In Dan's Garage...#156

 

Hey everybody. Back again with some more 45's for all to sample. Right now I'm just grabbing things randomly and ripping them, in fact I got some pretty good mojo workin' here as all the keystrokes it takes to rip and edit this blog are coming to me effortlessly. Practice makes perfect I guess. The only thing I'm avoiding is posting 45s with the same label in the same post, aside from that anything goes except for obvious stinkers (in my opinion) that I'm just not going to bother with. 

This last Monday was be six weeks since having surgery and I'm starting to feel like I'm on the mend. I disposed the sling and I'm feeling somewhat normal again, although I have a few more months of rehab, but in the meantime I can keep plugging away here. Enjoy.

U.S. Six - I Do Love You / The Push (1964)

HEY! Let's start with a total dead end!!!! Outside of the fact that this 45 came out on Ascot records, I know nothing about this group. One lead suggested they were from San Jose, CA, but that's iffy. 'A; side is a really cool mid-tempo minor chord ballad, and the flip is pretty good garage/soul.

Balloon Corps - Muddy Water / Make It Right (1969)

The Balloon Corps were from somewhere in Pennsylvania and were previously known as The Snaps and The Underground Balloon Corps. Nice rockin' two sider from the late 60's.

Candymen - Movies In My Mind (1967)

I probably should've ripped both sides of this 45 but "Georgia Pines" was somewhat of a hit in '67 so I left it out. The flip is a really interesting number though with a really nice hook. The Candymen were Roy Orbison's backing band in the mid 60's and several of the band members were involved in The Classics IV who's "Spooky" was a huge hit, and then they evolved into "The Atlanta Rhythm Section" in the 70's. Let me know in the comments if you want the 'A' side posted.

Russ Alquist - Ordinary Morning / Fly Free As A Bird (1966)

Russ Alquist's story is rather interesting. He was married to British actress Juliet Mills and wrote or co-wrote songs for The Fourmost, Herman's Hermits, Chad & Jeremy, and collaborated with the British songwriting team of  Carter and Lewis who were responsible for several hits in the mid-sixties as well as a slew of lesser known songs for a bunch of other acts. This was Russ' only recording and in my opinion is perfect mid-sixties pop. I can't say for sure, but the Wrecking Crew probably backed him on this gem.

The Red Baron - Gonna Get You In The End / Cowboy (1967)

Not much is known about "The Red Baron" A/K/A David "Von" Garber. He did have this one 45 in '67 and fortunately it has nothing to do with the "Snoopy" craze that The Royal Guardsmen were responsible for, in fact, the 'A' side sounds kind of demented. Hell, the 'B' side is a wee bit out there as well. Perhaps it's because genius producer Tom Wilson was involved in this affair.

Thanes - So Alone / If She Were Here (1968)

The Thanes were from Kitchener, Ontario, Canada and had this one very moody 45 that only came out in Canada. Sorry for the poor shape of this record. I tried doing some "fixing" on the desktop, but I couldn't manage to get all of the crackles out. Not to be confused with the with the 80's band from Scotland.

Traffic featuring Steve Winwood - Paper Sun / Giving To You (1967)

I know this is a well known song by a well known band, but this particular version of "Paper Sun" is mixed somewhat differently than the LP version and is a bit shorter, perhaps for radio play. The 45 is also credited to "Traffic featuring Steve Winwood" as this 45 came out a couple of months after he left The Spencer Davis Group, probably because Spencer Davis' "Somebody Help Me" was still on the charts. 

The Alan Bown! - Gypsy Girl / All I Can (1969)

Alan Bown started his career playing with the John Barry Seven and eventually left that group and took a couple of other members with him and formed The Alan Bown Set. They were an R&B group not unlike Georgie Fame and The Blue Flames and started releasing records in 1965. They would evolve into more of a pop/psyche group in the later 60'sreleasing an LP here in the states on Music Factory records. They dropped the "Set" and added the ! to their name in 1967 although in the U.S. they would simply be known as "The Alan Bown" until this 45 from 1969 which would be their last release here. 

Right about the time this record was put out and getting some steam on the charts, lead vocalist Jess Roden left and was replaced by none other than Robert Palmer. "Gypsy Girl" was re-recorded with Palmer on vocals but in the U.S. we got the original song with Roden. Sax player John Helliwell and bassist Dougie Thompson eventually hooked up with Supertramp and enjoyed huge success with them.

Group Therapy - Bad News (1967)

One of several bands that called themselves "Group Therapy" during the 60's, this band was bassist Leland Sklar's first band. I skipped the 'A' side of this because I couldn't get past the first 30 seconds of schmaltz, but on second listen, it get's better, although it kinda sounds a bit like a Partridge Family song, That's not necessarily a bad thing. I'll throw it on the next effort.

