Brian Hyland - 1963 - Warmed Over Kisses FLAC

Walk A Lonely Mile/Warmed Over Kisses/Are You Lonesome Tonight/I'll Never Stop Wanting You



Brian Hyland's puppy-love pop virtually defined the sound and sensibility of bubblegum during the pre-Beatles era. In the years after his teen idol stature faded, he enjoyed a creative renaissance, releasing a series of underrated country-inspired efforts and even making a brief return to the pop charts.

Born November 12, 1943, in Brooklyn, NY, Hyland studied guitar and clarinet while singing in his church choir. At 14 he co-founded a harmony group dubbed the Delfis, which cut a demo they shopped to various New York City record labels. Hyland ultimately signed as a solo artist to Kapp Records, and in late 1959 issued his debut single, "Rosemary." For the follow-up, "Four Little Heels (The Clickety Clack Song)," the label paired him with the Brill Building songwriting duo of Lee Pockriss and Paul Vance, and when the single proved a minor hit, Pockriss and Vance set to work on the follow-up. The resulting "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" topped the Billboard pop charts in the summer of 1960, vaulting the 16-year-old to teen heartthrob status.

 After a move to ABC Records, Hyland partnered with the songwriting and production tandem of Gary Geld and Peter Udell for the hits "Let Me Belong to You" and "I'll Never Stop Wanting You." With 1962's "Sealed with a Kiss," a Top Five entry on both sides of the Atlantic, Hyland sealed his reputation as a paragon of youthful innocence and first-kiss romance, perfectly capturing the adolescent zeitgeist in the months leading up to Beatlemania. With 1962's Top 30 hit "Warmed-Over Kisses (Leftover Love)," Hyland introduced elements of country music into his sound, an approach he explored on singles including "I May Not Live to See Tomorrow" and "I'm Afraid to Go Home" and culminating with the 1964 LP Country Meets Folk. While Hyland's music clearly anticipated the folk-rock and country-rock that would blossom in the years to follow, he seemed hopelessly out of touch in contrast to the British Invasion acts now dominating pop radio, and his commercial fortunes rapidly dwindled. Hyland nevertheless forged on, teaming with producer Snuff Garrett and famed session men J.J. Cale and Leon Russell to score a pair of surprise Top 30 hits, "The Joker Went Wild" and "Run, Run, Look and See."

 Stay and Love Me All Summer Subsequent efforts including "Get the Message" and "Holiday for Clowns" barely charted, however, and with 1969's Stay and Love Me All Summer, Hyland shifted gears yet again, creating a melancholy yet luminous sunshine pop sound of remarkable maturity. A year later, he resurfaced on the Uni label with a self-titled LP produced by Del Shannon. With "Gypsy Woman," a cover of the Impressions' 1961 R&B hit, Hyland scored his final Top Five hit, and while his rendition of Jackie Wilson's "Lonely Teardrops" also proved a minor chart effort, originals like "Mail Order Gun" (written in response to the assassination of John F. Kennedy) failed to earn the attention they deserved. Despite the success of "Gypsy Woman," Uni dropped Hyland from its roster and he spent much of the decade without a record deal, instead touring the U.S. and Europe. In 1975, ABC's British division reissued "Sealed with a Kiss," and it cracked the U.K. Top Ten. Two years later Hyland and his family settled in New Orleans, and in 1979 the Private Stock label issued In a State of Bayou, which spotlighted his collaboration with the famed Crescent City composer and producer Allen Toussaint. Hyland continued his active touring schedule in the decades to follow, often performing with son Bodi on drums.

Hondells - 1967 - Younger Girl FLAC

Younger Girl/Little Honda/Kissin' My Life Away/Sea of Love



The Hondells were an American surf rock band. They are perhaps best known for their Top 10 single from 1964, a cover of the Beach Boys' "Little Honda".

