a local battle of the bands, and . . . were approached by Orbit Records with the offer of a recording contract. Only three singles were ever issued on the group by Orbit, although they recorded many hours’ worth of demos . . . [Eubanks] handled most of the songwriting . . . . The group was a major draw . . . in the Houston area, and made many television appearances promoting their singles. Their sound, initially typical garage band-dance material, had advanced by leaps and bounds. Some of their songs resembled the folk-rock of the Byrds or the Beau Brummels, while their playing was closer in spirit to the complexity of Moby Grape, with lots of unexpected twists in the guitar and organ parts, and interesting harmonies. Personality conflicts eventually doomed the band, despite some extraordinary music to their credit.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
895) The Lemon Drops — “Talk To the Animals”
This is definitely not Dr. Doolittle talkin’ to the animals! It’s a wild psych/garage freakout from some high school kids from a far northern Chicago suburb who became heroes to their classmates when they were thrown out of school for their long hair. “The Lemon Drops were pioneers of a psychedelic pop and folk rock sound in the Chicago suburbs in 1967. All were students at McHenry High School.” (http://www.cicadelic.com/ld984.htm)
Bruce Eder tells us that:
[A] hard-luck Chicago outfit who couldn’t turn a local wave of popular enthusiasm into something bigger, despite some good songs. Their later stuff was more self-consciously psychedelic, but it’s still very well done, with superb playing and harmonies. The Lemon Drops were Jeff Brand (bass), Bobby Lunack (rhythm guitar), Gary Weiss (drums), Eddie Weiss (rhythm guitar), and Danny Smola (vocals), who began rehearsing in the Weiss home when they were between 14 and 17 years old. With lead guitarist Ricky Erickson in tow and later an official member, they cut their first record, “I Live In the Springtime,” (see #143) for Rembrandt, a local label co-owned by one of the Weisses’ elder siblings. [It] got an enthusiastic reception locally, and was played as far away as New York. The band members became celebrities among the local kids when they were thrown out of school for their long hair. By that time, they were on their second single, the angry anti-Vietnam rocker “It Happens Everyday,” and soon after had a new lead singer, Dick Sidman. The band slipped easily into the psychedelic blossoming of the Summer of Love, adding more overt flower-power references to their mix of sounds. It looked as though RCA was interested in the group, but a mix-up prevented the tapes for their third single . . . from getting to the company in New York on time. A potential contract with Uni Records came to nothing, and their third single, as well as a dozen tracks cut live in the Weiss home in January of 1968, went unheard. A few more songs were cut on behalf of Buena Vista Records, but the death of the label head scotched the deal, and a potential contract with Alden Records fell apart, along with the group, following an acid party at the owner’s Los Angeles mansion in the summer of 1969.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
894) Grapefruit — “Lullaby”(unreleased version produced by John Lennon and Paul McCartney)
You can’t get more Beatlesque than this: the only song produced by both John Lennon and Paul McCartney, by a band named after Yoko Ono’s book! “In a single session, the two Beatles transformed ‘Lullaby’ into a perfect encapsulation of English psychedelic pop.” (Stefan Granados, liner notes of Grapefruit — Yesterday’s Sunshine: The Complete 1967-1968 London Sessions)
Stefan Granados tells us that:
“Lullaby” was the song that had captured John Lennon’s imagination in the summer of 1967 and had led to George Alexander being signed to Apple. Lennon was particularly keen to get this song captured on tape and this was to be the only recording to ever be jointly produced by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. . . . [B]ut it would never be issued. Not the Lennon and McCartney produced version at least.
liner notes of Grapefruit — Yesterday’s Sunshine: The Complete 1967-1968 London Sessions
As to Grapefruit’s debut album, Richie Unterberger says it “featured tuneful, upbeat mid-tempo late-’60s British rock with good harmonies, creative ornate arrangements, and a very slight and very sunny psychedelic tinge.” (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/around-grapefruit-mw0000740575)
Richie Unterberger tells us of Grapefruit:
Grapefruit were one of the better Beatlesque late-’60s British pop-rock bands. In 1968 they seemed on the way to stardom, with a couple of small hit British singles and, more importantly, some help from the Beatles themselves. Led by George Alexander, brother of the Easybeats’ George Young, the group were at the outset cheerful harmony pop/rockers . . . skilled at blending melodic pop with sophisticated arrangements that employed baroque/psychedelic touches of strings, orchestration, and several varieties of keyboards. A disappointing second album, however, helped sink them out of sight, and the Beatles couldn’t be of help as they were preoccupied with their own imminent dissolution.
George Alexander . . . [who] wrote most of the[ir] songs . . . was signed to Apple Music Publishing in 1967 by Terry Doran, who had been affiliated with Brian Epstein and the Beatles’ organization for some time. Doran also managed the band . . . . John Lennon named the[m] (after Yoko Ono’s book [Grapefruit]) and went to press receptions introducing the band to the media. Members of the Beatles pitched in ideas for Grapefruit arrangements and recording sessions, and Paul McCartney even directed a promotional video for their single, “Elevator.” . . .