Affection Collection - Feelin' Fine / Can't Put Her Down (1971)

From Idaho Falls, ID, The Affection Collection trucked down to Norman Petty's studio in Clovis, NM to record this and in fact, all their records. That's a 16 hour drive! Their perseverance earned them seven 45's on Maudz, Evolution, and United Artists records all decent songs that range from folk rock to pop.  

Beast - Move Mountain (You Got it) / Communication (1970)

A Denver, CO group that also recorded at Norman Petty's studio although their trip only took about 7 to 8 hours. Nice heavy stuff here. They had two LP's, one on Cotillion and one on Evolution.

Boffolongo - Please Stay / Mr. Go Away (1969)

I'm breaking my rule of putting more than one 45 of the same label in a post. So much for quality control. Boffolongo, from what I can gather, was a band from Ithaca, NY, a mere 2 hours away from Dan's Garage central. They were Cornell University students at the time and managed to record two LP's before they broke up. Some of them migrated to Paris and worked as session musicians and eventually headed back to the states, regrouped, and formed King Harvest who had a memorable AM radio hit with "Dancing In The Moonlight" This 45 is pretty good up-tempo pop/rock and "Mr. Go Away", to my ears, sound kinda like Procol Harum. By the way, Boffolongo released the first version of "Dancing In The Moonlight" in 1970 but apparently had no success with it.

Majic Ship - Hummin / It's Over (1969)

I have two copies of this 45. The one you see here on Crazy Horse, which incidentally was pressed by Capitol records, and the original which appeared on the local Magic-L label. This copy popped up in my pile of stuff  and unfortunately it's pretty trashed. I tried to let Audacity do some "pop and crackle" voodoo on it, but it's still pretty crispy.

The Majic Ship were from Long Island, and were a typical band from that location and era, ya know, Heavy Hammond B-3 organ not unlike their fellow Long Islanders The Vanilla Fudge and The Hassles. who also covered Hummin'. Unlike The Hassles version which has some horns in it trying to get that Stax Records vibe, the horns on this record sounds like they were recorded in a different building, or just an afterthought.

Thomas And Richard Frost - Got To Find The Light / St. Petersburgh (1972)

Tom and Rich Martin A/K/A Thomas And Richard Frost were a duo from San Mateo, CA that had a very interesting history. They played in a surf band called the Impressions and then went on to form The Art Collection and backed New Zealander Ray Columbus after he left the Invaders and moved to the U.S. They then went on to form a power pop group called "Powder", that did the freakbeat/mod thing ala The Who and did it quite well I might add. I've only heard one song by them, "Gladly" that sounds like it was recorded in the U.K. sometime in 1966 or '67. Real good stuff. The two garnered attention from Imperial Records and recorded a handful of 45's before recording an entire LP for Uni in 1972. This was the only 45 from that album and it definitely shows a shift in styles from their earlier work.

HERE

 

 

In Dan's Garage...#155

Hey everybody! I got to work "fast-fast" on this latest offering knowing that I didn't want to lollygag with all this spare time on my hands. I have a bunch of 45's in my collection that fall somewhat outside of what I usually offer up, ya know, garage, psychedelic, etc. These were to have been set aside for "Dan's Leftovers", a blog that never really got off the ground which is unfortunate because this stuff is actually quite good given it's context. I could post a bunch of Perry Como records and still call them leftovers, but that stuff is actually what I consider the "flotsam and jetsam" of my collection. These 45's are all worthy of a spin even if it makes a lot of hardcore garage/psyche collectors cringe, but hey, who knows??? You may find something you like here. I did one of these way back which was a two part post (IDG #66) and I dispensed with descriptions. This time I'll add my impeccable commentary, but I'll try to keep it brief. These pretty much fall into the "Sunshine Pop, Pop Vocal" category with some bubblegum and teener stuff thrown in. I hope you like it.

April Fools - Things Go Better With You / You Won't Be There (1968)

If you're older, like myself, you may recall Coca Cola's pitch back in the 60's was "things go better with Coke", a line that's stuck in my head since then. It looks like this song was a play on that phrase. I'm not sure who the April Fools were. They seem to be a studio concoction of Wayne Carson Thompson, a prolific songwriter out of Nashville who's biggest achievement was writing "The Letter" for The Box Tops, a mega international hit that was covered by Joe Cocker, The Arbors, Leon Russell , and several others including my present band who mixes into our set lists on occasion. This is definitely a pop tune with some twinges of bubblegum, perhaps it should just be classified as a "bubblegum" song. Nice tune, but the flip, which I sorely neglected until I played it, is actually better and sounds like a different group. Apparently, this was a big hit in Anchorage, Alaska in '68. Go figure.

