https://exchange.prx.org/p/619441
Lots of artists' sets this time around; in fact one in each half hour segment of the show, with the first one featuring three tunes taken from the same classic album.
Artist: Paul Revere And The Raiders
Title: Kicks
Source: CD: Greatest Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Mann/Weil
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1966
It may not have been the first pop song with a strong anti-drug message, but Kicks, as recorded by Paul Revere And The Raiders, was the first to be a certified hit, making it to the number four spot on the US charts and hitting number one in Canada. The song, written by Brill building husband and wife team Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, was also the highest charting single for Paul Revere and the Raiders until Indian Reservation made it all the way to the top five years later.
Artist: Butterfield Blues Band
Title: Two Trains Running
Source: LP: East-West
Writer(s): McKinley Morganfield
Label: Elektra
Year: 1966
By the 1960s, the blues had fallen out of favor with its traditional audience base. Jazz adherents considered it too primitive to take seriously, while those who listened regularly to gospel were convinced that the blues was "the Devil's music". Even R&B was abandoning its roots in favor of a more mainstream approach, especially in Detroit, where the Motown label was becoming a major force in pop music. There were still a few places left where blues was not a dirty word, however. Chicago, in particular, always took pride in its blues heritage, while in New York's Greenwich Village, a full-scale blues revival was underway. Within this revival there were both traditionalists and those who favored a more improvisational approach to the blues. Paul Butterfield's traditionalist approach can be heard on the Butterfield Blues Band's cover of the Muddy Waters tune Two Trains Running. Unlike the better-known Blues Project version of the tune, the Butterfield track (from the 1966 album East-West), maintains the song's original tempo and basic structure, clocking in at slightly under four minutes.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Paperback Writer
Source: CD: Past Masters Volume Two (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Apple/Parlophone
Year: 1966
Following a successful 1965 that culminated with their classic Rubber Soul album, the Beatles' first single release of 1966 was the equally classic Paperback Writer. The song was as influential as it was popular, to the point that the coda at the end of the song inspired Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart to write what would become the Monkees' first number one hit: Last Train To Clarksville.
Artist: Beach Boys
Title: I Know There's An Answer
Source: Mono LP: Pet Sounds
Writer(s): Wilson/Sachen
Label: Capitol/EMI
Year: 1966
One of the first songs recorded for the Pet Sounds album was Hang On To Your Ego, allegedly written by Brian Wilson on his second acid trip. Mike Love objected to some of the lyrics, particularly those of the chorus, and Wilson eventually decided to scrap them and write new ones, this time with the help of the group's road manager, Terry Sachen. The result was I Know There's An Answer.
Artist: Beach Boys
Title: You Still Believe In Me
Source: CD: Pet Sounds
Writer(s): Wilson/Asher
Label: Capitol/UMe
Year: 1966
Although they were one of the first self-contained US rock bands, by 1966 the Beach Boys were using studio musicians almost exclusively on their recordings. At the same time Brian Wilson, who by then was writing all the band's music, had retired from performing with the band onstage. These factors combined to give Wilson the room to create the album that is often considered his and the band's artistic peak, Pet Sounds. Much of the material on the album, such as You Still Believe In Me, was written with the help of lyricist Tony Asher. Like many of the songs on Pet Sounds, You Still Believe In Me, heard here in a recently created stereo mix, includes unusual instrumentation such as a theramin and even a bicycle bell.
Artist: Beach Boys
Title: Let's Go Away For Awhile
Source: Mono LP: Pet Sounds
Writer(s): Brian Wilson
Label: Capitol/EMI
Year: 1966
After spending six months and a record amount of money making Good Vibrations, Brian Wilson and Capitol Records decided to use an existing track for the B side of the single rather than take the time to record something new. The chosen track was Let's Go Away For Awhile, a tune from the Pet Sounds album that Wilson described as the most satisfying instrumental piece he had ever written.
Artist: Kim Fowley
Title: Bubblegum
Source: Import CD: Ah Feel Like Ahcid (originally released on LP: Outrageous)
Writer(s): Cert/Fowley
Label: Zonophone UK (original label: Imperial)
Year: 1969
Like a hip Hollywood Forrest Gump, Kim Fowley kept popping up in various capacities throughout the 60s and 70s on records like Alley Oop (co-producer), Nut Rocker (writer, arranger) and the first three Runaways albums (producer and guy who introduced the band members to each other), working with such diverse talents as Gene Vincent, Helen Reddy and Kiss. He also managed to rack up an impressive catalog as a solo artist, with over two dozen albums to his credit. The most successful of these was his 1968 LP Outrageous, which includes the song Bubblegum (also called Bubble Gum). Despite the title, the track has nothing in common with bands like the 1910 Fruitgum Company. In fact, the song is sometimes cited as one of the first glam-rock recordings.