Grapefruit just missed the Top 20 with their first single, “Dear Delilah,” with its lilting melody, uplifting harmonies, and creative use of orchestration and electronic phasing. A cover of the Four Seasons’ “C’mon Marianne” just missed the Top Thirty . . . [but] nothing else made the charts. . . .
[T]heir second album, 1969’s Deep Water, was [comprised of] routine late ’60s rock . . . . John Lennon did suggest in early 1969 that the band should record the then-unreleased . . . “Two of Us” (which they didn’t). Following some personnel changes, the group broke up around the end of the 1960s . . . .
Oh, and as to the fate of the Lennon/McCartney version of “Lullaby”, Stefan Granados writes:
Apple Publishing had been set up as a publishing business. But for Grapefruit, they would assume a larger role, effectively becoming a production company as well. Apple would pay for all of the Grapefruit recording sessions and then license the finished masters to a record label. With “Dear Delilah” in the can, Apple negotiated a deal with RCA to release Grapefruit’s records in England. For the United States, Grapefruit would be signed to a new label formed by [Terry] Melcher, Equinox Records. The Beatles were impressed with “Dear Delilah” and soon developed a genuine interest in the group. On 10th January 1968 – several weeks before “Dear Delilah” was even released – Grapefruit entered Advision Studios in the company of Paul McCartney and John Lennon, who would produce “Lullaby” as the follow up to “Dear Delilah”. . . . “Dear Delilah” was released in February 1968 and in the weeks that followed, managed to climb to number 21 in the English charts. It was a promising enough start for a new group and RCA wanted a follow up single as soon as possible. They requested new material from Apple, but with the Beatles now off in India, the Lennon and McCartney version of “Lullaby” was left on the shelf after Grapefruit presented RCA with the self-produced tracks, “Elevator” and “Yes”.
liner notes of Grapefruit — Yesterday’s Sunshine: The Complete 1967-1968 London Sessions
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“Get yourself together, you’ve never had it better!” Yeah, that’s the 60’s!
As to the Prunes, Mark Deming tells us:
The Electric Prunes . . . . earliest records were high-powered garage rock with a psychedelic bent fueled by their creative use of fuzz, reverb, and studio trickery. . . . [Then] the group became a vehicle for producer David Axelrod to explore orchestrated psychedelia, most notably on the 1968 LP Mass in F Minor. No original members of the group remained by the time the band folded in 1970 . . . .
James Lowe . . . had been playing guitar in a bluegrass combo [but] decided to form a rock & roll band in 1964. . . . Lowe had an unusual strategy for the group — rather than play the usual bars, dances, and teen clubs where a fledgling rock band would be booked in those days, they set up a rehearsal studio and focused on honing their instrumental skills with an eye toward becoming a recording act. . . . [He] started writing original songs and the group changed their name to Jim and the Lords. . . . Dave Hassinger, a recording engineer . . . . saw potential . . . arranging to work with them at a home studio . . . . Aiming for an unusual sound, the group worked guitar effects into their arrangements that gave the music a distinct sonic signature, especially in their embrace of fuzztone and reverb. . . . Wanting the band to have a more up-to-date image, Hassinger suggested they change their name to the Electric Prunes . . . . [He] presented the Prunes with . . . . . “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night),” [which when] filled with otherworldly guitar oscillations and Lowe’s impassioned lead vocals, . . . quickly became a hit, topping out at number 11 on the singles charts in February 1967. . . . “Get Me to the World on Time[]” became the follow-up . . . rising to number 27. Behind the success of the singles, Reprise released an Electric Prunes album . . . with only two tracks penned by members of the group. . . . [T]he Electric Prunes began touring heavily, where they had the hard job of learning to re-create their studio sounds in front of an audience. . . . The Prunes’ next two singles . . . made no significant impact on the charts, and only six months after their first album came out, a second LP was released, 1967’s Underground. [It] was a stronger and more cohesive effort than the debut, with more songs written by the group . . . but with no major hits to buoy it, it struggled to number 172 . . . .
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
892) The Electric Banana — “If I Needed Somebody”
From the Electric Banana (see #94, 251, 731), which was the Pretty Things (see #82, 153, 572) in disguise, making some much needed money by providing songs for films trying to be hip. A “biting horn-driven soul ballad . . . [that] sports a truly needy Phil May vocal”. (Tim Sendra, https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-complete-de-wolfe-sessions-mw0003305801) Almost like Chicago or Blood, Sweat & Tears!