Centuries - Don't Let It Fade Away / Just Today (1966)

I remember picking this 45 up in a huge $1 bin of 45's back in 1986 at a record show in Albany and having high hopes. Cool label, cool band name, but alas, it turned out to be somewhat disappointing. The Centuries were a big deal in Oklahoma City back in the mid-sixties. They played all over the place, appeared on TV, and released two 45's. If you want some real detail on their story check it out HERE at Garage Hangover, perhaps the best website dedicated to lost bands from the 60's.

Rick and Al - All I Do Is Dream Of You / The Story (1963)

Here's a nice "teener" 45 from 1963 by Rick, who is Rickie Page, wife of producer George Matola and Al who is Al DeLory. Both were session musicians and this looks to be a one-off effort.

Arbors - I Can't Quit Her / Lovin' Tonight (Maybe Tonight) (1969)

The Arbors were a very nice soft pop vocal group from Ann Arbor, MI. They remind me of The Critters of "Mr. Dieingly Sad" fame. The had some fame covering "The Letter" (as I mentioned previously) and released a whopping 13 45's, not including double sided promos. This one here is pretty much more of the same.

Tom & Ellen - Too Many Things / My Up Is My Down (1966)

Another one-off effort this time from a duo consisting of Tom Everett, a musician and actor who I must admit have never seen or heard of, and Ellen who was his collaborator at the time. Aside from having top tier producers like Joe Wissert and the famous Koppelman & Rubin team behind it, this is a pretty good folk/pop two sider with some great 12 string guitar work and great production, naturally.

Free Design - You Be You And I'll Be Me / Never Tell The World (1968)

The Free Design are considered to be something of an influential pop group in that they incorporated some jazz and progressive touches to their music. They originated in Delevan, NY, a small town just southwest of Rochester but ended up in Greenwich Village like so many other vocal artists did at the time. They released all their music on Project 3 records which used cutting edge recording technology at the time.

Society's Children - Live For Today (1968)

I had to do a little bit of digging around for info on this 45 and what I came up with is that Society's Children's songs were mostly written by Wayne Wadhams and Don Askew and produced by Steve & Bill Jerome who were all involved with The Fifth Estate of "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead" fame, which leads me to believe that this was a side project of that group. If I'm totally wrong about this, please correct me in the comments section.

Life Cycle - My Karma / I Wanna Live (1970)

Almost certainly a studio project by Hickory records out of Nashville. Nice background music for that groovy summer cocktail party you're having in your backyard this summer.

Peppermint Rainbow - Don't Wake Me Up In The Morning Michael / Rosemary (1969)

The Peppermint Rainbow were a pop vocal group not unlike The Mama's And The Papas and The 5th Dimension, Spanky And Our Gang, etc. They were good but perhaps missed out on real fame and fortune due to the glut of groups like this that were floating around in the mid sixties.

San Francisco Earthquake - Hold The Night / Sophia (1969)

More from Bill & Steve Jerome here, this time with The San Francisco Earthquake most likely another studio project. The songs were written by Kenny Young most famous for writing the hit "Under The Boardwalk". I barely played this 45 but time has a habit of erasing bad memories so when i plopped this on the turntable, I was pleasantly surprised. This 45 is actually a very good sunshine pop record. They had four other 45's all on Smash.

Bazooka - Boo On You (1968)

A bubblegum 45 written, and presumably sung, by a guy named Austin Roberts who I know nothing about. Apparently he had a sizable hit in 1975 with a song called "Rocky", one of those sad life tales that bands and artists were constantly singing about on AM radio back in the early 70's.

Utopia Parkway - Come With Me / I Don't Understand You (1970)

From what I could gather, The Utopia Parkway evolved from "The Sintrifical Fours" who had two 45's on Mr. G Records in 1968. 

Jamestown Massacre - Summer Sun (1972)

The Jamestown Massacre were from Chicago and had this particular 45 released twice, The other issue got national distribution and is on Warner Brothers Records. Unfortunately, hits eluded this group, but their lead singer Dave Bickler ended up in "Survivor" and had a huge hit in 1983 with "Eye Of The Tiger".

Harmony Dawg - Schoolboy Promises / Full Moon Child (1976)

This 45 here is perhaps the most obscure and certainly the rockin'-est 45 in this posting. I pulled this one out on the outside chance I could get my turntable to play this thing as it had some warp damage on the edge that kept it from playing properly on my other machines. Luckily with a few adjustments, I got it to play rather well considering its condition. I can't say for sure where these guys are from, the person I bought it from is in the Dayton, OH area so it's possible they're from that area. It's a Rite Records pressing, so Cincinnati or the northern Kentucky area may be another possibility. Anyway, it's not a bad 45 and the six plus minute 'B' side is pretty epic.

Before I send you to the link, I'd like to show my gratitude to Garage Hangover, a truly great website dedicated to lost bands from the 60's, for providing me (and you) with much needed info on many of these records. My intention is not to poach or claim that I did any original research here. I just want to acknowledge and thank them for their hard work and keeping this stuff alive.

HERE