Artist: H.P. Lovecraft
Title: Spin, Spin, Spin
Source: CD: Two Classic Albums from H. P. Lovecraft: H. P. Lovecraft/H. P. Lovecraft II (originally released on LP: H.P. Lovecraft II)
Writer(s): Terry Callier
Label: Collector's Choice/Universal Music Special Markets (original label: Philips)
Year: 1968
The second album by H.P. Lovecraft (the band, not the author) is sometimes referred to as the ultimate acid rock album. In fact, it has been rumoured to be the first album made entirely under the influence of LSD (although the same has been said of the 1967 Jefferson Airplane LP After Bathing At Baxter's and other albums of the period as well). Regardless of its origins, H.P. Lovecraft II is certainly one of the most pyschedelic albums ever released. Like the band's first album, H.P. Lovecraft II contains several cover songs, including Spin, Spin, Spin, which opens the album. The tune was written by folk singer Terry Callier, an old friend of guitarist George Edwards from his pre-electric days, and features strong harmonies from Edwards and keyboardist Dave Michaels.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Comin' Back To Me
Source: LP: Surrealistic Pillow
Writer(s): Marty Balin
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1967
Uncredited guest guitarist Jerry Garcia adds a simple, but memorable recurring fill riff to this Marty Balin tune. Balin, in his 2003 liner notes to the remastered release of Surrealistic Pillow, claims that Comin' Back To Me was written in one sitting under the influence of some primo stuff given to him by Paul Butterfield. Other players on the recording include Paul Kantner and Balin himself on guitars, Jack Casady on bass and Grace Slick on recorder.
Artist: Monkees
Title: Through The Looking Glass
Source: LP: Instant Replay
Writer(s): Boyce/Hart/Baldwin
Label: Colgems
Year: 1969
Mickey Dolenz was the Monkees member with the most acting experience, having starred in the late '50s TV series Circus Boy. He was also the producers' singer of choice when it came to most of the band's upbeat tunes, including their first two hits, Last Train To Clarksville and I'm A Believer. After a major confrontation with music director Don Kirshner following the release of their second LP, More Of The Monkees, the band members themselves began to take a more active role in the production process, at first hiring Chip Douglas to produce the album Headquarters and then producing subsequent albums themselves. Following the release of the soundtrack album for the film Head, however, Peter Tork, who had been the strongest advocate for the band's independence, left the group, and the remaining members hired their former road manager, Brenden Cahill, to do essentially the same thing Kirschner had done in the early days. As a result, the seventh Monkees album, Instant Replay, has nine different producers listed for the various tracks on the LP. Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, who had produced Last Train To Clarksville, produced four of the songs on Instant Replay, including the album's opening track, Through The Looking Glass.
Artist: Monkees
Title: Randy Scouse Git
Source: CD: Headquarters
Writer: Mickey Dolenz
Label: Rhino (original label: Colgems)
Year: 1967
The original concept for the Monkees TV series was that the band would be shown performing two new songs on each weekly episodes. This meant that, even for an initial 13-week order, 26 songs would have to be recorded in a very short amount of time. The only way to meet that deadline was for several teams of producers, songwriters and studio musicians to work independently of each other at the same time. The instrumental tracks were then submitted to musical director Don Kirschner, who brought in Mickey Dolenz, Davy Jones, Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith to record vocal tracks. Although some of the instrumental tracks, such as those produced by Nesmith, had Nesmith and Tork playing on them, many did not. Some backing tracks were even recorded in New York at the same time as the TV show was being taped in L.A. In a few cases, the Monkees themselves did not hear the songs until they were in the studio to record their vocal tracks. A dozen of these recordings were chosen for release on the first Monkees LP in 1966, including the hit single Last Train To Clarksville. When it became clear that the show was a hit and a full season's worth of episodes would be needed, Kirschner commissioned even more new songs (although by then Clarksville was being featured in nearly every episode, mitigating the need for new songs somewhat). Without the band's knowledge Kirschner issued a second album, More Of The Monkees, in early 1967, using several of the songs recorded specifically for the TV show. The band members were furious, and the subsequent firestorm resulted in the removal of Kirschner from the entire Monkees project. The group then hired Turtles bassist Chip Douglas to work with the band to produce an album of songs that the Monkees themselves would both sing and play on. The album, Headquarters, spent one week at the top of the charts before giving way to the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. There were, however, no singles released from the album; at least not in the US. It turns out that the seemingly nonsensical title of the album's final track, Randy Scouse Git, was actually British slang for "horny guy from Liverpool", or something along those lines. The song was released everywhere but the continental US under the name Alternate Title and was a surprise worldwide hit.