David Wells explains that:
[The] Swinging London phenomenon had led to a profusion of groovy movies chronicling life [there] that, naturally enough, required an appropriately switched-on soundtrack for added verisimilitude. However, film companies soon discovered that the cost of licensing bona fide hit singles was prohibitively high [so, the music library de Wolfe] started searching for a young, vibrant pop group who were capable fo providing an authentic but relatively inexpensive sound.
liner notes to The Complete De Wolfe Sessions CD comp
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
891) Dead Sea Fruit — “Time Waits for No One”
Take a bite of the Dead Sea Fruit’s “first-rate rocker. . . . [k]icked along by . . . killer drums and nice electric keyboards[,] this one should have been tapped as a single.” (Bad Cat Records, http://badcatrecords.com/DEADseaFRUIT.htm)
Maybe they should have called themselves D-Day. Craig Harris tells us that “combining the deadpan wit of the Bonzo Dog Band and the social-conscious lyricism of the Kinks, Dead Sea Fruit helped to bring the British Invasion of the 1960s to France.” (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/dead-sea-fruit-mn0001211012)
Harris goes on:
Formed in 1966, the group spent three years based in Paris thrilling French audiences with their hook-laden songs. . . . Dead Sea Fruit reached their apex in 1967, when their tongue-in-jowl single, “Lulu, Put Another Record On,” reached the top position on the British music charts. Their self-titled album was released the same year.
[F]or anyone curious, here’s what the dictionary has to say about the term [Dead Sea fruit:] something that appears to be beautiful or full of promise but is in reality nothing but illusion and disappointment.
It’s hard to believe that a talented outfit like Dead Sea Fruit couldn’t catch a break in their native UK. . . . Most English bands looking to make it on the continent headed for Germany, or the Benelux but . . . these guys decided to relocate to Paris. As a cover band they became an in-demand staple on the city’s club scene, touring throughout France, picking up considerable publicity, including numerous television appearances. The Polydor-affiliated Camp signed the band in the UK and with minimal promotion, they enjoyed a major hit with ‘Kensington High Street’. . . . The single’s UK success led Camp management to graciously finance a supporting album. Released in 1967, “Dead Sea Fruit, the combination of the prim looking cover photo, goofy liner notes, and some of the oddball song titles (‘Psychiatric Case’, ‘Seeds Of Discontent’ and ‘Mr. Coffee Pot’) would have left you with the impression these guys were nothing more than Bonzo Doo Dah Dog Band wannabes. While there were definitely some Bonzo influenced moves, the overall results were far more impressive. With [guitarist Dave] Lashmar and [singer Clive] Kennedy responsible for the majority of material . . . the album was definitely a product of the times, but had more than its share of goofy fun. . . . 1968 saw the release of a final, non-LP single in the UK: ‘Love At The Hippiedrome’ b/w ‘My Naughty Bluebell’ . . . . Frustrated by limited sales and their inability to carve out a unique image, by 1969 the group had effectively called it quits.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
890) Cranberry Moustache — “Far from Home”
A haunting and hypnotic ’70 A-side from a totally obscure group from Dayton, Ohio called Cranberry Mustache. The Stache was pretty much Bob Steele. A Dayton newspaper from December ’69 had a column by Dan Geringer called “Squaresville” — “a continuing group of stories . . . to explain young people to older people.” Geringer had this to say:
[Before Bob Steele’s senior year at Kiser High School, h]e grew his red hair long, put out a literary magazine, began writing poems nonstop, and discovered that he could come out from behind the masks and that it was OK. . . . He returned to school and had to get a haircut and “felt naked without my long-hair Linus blanket” . . . . [Steele dropped out of high school needing only two courses for graduation but planned to return.] He has been drifting around Dayton for the past few months, writing poems, playing electric guitar. [Steele said] “The bands would fall together, fall apart, so fast I can’t remember. I was in one called Animated Toothbrush and, later, in one called Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and some had no names. We did three-chord jive, but none of it lasted long.”
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
889) Cherry Smash — “Fade Away Maureen”
Why this Brit pop psych number wasn’t a hit is beyond me. It’s a “great tune” with an “imaginative arrangement[,] brilliant playing and strong voices”. (Dinnes, Cruickshank, liner notes to the CD comp The Great British Psychedelic Trip: Vol. 2, 1965-1970) It was written by Liverpudlian Tony Hazzard. Vernon Joynson says the song “had commercial potential with quite a memorable guitar riff but sounds distinctly wimpy now.” (The Tapestry of Delights Revisited) Call me wimpy!