The Hondells were a band manufactured by Gary Usher, originally consisting of session musicians. Their hit song, "Little Honda," was written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love of The Beach Boys. The song was inspired by the popularity of Honda motor bikes in Southern California during the early 1960s: In contrast to the prevailing negative stereotypes of motorcyclists in America as tough, antisocial rebels, Honda's campaign suggested that their motorcycles were made for everyone. The campaign was hugely successful; by the end of 1963 alone, Honda had sold 90,000 motorcycles. The Beach Boys had recorded "Little Honda" for their 1964 album All Summer Long, and subsequently producer Gary Usher gave former Castells vocalist Chuck Girard a copy of the All Summer Long LP and instructed him to learn "Little Honda."

 Usher then recruited a group of studio musicians – including Glen Campbell, Al DeLory, Tommy Tedesco, Bill Cooper and Richie Podolor – (Al Ferguson) to record an album of Honda-related songs for Mercury Records, with production credited to Nick Venet, though Usher was the brains behind the record. Aside from "Little Honda," most of the songs on The Hondells' Go Little Honda album were written by Usher and KFWB disc jockey and lyricist Roger Christian. The album's cover showed a four-member group and its liner notes contained an elaborate back story, penned by Christian, which posited one Ritchie Burns as the founder and leader of the band. At the time the album was delivered, the name of the group had not been decided. Under consideration were two names: "The Rising Sons" and "The Hondells." Venet chose the latter and released "Little Honda" as a single under the new group name. As the song climbed the charts, Usher assembled a band to tour in support, and "Little Honda" eventually peaked at No. 9 on the U.S. pop singles chart.

 Contrary to popular belief, session musician drummer Hal Blaine (creator of the name "The Wrecking Crew") was NOT the drummer on The Hondells' version of "Little Honda". The drummer on The Hondells' "Little Honda" was Wayne Edwards who together with Richard Burns (who played bass on the session and was cited on the album's liner notes as the band's "founder") went out on the road as part of the touring Hondells. Blaine played drums on The Super Stocks' "Little Honda" (produced by Gary Usher for Capitol) and on Pat Boone's version of the tune (produced by Terry Melcher as a single for Dot Records).


The Hondells scored another modest hit single in 1966 with a cover of the Lovin' Spoonful song "Younger Girl" (Mercury 72562) before disbanding. Randy Thomas sang the lead.
The Hondells also recorded commercials for Pepsi and Coty Cosmetics. Musicians on these recordings were Ritchie Burns, Glen Campbell, Wayne Edwards, Dennis McCarthy, Randy Thomas, who sang the lead on the Pepsi commercial and Al Ferguson who sang the lead on the Coty commercial.

Jan And Dean - 1963 - Surf City FLAC

Surf City/Honolulu Lulu/Talahassee Lassie/Soul City



 While they lacked the Beach Boys' depth and capacity for artistic growth, Jan and Dean's hits from 1963 and 1964 -- which also included "The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena)," "Drag City," "Honolulu Lulu," and the mini-soap opera "Dead Man's Curve" -- are in the same class as the Beach Boys' early work in their infectious, energetic invocation of good times and California sunshine. They added an irresistibly reckless humor to the genre, and were well cast as the fun-loving hosts of the classic 1964 rock and roll hootenanny film The T.A.M.I. Show (for which they performed the rip-roaring theme, "(Here They Come) From All over the World".

All the while that Jan and Dean were recording stars and were flying around the country playing concerts on the weekends, they were both full-time college students, Dean in the school of architecture at the University of Southern California where he earned a bachelor degree in fine arts, and Jan at U.C.L.A. where he was pre-med and upon graduation he was accepted in medical school. In 1964 Jan and Dean started Majic Lamp Records. Over two years they released fourteen singles, with some of them being by Johnny Burnette, Karen Carpenter and Davy Jones of the Monkees. Dean also founded J&D Records in 1966, but it folded after two releases.