Artist: Monkees
Title: You And I
Source: LP: Instant Replay
Writer(s): Jones/Chadwick
Label: Colgems
Year: 1969
Davy Jones surprised everyone by bringing in Neil Young to play lead guitar on the only track on the album Instant Replay that Jones himself produced (and co-wrote). As it turns out You And I is one of the better songs on the album and rocks out harder than anything else Davy Jones ever came up with.
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Title: Out On The Tiles
Source: CD: Led Zeppelin III
Writer(s): Bonham/Page/Plant
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1970
The third Led Zeppelin is known for being a departure from the formula established on the band's first two albums. As a general rule, it is more acoustic in nature than other Zeppelin albums, thanks in large part to having been composed when Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were living in a cottage with no electricity called Bron-Yr-Aur. One exception to this acoustic direction, however, was Out On The Tiles, which was brought to the band by drummer John Bonham, and then fleshed out by Page and Plant. As it turns out, Out On The Tiles, more than any other track on Led Zeppelin III, presages the direction the band's music would take by the end of the 1970s.
Artist: Keith West
Title: She
Source: European import CD: Tomorrow
Writer(s): Keith West
Label: Parlophone
Year: Recorded 1968, released 1999
Tomorrow was a British band with an ongoing identity crisis. Originally known as the In Crowd, they recorded a pair of songs for use in the film Blow-Up in 1966, only to see those songs (and their appearance in the film itself) shelved when the movie's producer hired the Yardbirds to perform instead. They then changed their name to Tomorrow and began making a name for themselves on the London underground music scene. They also made an appearance in another film, Smashing Time, in 1967, only under the fictional name Snarks. Their music, however, was not used in that film, either. They did manage to release a pair of singles that year, but neither of them made the charts. Around that time lead vocalist Keith West participated in a project by Mark Wirtz called A Teenage Opera that resulted in West having a hit single called Excerpt from 'A Teenage Opera' (Grocer Jack). This led to promoters billing the band as Tomorrow featuring Keith West, which for obvious reasons did not go over well with the other band members. In fact, Tomorrow soon disbanded with West forming a new band with Tomorrow guitarist Steve Howe (Yes, that Steve Howe), Ronnie Wood (yes, that Ronnie Wood) and Aynsley Dunbar (yes, that Aynsley Dunbar). They recorded a handful of tracks, including the song She, but were unable to land a record deal. Eventually West got into production, mostly working with the advertising industry.
Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: Get Me To The World On Time
Source: CD: I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) (originally released on LP: The Electric Prunes)
Writer(s): Tucker/Jones
Label: Collector's Choice/Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
With I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) climbing the charts in early 1967, the Electric Prunes turned to songwriter Annette Tucker for two more tracks to include on their debut LP. One of those, Get Me To The World On Time (co-written by lyricist Jill Jones) was selected to be the follow up single to Dream. Although not as big a hit, the song still did respectably on the charts (and was actually the first Electric Prunes song I ever heard on FM radio).
Artist: The Raik's Progress
Title: Call My Name
Source: Mono LP: Sewer Rat Love Chant
Writer(s): Tommy Scott
Label: Sundazed
Year: Recorded 1966, released 2003
"A bunch of 17-year-old quasi-intellectual proto-punks" was how Steve Krikorian, later to be known as Tonio K, described his first band. Krikorian, along with friends Alan Shapazian, Steve Olson, Nick van Maarth, and Duane Scott, formed The Raik's Progress in 1966 in Fresno, California. By the end of the year they had already cut a single for a major label (Liberty) and would soon find themselves opening for Buffalo Springfield at San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium. The Raik's Progress was best known for their stage show, which included sitting down and playing a game of poker between songs and other strange antics. Their music was equally eccentric, in that it combined influences from the more blues oriented British Invasion bands like the Animals and Them with an avant-garde sensibility more in line with what Frank Zappa's Mothers were doing at the time. Although they only released one single, the band did manage to record an album's worth of material before disbanding, including a cover of Call My Name, written by Scottish songwriter Tommy Scott and released by Van Morrison's band, Them, in 1966.