As to the band, All Music Guide notes that:
Their debut single for Track Records, 1967’s ‘Sing Songs Of Love’, was . . . . [a] melodramatic, syrupy pop song . . . featured on the soundtrack to Manfred Mann’s Up The Junction [which] gained the band some national recognition. . . . [I]t signed to Decca Records for 1968’s ‘Goodtime Sunshine’/‘Little Old Country Home Town’ . . . . This failed to build on the group’s initial impetus and after one final single, ‘Fade Away Maureen’, the group disbanded.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
885) The Cherry People — “Imagination”
An ethereal sunshine pop gem by a band that would rather have been playing hard rock/prog! Rob Fitzpatrick calls the album “really is the most fantastically up-beat and gloriously happy sounding record. . . . So it’s Beatles, Bubblegum, ba-ba-ba’s and Bacharach brass all the way and it features some wonderfully by-numbers lyrics . . . but, really, it’s bloody great.” (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jan/15/101-strangest-records-spotify-cherry-people-and-suddenly) Then they went on to record a few songs with Jimi Hendrix. Power to the Cherry People!
Fitzpatrick goes on about the People:
It was all happening for Cherry People in the early summer of 1968. Newly signed to Heritage Records – then part of the mighty MGM group – the band, led by Washington DC-born brothers Chris and Doug Grimes, were lauded at press receptions in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles; while in Hollywood they even shot a promotional video, still a rare and wonderful beast in those days. Soon after, a US-wide discotheque chain called Hullabaloo announced a Cherry People Dance Competition . . . . In record shops across across the country another competition raged, this time to find the best “psychedelic” interpretation of a cherry tree branch. . . . [T]here was one great problem with all this, namely, the actual Cherry People barely appeared on their LP, as the producers drafted in a team of studio musicians to concoct a collection of heartbreakingly-precise baroque/psyche, soft-pop brilliance. The band themselves felt entirely unrepresented by their own LP and that must have really stung . . . .
The Cherry People were a band formed in Washington D.C. in 1967. They consisted of three former bandmates in from the 1966 D.C. group, the English Setters, brothers Doug and Chris Grimes and Punky Meadows. Chris Grimes and Meadows were guitarists, while Doug Grimes played harmonica and percussion. Both Grimes brothers were lead vocalists for the group. Other members of the Cherry People were bass player Jan Zukowski and drummer Rocky Issac. By 1968 they had a contract with Heritage Records. Their producers wanted them to make an album with a bubblegum and psychedelic pop sound. . . . The Cherry People had a much more hard rock sound live in concert. Yet, their first album and single, “And Suddenly”, offered up a sample of flowery sunshine pop. . .. “And Suddenly” peaked at #45 on August 31, 1968, on the Billboard Hot 100. . . . From their debut album, The Cherry People released three more singles in 1969. However, none made a dent in the national pop charts in either America or Canada. Meanwhile, it was clear the band and their record company had different visions. The band were performing mostly progressive to hard rock in concert, with “And Suddenly” and a few other bubblegum tunes from their debut album. But Heritage Records wanted them to sound like and resemble The Monkees.
In April 1969, in search of a new record contract and permission to record the type of music they preferred to perform live, The Cherry People headed to New York City. On April 22 four of the Cherry People’s band members, Jan Zukowski, Rocky Issac, Al Marks and Chris Grimes went to Steve Paul’s nightclub in West 46th Street in New York City called The Scene. It was there that they met Jimi Hendrix. Al Marks had previously met Hendrix at the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967. Hendrix, needing a drummer to help record some new tracks for an upcoming album, invited them back to the Record Plant. . . . They all ended up recording “Room Full of Mirrors”, “Crash Landing” and “Stone Free” that night with Hendrix.
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The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
887) Dave Berry — “The Coffee Song”
Here is one of Dave’s (see #554, 778) great later pocket symphonies, from ‘68. Richie Unterberger tell us that:
Berry’s fourth and final 1960s album was the sound of a man falling behind and out of step with the pop trends of the day, even as he strained to keep somewhat abreast of them in a fashion that wouldn’t alienate his mainstream constituency. [It] is, like his previous ’60s LPs, a weird hit-and-miss hybrid of styles . . . . [H]e tossed in odd, spooky, orchestrated pop tunes that made it impossible to write the album off, like “The Coffee Song,” which vaguely recalls the early Bee Gees . . . .
I need to thank Mike Brant for pointing out that Cream recorded this song — (yes, “Coffee” by Cream)! Bill says that “According to Chris Welch’s great book, Cream, The Coffee Song was recorded at their first studio session on August 3, 1966, along with Beauty Queen and You Make Me Feel.” (https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/cream-the-coffee-song.169666/) And Jae says that the song made it onto “the 1966 Swedish release” of Fresh Cream.” (https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/cream-the-coffee-song.169666/) I still like Dave Berry’s version better. So shoot me (just don’t shoot the deputy too)!
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.
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 . . . .