The duo's success, already on the wane a bit, was tragically cut short by Jan crash. Berry's near-fatal auto accident April1966, which had been eerily foreshadowed by the lyrics of "Dead Man's Curve." April 12, 1966 on Whittier Drive in Beverly Hills, Berry pulled out to pass a slow-moving vehicle and slammed full-speed into a truck that was unexpectedly parked at the curb.  The Paramedics that arrived on the scene thought Berry was dead. Checking his vital signs, they found he was alive, and rushed him to the UCLA Hospital. There they found Jan's brain had been severely damaged and even numerous major brain surgeries could not completely repair the damage.. Not expected to live, Berry was in a coma for months and awoke unable walk, speak and was paralyzed on the right side. The name Jan & Dean remained only in the memories and record collections of their many fans for 10 years.


With Jan and Dean's career over as a result of Jan's accident, Torrence turned his attention to design, which he'd been studying at U.S.C. during Jan and Dean's recording career. Sticking to the business he knew best, Torrence opened Kittyhawk Graphics, a graphics design firm specializing in music industry design and packaging. In 1967, less than one year after Berry's accident, Kittyhawk was sharing office space with an enterprising young producer named James William Guercio, who came to Torrence with a design project. Guercio wanted Torrence to help design a logo for a new group Guercio was producing, called "Chicago Transit Authority." Using elements of the Coca-Cola logo design, Guercio and Torrence came up with a basic concept which was then given to a lettering expert to refine and complete. That logo, later shortened along with the group's name to "Chicago" was Kittyhawk's first major project.

 In early 1968 Dean designed the first of over two hundred album packages to follow, "The Turtles Golden Hits." In 1969 Dean designed the first of nine covers for The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, a relationship that continues to this day and has resulted in three Grammy Award nominations for "Best Album Cover of the Year". In addition to those nominations, Torrence won a Grammy in 1972 for "Best Album Cover of the Year" for the album Pollution by the group of the same name.

In 1969  Paul Morantz, a young law student at the University of Southern California, met Jan Berry at a resort motel in Palm Springs, California. Morantz and Berry became instant friends. After listening to some of Berry's stories, Morantz who dabbled in freelance writing, decided to write a feature story about Berry and his struggle against all odds. The story first appeared in the University of Southern California Daily Trojan in a short-edited form. Later Morantz spent many months re-writing the article for a California magazine called West. Just about the time he was putting the finishing touches on the story West stopped publishing.

 By this time Morantz had graduated from law school, was busy practicing law, and the story was shelved. A couple of years later, Morantz dug out Berry's story. Re-reading it Morantz realized that the story could easily be expanded to include the whole Jan & Dean story. At this point, Morantz called Torrence and they got together to discuss what had begun to take on the proportions of a larger project. After many regular meetings and major rewriting Morantz and Torrence submitted the re-written story to Rolling Stone magazine, after it had first been turned down by all of the major general interest magazines on the ground that not enough people would remember Jan & Dean to justify its publication.





 Shown from left: Bruce Davison (as Dean Torrence), Richard Hatch (as Jan Berry)

Rolling Stone accepted the story with tremendous enthusiasm, scheduling Jan & Dean to appear on their cover with the article given a major spread within. The publication date was September 12, 1974. But a funny thing happened on the way to the press, Nixon resigned and Nixon's picture pushed Jan & Dean's off the cover. But the story ran and was very well received. There seemed to be a renewed interest in Jan & Dean. Torrence and Morantz now decided that the story had all the elements of a feature film, so they started writing a screen play and started shopping the property all over town. After two years of rejections a deal was finally made with CBS to make the movie for television.  Dick Clark Productions filmed "Deadman's Curve" starring Richard Hatch ("Streets of San Francisco", "Battlestar Galactica"), Bruce Davison and guest-starring Dick Clark, Wolfman Jack, Mike Love, and Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys was started in late 1977. The very successful CBS-TV Movie "Deadman's Curve" airing in prime time nationwide in both 1978 and 1979, chronicled Berry's valiant fight to regain his ability to function normally.