Artist: Yardbirds
Title: Still, I'm Sad
Source: British import 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): McCarty/Samwell-Smith
Label: Epic
Year: 1965
The most influential Yardbirds song on US garage bands, as well as their biggest US hit, was their grunged out version of Bo Diddley's I'm A Man, which hit the top 10 in 1965. The B side of that record (in the US) was Still I'm Sad, possibly the first rock song to incorporate Gregorian chant. Interestingly enough, Still I'm Sad was released in the UK on the exact same day as in the US, but as the B side to an entirely different tune, Evil Hearted You.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Not Fade Away
Source: Mono CD: Big Hits (High Tide And Green Grass) (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Hardin/Petty
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1964
The Rolling Stones' first top 5 hit in the UK was an updated version of the Buddy Holly B side Not Fade Away. The Stones put a greater emphasis on the Bo Diddley beat than Holly did and ended up with their first charted single in the US as well, establishing the Rolling Stones as the Yang of the British Invasion to the Beatles' Ying. It was a role that fit the top band from the city they call "The Smoke" well.
Artist: Sam The Sham And The Pharaohs
Title: Wooly Bully
Source: LP: Wooly Bully (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Domingo Samudio
Label: M-G-M (original label: XL)
Year: 1964
Sam The Sham And The Pharaohs were pioneers of what has come to be called Tex-Mex, a style that can best described as straight ahead rock and roll seasoned with traditional Mexican forms such as salsa and ranchero. The Pharaohs were already a popular band in their native Texas when they recorded Wooly Bully for the regional XL label in 1964. The song proved so popular that it (and the band's contract) was bought outright by M-G-M Records, at the time one of the largest labels in the country. Wooly Bully was re-released nationally on M-G-M in 1965 and ended up among the top 10 records of the year.
Artist: Animals
Title: We Gotta Get Out Of This Place (US version)
Source: Mono CD: The Very Best Of The Animals (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Mann/Weil
Label: Abkco (original label: M-G-M)
Year: 1965
In 1965 producer Mickey Most put out a call to Don Kirschner's Brill building songwriters for material that could be recorded by the Animals. He ended up selecting three songs, all of which are among the Animals' most popular singles. Possibly the most familiar of the three is a song written by the husband and wife team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil called We Gotta Get Out Of This Place. The song (the first Animals recording to featuring Dave Rowberry, who had replaced founder Alan Price on organ) starts off with what is probably Chas Chandler's best known bass line, slowly adding drums, vocals, guitar and finally keyboards on its way to an explosive chorus. The song was not originally intended for the Animals, however; it was written for the Righteous Brothers as a follow up to (You've Got That) Lovin' Feelin', which Mann and Weil had also provided for the duo. Mann, however, decided to record the song himself, but the Animals managed to get their version out first, taking it to the top 20 in the US and the top 5 in the UK. As the Vietnam war escalated, We Gotta Get Out Of This Place became a sort of underground anthem for US servicemen stationed in South Vietnam, and has been associated with that war ever since. Incidentally, there were actually two versions of We Gotta Get Out Of This Place recorded during the same recording session, with an alternate take accidentally being sent to M-G-M and subsequently being released as the US version of the single. This version (which some collectors and fans maintain has a stronger vocal track) appeared on the US-only LP Animal Tracks in the fall of 1965 as well as the original M-G-M pressings of the 1966 album Best Of The Animals. The original UK version, on the other hand, did not appear on any albums, as was common for British singles in the 1960s. By the 1980s record mogul Allen Klein had control of the original Animals' entire catalog, and decreed that all CD reissues of the song would use the original British version of the song, including the updated (and expanded) CD version of The Best Of The Animals. Abkco has continued to release various Animals compilation discs over the years, including some, such as The Very Best Of The Animals, that use the US version of We Gotta Get Out Of This Place.
Artist: Animals
Title: I Can't Believe It
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Eric Burdon
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1965
Eric Burdon did not write many songs for the original Animals, and most of those he did with collaborations with other band members. One of the few he did write on his own was I Can't Believe It, released as the B side of the single We Gotta Get Out Of This Place and the American (but not the British) version of the album Animal Tracks.