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
886) Chuck Berry — “It Wasn’t Me”
“As legend, or some old music magazine, has it, an interviewer once asked George Thorogood why he didn’t write more of his own songs, to which he replied ‘Because Chuck Berry already wrote all the f*cking songs that ever needed to be written.’” (https://somuchgreatmusic.com/2018/09/09/george-thorogood-it-wasnt-me-1978/). Here is one of Chuck’s last classic originals, off his ’65 Chess LP Fresh Berry’s. This song is so f*ing good that by the time it’s over, I feel like Keith Richards after being punched in the face (by Chuck). 🙂
Bruce Eder:
Chuck Berry’s last album for Chess, for the next four years, has him back in the U.S., and running smack into the mid-’60s blues revival, playing with the likes of Paul Butterfield and Mike Bloomfield . . . . The material varies from first-rate songs ([including] “It Wasn’t Me[]” . . .) that sound utterly contemporary, to fascinating experiments . . . and filler . . . . He still rocks out, and sounds like he’s having a great time playing blues with Bloom field and Butterfield . . , sounding like an old Chicago bluesman, which, ironically, was the direction he chose to go in during his subsequent four-year stint with Mercury Records. He still does some straight rock & roll — “It’s My Own Business” [see #361] is a great teen rebellion number — and occasionally indulges his taste for music from the islands . . , in what was essentially an era-closing album, and his last attempt at making a contemporary album with his established sound.
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Barry White “did not perform it, and much of the lead vocal work for the music was done by Ricky Lancelotti, who was uncredited. [It] actually made it onto the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 96 on February 8, 1969.” (https://groovyhistory.com/banana-splits-adventure-hour/8)
Rick Lancelotti? United Mutations tells us that:
In the late 1960s, Rick Lancelot sang in a band called Wolfgang. . . . He also sang in a band called Sky Oats. They performed the title song of the movie Pacific Vibrations (1970). . . . Ricky Lancenlotti recorded with Frank Zappa in 1973. Results of this can be found on “Over-Nite Sensation”, “The Lost Episodes” and “Lather”. from the liner notes to Wonderful Wino, The Lost Episodes version: “The version of this song is especially notable for the presence of one of the most powerful and distinctive singers to perform with any Zappa band, the late Ricky Lancelotti. Said Frank: “He auditioned for the band, passed, went home and got ripped, and broke his arm. I said ‘Rick, you’re not going to make the tour.’ He used to carry a .45. He had a cassette in which he imitated 100 cartoon voices in 60 seconds. I thought he was really talented. He wanted to get work as a cartoon voice guy, but never did. O.D.’d. An old New Jersey tough guy.” At a particularly memorable 1972 Hollywood Palladium MOI concert (of which Zappa held fond recollections of Lancelotti singing ‘Smog Sucker”, the lion-maned vocalist favored the crowd with ferocious scat-singing whenever FZ was inspired to beckon him from the wings. Frank would open and close his hand in a gesture symbolizing a talking mouth, and Lancelotti would magically appear on stage and begin bellowing.
My dad’s sister is Ricky’s mom. We all were born in New Jersey, but moved to California in the early sixties. Ricky did much more than just sing with Frank Zappa. Back in the early 70’s there was a show called the Banana Splits. Ricky had a contract with Hanna Barbara and did all the lead vocals for the show.
To a preteen generation . . . the Banana Splits marked the apotheosis of such staples of late-’60s culture as psychedelia, pop art, and, of course, music. Like Archies and Josei & the Pussycats, the band was essentially nothing more than a marketing front for a collective of faceless studio musicians; unlike their peers, however, in their own unique way the Banana Splits represented the acid culture’s subtle encroachment into mainstream children’s entertainment. By employing the kinds of camera techniques, surreal set designs, and hallucinatory images more commonly associated with the era’s underground filmmaking, their television series brought the lessons of the Summer of Love to Saturday mornings . . . .
The Banana Splits were the brainchild of Joseph Barbera, one half of the famed Hanna-Barbera animation team behind such characters as the Flintstones, the Jetsons, Yogi Bear, and Scooby Doo. In 1967 Barbera was approached by Lee Rich of the Leo Burnett Agency . . . to create a program designed as a showcase for Kellogg’s . . . . Barbera . . . suggested that instead of animated characters, its hosts might be costumed performers resembling giant puppets. . . . [R]hythm guitarist Drooper was a lion, lead guitarist Fleegle was a dog, keyboardist Snorky was an elephant, and drummer Bingo was a monkey. . . .
