 Greetings!!! I’m enjoying a late summer day here in lovely Rochester, NY watching the Three Stooges, and doing one of my favorite things…writing this blog. I was going to get into this gigantic thing about my evolution as a record collector, but I think I’ll bore you with that some other time. Instead, I’ll just get right to the records at hand…. |
Teemates – Moving Out / Dream On Little Girl (1964)
 Woah. Here’s a fast paced blaster from the NYC area to start off the festivities. They were considered a Beatles clone, but you can’t tell by the sound of these two tunes. |
Chancellors – Little Latin Lupe Lu / Yo Yo (1964)
 Great version by a bunch from Minneapolis, MN. It’s real indicative of the sound that was coming out in that area about that time sharing the same springy reverbed guitar sound with The Trashmen and other groups. |
Billy Gary & The Grupe – Who Are You / Too Young (1966)
 Lightweight, moody 12 string ballads from an unknown grupe. |
Bruins – Go On And Cry / Can’t Believe You’ve Grown Up (1964)
 Here’s a British band that had two other 45s released in the US, all of them share the same raw, yet restrained invasion style. I read somewhere that Eddie Phillips from the Creation was in this band but I’m probably wrong. |
Dimensions – She’s Boss / Penny (1965)
 A really great 45 from the Pacific NW, Seattle to be exact. I’m not sure if these guys became the “Nu Dimension” featured in IDG #9 |
Four Frogs – I Think I’m Losing You / Mr. Big (1964)
 An unknown group from New Mexico on the infamous Frodeath label which was run by an El Paso DJ named Steve Crosno. I wish I knew more about this particular band, but they were label mates with Danny & The Counts, and Mike Renolds And The Infants Of Soul. Some copies even had a picture sleeve shown here…  |
Gil Bateman – How To Do It / The Night Before (1967)
 Gil Bateman was also from the Pacific NW and had a string of singles on Piccadilly and Panorama records. This one is very pop oriented. The A side sounds a bit like the Lovin’ Spoonful and the B side is a slow moody version of The Beatles’ “The Night Before”. It sounds like The Springfield Rifle may be backing them up on that one. |
Chaps – Remember To Forget Her / You’ll Be Back (1966)
 The second 45 from this band of geniuses out of Pine Bluff, AK. The A side of this is one of finest examples of an American group emulating British sounds. The B side takes a riff from the George Harrison’s “I Need You”. |
Upper Class – Help Me Find A Way / Can’t Wait (1967)
 Nice upbeat pop sounds with good vocal harmonies from a Fort Worth, TX group. This would later be picked up for national release by Smash Records but unfortunately went nowhere….. |
Improper Bostonians – Come To Me Baby / Set You Free This Time (1967)
 I wish I knew more about these guys. They got a real nice folk rock sound on this one and do a great version of The Byrds’ “Set You Free This Time” on the B side which gets mucked up by a stupid kazoo solo. |
Grass Roots – Depressed Feeing (1967)
 The vastly overlooked flip side to their great “Let’s Live For Today”. The Grass Roots recorded some very good music before becoming a horn dominated pop group. |
Blues Project – No Time Like The Right Time / Steve’s Song (1967)
 One of the great bands to come out New York City during the 60’s. Guitarist Danny Kalb started the group after appearing solo on an album entitled “The Blues Project”, a collection of folk blues tracks by various artists. Al Kooper saw them in their early days and liked them so much he joined the band playing keyboards. These two songs were taken from the “Live At Town Hall” LP. |
Blues Magoos – Pipe Dream / There’s A Chance We Can Make It (1967)
 Another great New York City group who did the Greenwich Village scene with the aforementioned Blues Project. The Magoos’ sound was definitely of the psychedelic variety and it shows on this fantastic two sider. |
Amboy Dukes – You Talk Sunshine, I Breathe Fire (1968)
 Ted Nugent burns (as usual) on this wild follow up to “Journey To The Center Of The Mind” |
Flamin’ Groovies – Somethin’ Else / Laurie Did It (1969)
 Not much needs to be said about these legends of Power Pop. This 45 was taken from their debut LP on Epic. |
Awesome, as usual. Thanks for all the great music!
ReplyDeleteHello Dan
ReplyDeleteI'd love to hear about how you became an obsessive record collector. So I'll keep reminding you to post about that.