Artist: Animals
Title: Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Source: Mono LP: The Very Best Of The Animals (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Benjamin/Marcus/Caldwell
Label: Abkco (original label: M-G-M)
Year: 1965
1965 was a huge year for the Animals. Coming off the success of their 1964 smash House Of The Rising Sun, the Newcastle group racked up three major hits in 1965, including Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, a song originally recorded by jazz singer Nina Simone. The Animals version speeded up the tempo and used a signature riff that had been taken from Simone's outro. The Animals version of Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood made the top 20 in the US and the top five in both the UK and Canada.
Artist: Shadows Of Knight
Title: New York Bullseye
Source: LP: Back Door Men
Writer(s): Harry Pye
Label: Sundazed (original label: Dunwich)
Year: 1966
There are two tracks credited to Harry Pye on the second Shadows Of Knight album, Back Door Men. Both are instrumentals. The second of these, New York Bullseye, is basically a blues jam. All this, plus the fact that I can't seem to find any information on "Harry Pye", leads me to believe that Harry Pye was actually a close relative of Nanker Phelge and McGannahan Skjellyfetti, both of which were fictional entities used to secure royalties on recordings created by an entire band (the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead, respectively.)
Artist: West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title: Unfree Child
Source: LP: Volume II
Writer(s): Markley/Harris
Label: Reprise
Year: 1967
For those who are not familiar with reel-to-reel tape technology, here's a quick primer. As with all tape tech, a recording is created by a magnetic head imprinting patterns onto magnetic tape. This tape travels across the head at a predetermined speed. There were actually several speeds used over the years, all of which were standardized by measuring the length of tape travelling across the head in one second. In addition, each standard speed was exactly one half of the one above it, with the fastest having the highest quality. The fastest known speed was 30 inches per second (only used by computers, as far as I know), with 15 ips being the standard speed for studio recordings. Radio stations generally had machines that ran at either 15 or 7 1/2 ips, while home units ran at either 7 1/2 or 3 3/4. Dictating machines, which were virtually useless for recording music, used 1 7/8 or even 15/16 (which had so much tape hiss you could barely hear the recording itself). The advantage of halving the speed (besides the obvious economic advantage) is that the original key of the music is the same, albeit an octave lower. This made it possible to deliberately record something at the wrong speed, then play that recording back at the regular speed in the same key (but at half or double tempo). As the technology developed it became possible to put multiple tracks onto the same strip of tape, with first two, then three, four, eight and even sixteen tracks running parallel along the tape. This is what made it possible to record overdubs (by putting the original recording on one track and play it back while recording more stuff on another one), and to record in stereo. Unfree Child, which starts off a set of 1967 tracks from L.A. bands, has an intro that was actually recorded at a higher speed then played back at the next one down, giving it a deep growling sound. This type of effect, combined with backwards masking (created by playing the tape back to front and recording something on one of the unused tracks) is what got some heavy metal bands into trouble for putting hidden "Satanic" messages on their records.
Artist: Max Frost And The Troopers aka the 13th Power aka Mom's Boys
Title: Free Lovin'
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Wibier/Hemrick
Label: Tower
Year: 1968
One of the most intriguing mysteries in rock 'n' roll history concerned a band called the 13th Power. At the core of this mystery is the fact that nobody knew for sure whether there even was a band called the 13th Power. The first time I saw the name was on the 1968 soundtrack album from the movie Wild In The Streets. On that LP, all the songs that had been "performed" in the movie by Max Frost And The Troopers were credited to the 13th Power. However, the hit single from the movie, Shape Of Things To Come, listed Max Frost And The Troopers as the artist. To make things even more confusing, Tower Records, in the wake of the success of the single, released an entire album by Max Frost And The Troopers called (you guessed it) Shape Of Things To Come. Two tracks from that LP were subsequently released as a single on Mike Curb's Sidewalk label, with the 13th Power shown as the artist of record (sorry). The writing credits on those two tracks (and indeed, on most of the tracks on the Shape Of Things To Come album itself) included Paul Wibier, Dale Beckner, Stewart Martin, G. McClain and Barney Hector, all of which had been involved in writing songs for other soundtrack albums for Curb. (Just to confuse the matter even further some of those earlier songs were credited to a band called Mom's Boys.) Muddying the waters even further is a 13th Power single that came out in October of 1967 on the Sidewalk label, several months before the Wild In The Streets soundtrack album was released. The A side of that single was written by Wibier and Hector, while the B side is credited to Wibier/ McClain/ Martin/ Beckner and Hector. As a general rule, rock songs credited to five people are the work of an entire band, making this the likely lineup of the 13th Power (or Mom's Boys if you prefer).