In total, some 23 bubblegum tunes were produced for the show . . . . [T]he series’ theme, “The Tra-La-La Song,” even reached the Billboard Top 100 singles chart. In addition, Kellogg’s issued an eight-song double EP pack, available only through the company for two cereal box tops and 50 cents. The Banana Splits was a ratings blockbuster during the 1968-1969 television season, drawing an incredible 65 percent share of the Saturday morning audience. The second season, however, proved disastrous: while the Hanna-Barbera production staff filmed all new episodes, they did so without changing the backgrounds or any of the set designs, prompting young viewers to mistakenly believe that the new segments were actually reruns. Consequently, ratings plummeted, and The Banana Splits was unceremoniously axed in 1970.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
884) The Appletree Theatre — “Hightower Square”
A favorite of Johns everywhere (well, at least Lennon and Peel), the Appletree Theatre give us a pop classic that “draw[s] from The Beatles’ Penny Lane”. (Kingsley Abbott, https://recordcollectormag.com/reviews/album/playback)
John Peel loved the album — he “praised [it] in International Times, calling it ‘one of the best and most adventurous LPs I’ve heard‘, played tracks from it on his shows in 1968 and 1969, and returned to it periodically in later decades.” (https://peel.fandom.com/wiki/Appletree_Theatre) And Psychedelic Rock’n’Roll raves:
The songs are so strong. It’s grade-A Sunshine Pop with occasional psychedelic arrangements, dipping occasionally into hard-edged soul and music-hall . . . .offer[ing] up a rather weird concept piece, though admittedly the plotline was largely lost on us. [T]he collection offered up a bizarre collage of interlaced vocal narratives, sound effects, song fragments, balanced by an occasional Pop piece [including] “Hightower Square . . . . There was no doubt the Boylans were talented: on the other hand, the set was simply too experimental for the normal listener.
Kingsley Abbott calls it a “strangely beguiling album . . . . essentially a mixture of folkish pop and some Greenwich Village social commentary/satire . . . . The songs here are punctuated by stoner references and outside influences . . . . Charming, weird, questionable, interesting – though not to all.” (https://recordcollectormag.com/reviews/album/playback) And Jason Nardelli throws in that “[i]t’s an inventive pop album with great songs, strange sound effects, comedy bits and trippy dialogue in between some of the tracks.” (http://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2011/10/appletree-theatre-playback-1968-usuk.html)
The story of Terence and John Boylan, as Brian Sweet describes it on Terry’s website:
Following a chance meeting with Bob Dylan in Greenwich Village in ’62, after which Dylan, [Terence] Boylan and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot went to Izzy Young’s Folklore Center and traded songs for a long evening, Boylan returned to Buffalo, N.Y. with encouragement from his new hero, and began performing in many of Buffalo’s most popular coffee-houses . . . . still a sophomore in high school. . . . He formed a band with his brother, John, The Ginger Men, playing in Greenwich Village[] . . . during summers and ‘field-periods’ [while he attended Bard College] and singing solo [in the Village]. The NY Times’ Robert Shelton gave him a brief but laudatory mention following an appearance at the Village Gate, and the record companies started calling. . . . [B]efore beginning a solo album, he recruited brother John for an experimental ‘rock meets theatre’ album. The duet, along with a dozen top studio musicians, recorded The Appletree Theatre in 1967, a ground-breaking effort among the so-called “concept” albums of the late sixties, fusing brief Saturday Night Live type comic sketches with slightly tongue-in-cheek parodies of contemporary musical genres. John Lennon, in an interview with Penny Nichols in London, called The Appletree Theatre one of his favorite new albums, Time Magazine lauded the Boylans’ sense of humor, and Phillip Proctor acknowledged their influence on his own group, The Firesign Theatre.
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
883) Apple — “The Otherside”
This grand ‘68 B-side is an “all-time psych classic[]” (liner notes to the CD comp Chocolate Soup for Diabetics: Vols 1-5) that “beg[ins] with an infectious guitar phrase . . . and [is] propelled by some epic piano, evoking a wonderfully brooding atmosphere”. (liner notes to the CD comp Acid Drops, Spacedust & Flying Saucers: Psychedelic Confectionery from the UK Underground 1965-1969) “[T]he buoyant [song] is rated by psychedelic collectors as one of the finest obscure pieces of its kind from the era” with its “wonderful sad melody and captivating piano-guitar arrangement”. (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/apple-mn0000482669, https://www.allmusic.com/album/an-apple-a-day-mw0000460214). It is “a meditation on life and death with its piercing riff . . . one of the few really moving songs to emerge from the UK psychedelic boom”. (Vernon Joynson, Tapestry of Delights Revisited)
As to the mysterious Apple, Vernon Joynson tells us:
One of the few interesting psychedelic bands about whom nothing is known to this day, the best of Apple’s material is up there with the cream of British psychedelia. . . . A fine amalgam of psychedelia and heavy R&B, it’s well established as one of the most sought-after of all UK psych albums . . . . at its best it’s nothing short of superb.
Tapestry of Delights Revisited
Richie Unterberger is a bit more blasé, calling Apple a “rather typical British psychedelic-pop group of the late ’60s, although perhaps not as fruity or indulgent as some.” Not as fruity? The band’s name is Apple!