I wrote about The Improper Bostonians on my site last year and raked up some information about them and a pic from an old comp I've got.
http://expo67-cavestones.blogspot.com/search/label/Improper%20Bostonians
Thanks again Dan, so what? You're saying you believe in Darwinism or something? I thought record collecting was a divine creation;) But seriously I would be interested. As long as don't don't go off on a tangent describing your polka music collection.
ReplyDeletescott
Improper Bostonians were a Boston / Cape Cod band for the most part. I remember seeing them and pretty sure it was at The Surf Ballroom at Nantasket (which is neither in Boston or on Cape Cod). They had 4 singles on Minuteman roughly between mid-1966 and mid-1967 when I assume the new wave of psychedelia etc. made them rethink what they realistically wanted to do with their lives (lol). Personally, I always thought How Many Tears? was their best side. I think that was their first release and that and the followup, Gee I'm Gonna Miss You, were both Top 30 records in Boston in the later half of 1966. It was 45 years ago so I may not be recalling that exactly. Besides How Many Tears? I think the song I like the best was the folkie Victim of Environment. Not sure why but it just grew on me at the time. The b-side of How Many Tears?, I Still Love You, is very much worth checking out too. It has a Bo Diddley beat that comes and goes in the short verses of what is a song with an unusual structure for that time.
ReplyDeleteAs always, thanks for another great comp.
ReplyDeleteColin, I did check that post out and it was superb as usual. For all of you taking the time to read these comments, check out the "Flower Bomb Songs" blog. It is absolutely one of the BEST! http://expo67-cavestones.blogspot.com or follow the link on the right hand side of the page. In fact...check out all the fine blogs listed there.
ReplyDeleteMan, your crates really are bottomless... I finally caught up and definitely have a lot of listening to do. Thanks so much for continuing to share with us; I really appreciate all of your hard work.
ReplyDeletePeace and blessings.
Cool tunes! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi Dan! "Let's Live For Today" isn't an original Grass Roots song (You didn't say that it is but a lot of people THINK it is). It was originally recorded by an English band that moved to Italy called The Rokes. There were a number of English bands that sought fame and fortune on foreign shores as England was crowded with acts. The Rokes were possibly the most popular rock band in Italy during the Sixties and had several LP's and 45's on Italy's branch of RCA Victor. The band was so popular that the Italian company 'EKO' (which made all of the Vox guitars and basses after 1964) made custom 'Rokes' model guitars and basses for them! They sang in both English and Italian as well. They released "Let's Live For Today" in English and also released it as "Piangi Con Me" ("Cry With Me") in Italian. I've been told that "Piangi Con Me" is an old Italian folk song (presumably sung by some old Italian folks!). If you want to hear one of their best songs (at least in MY opinion) please check out "When The Wind Arises". If you can't find it let me know and I will e-mail it to you.
ReplyDeleteYes, you are absolutely correct, The Rokes indeed did have thee original version of this song, along with a band called "The Living Daylights" from the U.K. who also released a version of it before The Grass Roots. That one got released on Buddah Records here in the USA. I think I featured that in a previous post, but I have to double check......
DeleteHey, Dan. I'm just curious as to how you discovered my brother's record. He is the "R. Caruso" who wrote "Who are You?" by Billy Gary and the Grupe. Thanks for including this record in your compilation! Bob Caruso
ReplyDeleteHey, Dan. I am the brother of R. Caruso who wrote the "Who Are You"? song produced by ABC records in 1966. It did hit Billboard for a very short while, but we've never been able to find the original rating and comments. I am happy to see it included in your collection. How on earth did you uncover it? We are trying to digitize this oldie and have it played on an oldies station in Ohio!. Thanks
ReplyDeleteBob,
ReplyDeleteVery cool! It's nice to hear from original band members, their friends and their families as well! I bought this 45 at a record show back in the 80's. Unfortunately I don't remember if it was here in Rochester or somewhere else in upstate NY. I had never heard the song before that. It seems like there was quite a bit of musical activity in Ohio during the mid 60's and some of the best unknown bands of that era were from there. I have quite a few VERY obscure 45's from Ohio, most of them from the mid 60's garage band era. It's nice to hear from you and if you have any more cool info, please feel free to drop me a line. I also do an internet radio show which plays on Radio Free Phoenix every Wednesday at 11:00 PM Eastern, and it re-plays on Deep Oldies every Sunday afternoon at 3:00 PM Eastern. I also have a Mixcloud page with podcasts of previous shows. https://www.mixcloud.com/dan-frank2/ Thanks again!