Artist: Vanilla Fudge
Title: Need Love
Source: Mono CD: The Complete Atco Singles (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Stein/Bogart/Martell/Appice
Label: Real Gone/Rhino (original label: Atco
Year: 1969
Possibly the hardest rocking original ever recorded by Vanilla Fudge, Need Love was the lead single from Rock & Roll, the final album released prior to the band's initial breakup in 1970. Guitarist Vinnie Martell provided the lead vocals on the song.
Artist: Wet Paint
Title: Glass Road
Source: CD: A Deadly Dose Of Wild Psych (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Wet Paint
Label: Arf! Arf! (original label: Onyx)
Year: 1968
Although most of the bands recording in the state of Massachusetts used studios in Boston, there were some exceptions. One such case was a band called Wet Paint, who recorded at Eastern Sounds Recordings in Metheun. Eastern even had its own in-house record label, Onyx, which is where Glass Road was released in 1968.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Masculine Intuition
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Original Sound
Year: 1966
If you take out the cover songs that Original Sound Records added to the album without the band's knowledge or approval, Turn On The Music Machine has to be considered one of the best LPs of 1966. Not that the covers were badly done, but they were intended to be used for lip synching on a local TV show and were included without the knowledge or approval of the band, and that's never a good thing. Every one of the Sean Bonniwell originals on the other hand, combines strong musical structure and intelligent lyrics with musicianship far surpassing the average garage band. This is especially true in the case of Masculine Intuition, which was also issued as the B side of the band's second single.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: To The Light
Source: Mono CD: Beyond The Garage (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Bonniwell/Garfield
Label: Sundazed (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year: 1968
Sean Bonniwell and his band the Music Machine hit the big time with their hit single Talk Talk in late 1966. Unfortunately, due in large part to circumstances beyond the band's control, they were never able to duplicate that success. Eventually, the band's grueling touring schedule took its toll, and all of the original members, save Bonniwell himself, were gone by the middle of 1967. Bonniwell was not quite ready to give up, however, and soon had a new Music Machine in place, recording a handful of new tunes and releasing them (along with several previously released singles by the original lineup) on an album called The Bonniwell Music Machine in late 1967. The new group's recording career did not stop there, however. Whenever possible, using whatever facilities were available, the band would book studio time for new tunes such as To The Light, which was released on 45 RPM vinyl in 1968. Bonniwell himself described the song as "Clip-Clop brevity and a vocal rendering almost too coy for platonic love nurturing a tormented libido", adding that the end result is a question: "Can friends become lovers and remain friendly?"
Artist: Music Machine
Title: The People In Me
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Original Sound
Year: 1966
After Talk Talk soared into the upper reaches of the US charts the Music Machine's management made a tactical error. Instead of promoting the follow-up single, The People In Me, to the largest possible audience, the band's manager gave exclusive air rights to a relatively low-rated Burbank station at the far end of the Los Angeles AM radio dial. As local bands like the Music Machine depended on airplay in L.A. as a necessary step to getting national exposure, the move proved disastrous. Without any airplay on influential stations like KHJ and KRLA, The People In Me was unable to get any higher than the # 66 spot on the national charts. Even worse for the band, the big stations remembered the slight when subsequent singles by the Music Machine were released, and by mid-1967 the original lineup had disbanded, although Bonniwell continued to tour with a new Music Machine for another year.
Artist: Donovan
Title: Writer In The Sun
Source: Mono British import CD: Mellow Yellow
Writer: Donovan Leitch
Label: EMI (original label: Epic)
Year: 1967
In 1966-67 Donovan's career was almost derailed by a contractual dispute with his UK label, Pye Records. This resulted in two of his albums, Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow, not being issued in the UK. At the time he felt that there was a real chance that he would be forced into retirement by the dispute, and with that weighing heavily on his mind he wrote the song Writer In The Sun. Ironically his career was moving in the opposite direction in the US due to him switching from the relatively small Hickory label to Epic Records (a subsidiary of Columbia, at the time the second-largest record company in the US) and scoring top 10 singles with the title tracks from both albums. His success with those records in the US may have been a factor in Pye settling with the singer-songwriter and issuing a British album that combined tracks from the two albums in late 1967.