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. 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.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
Our July 4th Spectacular starts off with the Redcoats — a garage band from Jersey (the English Channel island? Fuhgeddaboudit. I’m talkin’ the State of Springsteen and the Sopranos!). They wanted to — and did — write wonderful Beatlesque songs! Next, from one of Paul Revere and the Raiders’ first singles, we have the “Midnite Ride” of, of course, Paul Revere! The Redcoats only wished they had gotten that much publicity back in the day. Finally, Mitch Ryder gives us classic blue eyed soul with “Liberty” — his Liberty from producer Bob Crewe!
881) The Redcoats — “Sing a Song”
You can’t help but smiling listening to this innocent McCartneyesque song filled with “Hey Jude”-like words of encouragement.
As to the Redcoats (see #650), Chris Bishop tells us that:
John Sprit decided to form a band in imitation of the Beatles, based around his songwriting. With . . . John on drums and his friend Mike Burke on lead guitar, they spotted Zach and Randy Bocelle of Absecon, NJ at an audition, and brought them in to fill the ‘roles’ of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, respectively, on rhythm guitar, bass and lead vocals. After intensive rehearsals in John Sprit’s family home in Wildwood, NJ, the Redcoats signed with Laurie for a 45 in the style of Herman’s Hermits, “The Dum Dum Song” / “Love Unreturned”, which did fairly well on a local level. It was released in October, 1965.
[They] were an extremely Beatlesque band that formed in Wildwood, NJ, in 1964. Just one single . . . was released on a small New York label. However, those two tracks and ten other songs were issued on Meet the Redcoats! Finally [in 2001]. Comprised wholly of original material, the material is pretty fair pseudo-Beatles in both their Merseybeat and Magical Mystery Tour phases, not to mention their Revolver and Beatles for Sale ones, too.
In ‘66, the band (by then going by the Sidekicks) had a #55 hit with “Suspicions”.
109)Paul Revere and the Raiders — “Midnite Ride”
No, not the ‘66 album, the ‘61 B-side telling it like it was, rockabilly style! Um, no offense meant to my English friends.
William Ruhlmann tells us of the Raiders’ first album (including an alternate version of “Midnite Ride”) that:
Gardena Records issued Paul Revere & the Raiders’ debut album in the wake of the Top 40 success of the instrumental “Like, Long Hair,” and much of it is in the same vein as the single, which is a boogie-woogie arrangement of Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C-Sharp Minor.” Pianist and bandleader Paul Revere and saxophonist (and occasional vocalist) Mark Lindsay lead the instrumental attack . . . . It’s lively, if basic music, but offers little hint that the group would go on to make polished pop/rock in a few years.
Of the Raiders’ early history Michael Jack Kirby writes that:
Of all the acts that sprang up out of the Pacific Northwest during rock and roll’s early years, Paul Revere and the Raiders were the most fun-loving of the bunch, possessing the ability to excite an audience and make them cry out for more. . . . Paul Revere Dick spent most of his early life in Caldwell, Idaho, about 30 miles east of Boise, while . . . Mark Lindsay . . . moved to the same area and began singing at age 15 with a local band, Freddy Chapman and the Idaho Playboys. . . . Revere had worked as a barber at age 18 and by 1958 he owned a small walk-up/drive-thru burger restaurant in Caldwell called Reed & Bell Root Beer, which he kept running even after his music career had kicked in. Lindsay had a job as a baker but walked out after meeting and singing for Paul one night at the Elks Lodge in Caldwell. Both were fans of Jerry Lee Lewis . . . . Paul and Mark joined forces in a band called The Downbeats, performing mostly instrumentals and gaining a word-of-mouth reputation in Southern Idaho and parts of Washington and Oregon. In 1960, after recording some songs in a local studio and shopping the tapes around, they got a bite from John Guss, the owner of a small L.A.-based label, Gardena Records, who suggested taking advantage of Revere’s given name, which the two had previously considered. They thought Night Riders sounded good but settled on the Raiders . . . and promoted themselves as “the wildest sound for miles around.” . . . They began working in Los Angeles with Gary Paxton (fresh off his “Alley-Oop” chart-topper); the idea of arranging classics as rock numbers was further explored with “Like, Long Hair,” based on Sergei Rachmaninoff’s 1892 “Prelude in C-Sharp Minor.” This third single hit the national charts and entered the top 40 in April 1961. Paul was drafted by the Army, leaving Mark and the band to go out on performance dates as Paul Revere’s Raiders, though only for a short time as Paul was designated a conscientious objector. Paul and Mark cut their first album (Like, LONG Hair) with studio musicians . . . . Portland, Oregon was the group’s home base . . . . Top 40 deejay Roger Hart of KISN, a Vancouver, Washington station that broadcast from downtown Portland and made “91-derful” the most popular spot on the radio dial, began promoting their local appearances on his show, which guaranteed packed houses. Roger became fast friends with all the Raiders and wound up as their full-time manager. The band’s shows have since become the stuff of legends; the guys worked out choreographed steps that the crowd would mimic, Lindsay blew sax while hanging from the rafters if the building’s interior design allowed for it, and Paul lit his piano on fire more than a few times. Musicianship was hot and tight and people rocked out at their shows. It was not unlike the kind of mania Jerry Lee had become famous for.