 With a strong will, therapy, and the support of his partner, Dean Torrence, Jan & Dean toured with the Beach Boys in 1978 and 1979. In 1986, on a friendship tour of the People's Republic of China, they were the first to be allowed to skateboard on China's Great Wall. Now celebrating more than a decade of success together with their reunion and are also celebrating over 30 years of sunshine music. Jan & Dean made a surprise guest appearance on the Vicki Lawrence Show, along with John Davidson and James Darren as Vicki's teenage heart-throbs. "The Courage of Jan Berry" aired as a feature segment on Entertainment Tonight confirming a continuous and growing career as a national concert attraction. In 1994 Jan & Dean played Three Rivers Stadium with James Brown to 45,000 fans and after 15 years, reunited with the Beach Boys at Mile High Stadium rocking 55,000 fans. Over the years, Jan and Dean have appeared at the largest stadiums as well as small county fairs. They've headlined Casinos from Las Vegas to Biloxi. They have performed at corporate parties and fraternity keggers. They have even done a few weddings and birthday parties. Jan and Dean continue to appear together, and Dean has appeared with his own band the Surf City All Stars.

The Searchers - 1965 - When You Walk In The Room FLAC

When You Walk In The Room/(I'll Be) Missing You/Someday We're Gonna Love Again/No One Else Could Love Me



"When You Walk in the Room" was recorded by The Searchers in 1964, reaching #35 in the US and #3 in the UK.

Founded in 1957 by John McNally (guitar/vocals), the Searchers were originally one of thousands of skiffle groups formed in the wake of Lonnie Donegan's success with "Rock Island Line." The Searchers' immediate competitors included bands such as the Wreckers and the Confederates, both led by Michael Pender (guitar, vocals), and the Martinis, led by Tony Jackson (guitar/vocals). By 1959, McNally and Pender were working together as a duet; later in the year, Jackson joined as the lead vocalist. After drummer Norman McGarry left the Searchers he was replaced by Chris Crummy, who quickly renamed himself Chris Curtis. Other changes were in the works as Jackson built and learned to play a customized bass guitar. Learning his new job on the four-stringed instrument proved too difficult to permit him to continue singing lead, and McNally and Pender brought in a fifth member, Johnny Sandon (born Billy Beck). Johnny Sandon & the Searchers lasted from 1960 through February of 1962, and were extremely popular on the dance hall and club circuit in Liverpool. Sandon cut out for a career on his own, with another band called the Remo Four in early 1962.

 Meanwhile, the Searchers, now a quartet with Jackson once again lead singer, became one of the top acts on the Liverpool band scene, playing textured renditions of American R&B, rock & roll, country, soul, and rockabilly. The group was signed to Pye Records in mid-1963 and their first single, a cover of the Drifters' "Sweets for My Sweet," was released in August of 1963, hitting number one on the British charts. While the Beatles quickly outdistanced all comers, the Searchers did, indeed, go to the top of the charts with two of their next three singles, "Needles and Pins" and "Don't Throw Your Love Away." Another record, "Sugar and Spice," written by their producer Tony Hatch under the pseudonym Fred Nightingale, stalled at the number two spot. Over the next nine months, the band staked out a sound that was one of the most distinctive in a rock scene crawling with hundreds of bands. Their music was built around the sound of a crisply played 12-string guitar, coupled with strong lead vocals and carefully, sometimes exquisitely arranged harmonies, so that they could credibly cover American R&B standards like "Love Potion No. 9" or Phil Spector-based girl group pop like "Be My Baby." Their 1964 singles included a venture into folk-rock before the genre had been "invented" in the press, in the form of a cover of Malvina Reynolds' "What Have They Done to the Rain." Interestingly, their 12-string guitar sound would become a key ingredient in the success of the Byrds, who even took the riff from "Needles and Pins" and transformed it into the main riff of "Feel a Whole Lot Better."
 