Artist: Buckinghams
Title: Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
Source: LP: The Buckinghams' Greatest Hits (originally released on LP: Time And Charges)
Writer(s): Williams/Watson/Zawinul
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
After winning a battle of the bands competition in late 1965, the Pulsations landed a job as the house band at a local Chicago TV station's teen-oriented variety show, All-Time Hits. At the suggestion of the show's producers they adopted the name Buckinghams, because it tied in with a popular local landmark, Buckingham Fountain (in Grant Park). The fact that it also sounded vaguely British was a factor as well. In early 1966 they signed a deal with local label USA Records, releasing several singles that year. The last of these, Kind Of A Drag, went on to become a national #1 in early 1967, which brought them to the attention of producer James William Guercio, which in turn led to the Buckinghams signing with Columbia Records in early 1967. The band's association with Guercio produced four top 20 singles in 1967. The highest charting of these was a vocal version of Joe Zawinul's Mercy, Mercy, Mercy (originally recorded by Cannonball Adderly) featuring lyrics by rock 'n' roll legends Larry Williams and Johnny "Guitar" Watson, whose own version of the tune had stalled out in the lower reaches of the charts earlier in the year.
Artist: "E" Types
Title: Put The Clock Back On The Wall
Source: CD: Even More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Bonner/Gordon
Label: Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year: 1967
The E-Types were originally from Salinas, California, which at the time was known for it's sulfiric smell experienced by passing motorists travelling along US 101. As many people from Salinas apparently went to "nearby" San Jose (about 60 miles to the north) as often as possible, the E-Types became regulars on the local scene there, eventually landing a contract with Tower Records and Ed Cobb, who also produced the Standells and the Chocolate Watchband. The Bonner/Gordon songwriting team were just a couple months away from getting huge royalty checks from the Turtles' Happy Together when Put The Clock Back On The Wall was released in early 1967. The song takes its title from a popular phrase of the time. After a day or two of losing all awareness of time (and sometimes space) it was time to put the clock back on the wall, or get back to reality if you prefer.
Artist: Astronauts
Title: Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Boyce/Venet
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1965
The Astronauts were formed in the early 60s in Boulder, Colorado, and were one of the few surf bands to come from a landlocked state. They had a minor hit with an instrumental called Baja during the height of surf's popularity, but were never able to duplicate that success in the US, although they did have considerable success in Japan, even outselling the Beach Boys there. By 1965 they had started to move away from surf music, adding vocals and taking on more of a garage-punk sound. What caught my attention when I first ran across this promo single in a commercial radio station throwaway pile was the song's title. Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day, written by Tommy Boyce and producer Steve Venet, was featured on the Monkees TV show and was included on their 1966 debut album. This 1965 Astronauts version of the tune has a lot more attitude than the Monkees version. Surprisingly the song didn't hit the US charts, despite being released on what was then the biggest record label in the world, RCA Victor.
Artist: Troggs
Title: Wild Thing
Source: Simulated stereo LP: Golden Days Of British Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Chip Taylor
Label: Sire (original label: Fontana)
Year: 1966
I have a DVD copy of a music video (although back then they were called promotional films) for the Troggs' Wild Thing in which the members of the band are lip-synching the song as they walk through what looks like a train station while being mobbed by girls at every turn. Every time I watch it I imagine singer Reg Presley saying giggity-giggity as he bobs his head.
Artist: Mystery Trend
Title: Johnny Was A Good Boy
Source: Mono CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Nagle/Cuff
Label: Rhino (original label: Verve)
Year: 1967
The Mystery Trend was a bit of an anomaly. Contemporaries of bands such as the Great! Society and the Charlatans, the Trend always stood apart from the rest of the crowd, playing to an audience that was both a bit more affluent and a bit more "adult" (they were reportedly the house band at a Sausalito strip club). Although they played in the city itself as early as 1965, they did not release their first record until early 1967. The song, Johnny Was A Good Boy, tells the story of a seemingly normal middle-class kid who turns out to be a monster (without actually specifying what he did), surprising friends, family and neighbors. Despite being an excellent tune, the song's lyrics were way too dark for top 40 radio in 1967, and the record sank like a stone.