Ryder has been inducted into the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame (https://rbhalloffamemarksms.com/inductees/) and not the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, started out singing “with a local Black quartet dubbed the Peps as a teen, but suffered so much racial harassment that he soon left the group”. (Jason Ankeny, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mitch-ryder-mn0000483270/biography) By the way, the harassment was from white audiences. Ryder recalls that:
The only difficulty we had was with the white audiences. The black audiences seemed to embrace it. I don’t know how it worked, but I remember really distinctly, a really nice lady coming up to me and saying, “Oh, you sing so pretty … and you’re so light.” I’m going, “Ooh, light? Lady, you don’t know the half of it.”
The song is from Ryder’s ’69 album The Detroit-Memphis Experiment. Joe Viglione writes that:
Mitch Ryder’s voice is in great shape as Steve Cropper takes over the production reigns from industry legend Bob Crewe. . . . [T]he music is truly the voice from Detroit meeting the sound of Memphis. . . . There is a maturity to Mitch Ryder’s voice here — his performance on this disc perhaps a cross between the early hits and the ballads Crewe had him singing later on. It is very, well, refined for this rock/blues combo. . . . Booker T & the MGs featuring Mitch Ryder, which is what this record is, simply delivers a no-nonsense one-two punch of good music. . . . It is great music, but there was no business person to deliver a hit single from this excellent collection. Maybe if someone with Bob Crewe’s drive had supervised the work . . . there would be a greater appreciation for this landmark recording. . . . [T]hat’s what this is, the great undiscovered Mitch Ryder party album.
[T]he choice they gave me was [Booker T & the MGs in Memphis] or Jeff Barry in L.A. I said, “Hmm, I’ll go South.” Which, in more ways than one, I guess I did. The whole country then was going psychedelic and here I am, with still some name power, and I decide to do an R&B album. [Laughs].
The unsung heart and soul of the Motor City rock & roll scene, Mitch Ryder was simply one of the most powerful vocalists to rise to fame in the ’60s, a full-bodied rock belter who was also one of the most credible blue-eyed soul men of his generation. He first made a nationwide impression fronting Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, whose fiery R&B attack boasted a gritty passion and incendiary energy matched by few artists on either side of the color line. After exploding onto the charts in 1966 and 1967 with singles like “Jenny Take a Ride” and “Devil with a Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly,” Ryder went solo on the advice of producer Bob Crewe, though albums like 1967’s What Now My Love and 1969’s The Detroit-Memphis Experiment [disagree!] lacked the fire of the Detroit Wheels hits and didn’t fare as well on the charts. . . . Born William Levise, . . [he] form[ed] his own combo, Billy Lee & the Rivieras. While opening for the Dave Clark Five during a 1965 date, the Rivieras came to the attention of producer Bob Crewe, who immediately signed the group and, according to legend, rechristened the singer Mitch Ryder after randomly selecting the name from a phone book. Backed by the peerless Detroit Wheels — Ryder reached the Top Ten in early 1966 with “Jenny Take a Ride”; the single, a frenzied combination of Little Richard’s “Jenny Jenny” and Chuck Willis’ “C.C. Rider,” remains one of the quintessential moments in blue-eyed soul, its breathless intensity setting the tone for the remainder of the band’s output. [They] . . . scor[ed] their biggest hit that autumn with the Top Five smash “Devil with a Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly.” “Sock It to Me Baby!” followed in early 1967, but at Crewe’s insistence, Ryder soon split from the rest of the band to mount a solo career. The move proved disastrous — outside of the Top 30 entry “What Now My Love,” the hits quickly and permanently dried up. . . . [Ryder] return[ed] home [with] a new seven-piece hard rock band known simply as Detroit. The group’s lone LP, a self-titled effort issued in 1971, remains a minor classic, yielding a major FM radio hit with its cover of Lou Reed’s “Rock and Roll” that was praised by Reed himself.
As to Ryder’s beef with Crewe, Gary Johnson tells us:
Despite selling roughly six million records for Crewe’s label, Ryder had only been paid a $15,000 advance and one royalty check for $1,000. Mitch was very unhappy with the way he felt Crewe had treated him financially. But after Crewe learned of Ryder’s displeasure, he threatened that if Mitch tried to leave him, Crewe would see to it that Ryder “died musically”. Mitch and Crewe did part ways later in 1968 after Ryder took him to court to recover the royalties he believed Crewe owed him. Although Mitch lost his case, their partnership was irreparably damaged. Crewe sold Ryder’s contract to the Paramount label as a result.
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.
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Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! / Off the Charts: 60s Rock Revelations😊 