 In July of 1964, with the group riding the upper reaches of the British charts, and with their third album in nine months in release, it was announced that Tony Jackson was leaving the Searchers to form his own band, and would be replaced by Frank Allen, who had been playing bass with Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers. The turning point for the band came in 1965, as the British and international fascination with the Liverpool sound faded away. The Searchers began casting their net wider for material to cover, in addition to coming up with one original hit, the Curtis/Pender-authored "He's Got No Love." By the beginning of 1966, the group's string of chart hits seemed to have run out, and Chris Curtis exited in early 1966, claiming to have become exhausted from the group's constant touring. The Searchers, with Johnny Blunt on drums, continued working and had their last hit, "Have You Ever Loved Somebody," which barely cracked the Top 50 in October of 1966. The group continued working, however, playing clubs and cabarets in England and Europe. Blunt exited at the end of the '60s, but was replaced by Billy Adamson, and this lineup of the Searchers continued intact until the mid-'80s, working for 35 weeks a year throughout Europe with an occasional U.S. visit. Although they played as part of Richard Nader's "Rock 'n Roll Revival" shows, they never became an "oldies" act, always adding new material, including originals and covers of work by songwriters such as Neil Young to their sets, and in 1972, the band cut an album for British RCA.

 The Searchers At the end of the '70s, their recording fortunes were revived once again as Seymour Stein, the head of Sire Records, signed the Searchers for two albums. Those records, The Searchers and Love's Melodies, were the best work the group ever did, highlighted by achingly beautiful yet vibrant and forceful playing and singing, and an unerring array of memorable hooks and melodies. Those two albums were followed by a series of tracks recorded for their original label, Pye Records, in the early '80s. The group held their audience well into the '80s, playing before crowds as large as 15,000 along one U.S. tour. In 1985, after playing together for 26 years, Pender and McNally split up, with McNally continuing to lead the Searchers (with Adamson and Allen, and with Spencer James added on second guitar and vocals), while Pender formed Mike Pender's Searchers, consisting of Chris Black (guitar, vocals), Barry Cowell (bass, vocals), and Steve Carlyle (drums, vocals). The Searchers under McNally recorded on occasion, releasing their last album, Hungry Hearts, in 1989. The two versions of the Searchers toured extensively into the 2010s, both featuring shifting lineups.

The Marketts - 1963 - Surfin' @320

Surfin'/Stomp, Look And Listen/Stompin' Room Only/Stompede



The Marketts were an American instrumental pop group, formed in January 1961 in Hollywood, California, by Michael Z. Gordon. They are best known for their 1963 million-seller, "Out of Limits".

The Marketts' line-up featured Michael Z. Gordon and various session musicians from the Los Angeles area, including drummer Hal Blaine. The group name was originally spelled "Mar-Kets". The group's direction was spearheaded by producer Joe Saraceno and Michael Z. Gordon, although Saraceno could not arrange or play on any of the group's material. Gordon's songs which were composed for the Marketts are best remembered for their surf rock sound, though not all of their material has this sound; Gordon took the group's style in whatever direction he thought would catch the record-buying public's ear. In the U.S., the group had three Top 40 hits and had two popular albums, many of the songs composed by Gordon.

The Marketts' surfer sound started with "Surfer's Stomp", which was by written by and produced by Gordon and Saraceno. Gordon also wrote their biggest hit, "Out of Limits", which was originally entitled "Outer Limits", named after the 1963 TV series The Outer Limits. Rod Serling sued the Marketts for quoting the four-note motif from his television show, The Twilight Zone, without his approval, which resulted in the change of the title to "Out of Limits". It reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1964. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The band name was used as late as 1977 for further releases, though their last hit came in 1966.

Johnny Cash - 1965 - Come In Stranger FLAC

Come In Stranger/The Ways Of A Woman In Love/Guess Things Happen That Way/Ballad Of A Teenage Queen



"Guess Things Happen That Way" is a 1958 cross over single by Johnny Cash, which was written by Jack Clement. The single, a song about "a man struggling ... after the love of his life has left him", was Johnny Cash's fourth number one on the country chart spending eight weeks at number one and a total of twenty-four weeks on the chart. The B-side of "Guess Things Happen That Way", a song entitled, "Come In Stranger" made it to number six on the country chart. The single also crossed over to the pop chart, peaking at number eleven.

"Ballad of a Teenage Queen" is a song written by Jack Clement and recorded by Johnny Cash for his 1958 album Sings the Songs That Made Him Famous. The song hit number one on the US Country charts and number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song is 2 minutes and 13 seconds long.The song tells the story of a "small town girl" (the prettiest they've ever seen) who loved the boy next door (who worked at the candy store). She was taken to Hollywood by a movie scout where she became famous, leaving the boy. Eventually she sold all her fame to go back to the boy from the candy store because amid it all she was unhappy without him.

"The Ways of a Woman in Love" released in 1958 made it to number 2 on the US Country Charts number 24 on the Billboard Top 100 and number 28 on he Australian Charts.

Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart - 1968 - I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight FLAC

I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight/The Ambushers/My Little Chickadee/Sometimes She's A Little Girl


"I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight" is a song written, produced, and sung by Boyce and Hart. The song was arranged by Artie Butler. Entering the Billboard Hot 100 at #87 just before Christmas 1967, it became a true hit in 1968, reaching #7 on the Cash Box chart and #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song features a trumpet solo by Marvin Stamm. The song also features the voice of Tommy Boyce, quickly saying to Bobby Hart, before the third verse, "All right, Bobby, let's go."

Boyce & Hart, best known as frequent songwriters for the Monkees, were among the more successful West Coast pop/rock composers of the late '60s, also landing some material with other artists and making some records of their own, including the hit "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight." 

Gerry And The Pacemakers - 1965 - Ferry Cross The Mersey FLAC

 It's Gonna Be All Right/ I'll Wait For You/Why Oh Why/Ferry Cross The Mersey




"Ferry Cross the Mersey" (sometimes written Ferry 'Cross the Mersey) is a song written by Gerry Marsden. It was first recorded by his band Gerry and the Pacemakers and released in late 1964 in the UK and in 1965 in the United States. It was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, reaching number six in the United States number eight in the UK and number 45 in Australia. The song is from the film of the same name and was released on its soundtrack album. In the mid-1990s a musical theatre production also titled Ferry Cross the Mersey related Gerry Marsden's Merseybeat days; it premiered in Liverpool and played in the UK, Australia, and Canada.

In May 1989, a charity version of "Ferry Cross the Mersey" was released in aid of those affected by the Hillsborough disaster, which claimed the lives of 95 Liverpool fans the previous month (a 96th, Tony Bland, died in 1993 as a consequence of that disaster). The song was recorded by Liverpool artists The Christians, Holly Johnson, Paul McCartney, Gerry Marsden and Stock Aitken Waterman. The single held the #1 spot in the UK chart for three weeks and the Irish chart for two weeks.

Sam The Sham And The Pharaohs - 1966 - Red Hot FLAC

Wooly Bully/Ring Dang Do/Red Hot/Lil' Red Riding Hood



Domingo "Sam" Samudio (born February 28, 1937 Dallas, Texas), better known by his stage name Sam the Sham, is a retired American rock and roll singer. Sam the Sham was known for his camp robe and turban and hauling his equipment in a 1952 Packard hearse with maroon velvet curtains. As the front man for the Pharaohs, he sang on several Top 40 hits in the mid-1960s, notably the Billboard Hot 100 runners up "Wooly Bully" and "Li'l Red Riding Hood".

Samudio, who is of Mexican American descent, made his singing debut in second grade, representing his school in a radio broadcast. Later, he took up guitar and formed a group with friends, one of whom was Trini Lopez. After graduating from high school, Samudio joined the Navy, where he was known as "Big Sam." He lived in Panama for six years, until his discharge. Back in the States, Samudio enrolled in college, studying voice at Arlington State College, now the University of Texas at Arlington. "I was studying classical in the daytime and playing rock and roll at night", he recalled. "That lasted about two years, before I dropped out and became a carny."

 In Dallas in 1961, Sam formed "The Pharaohs," the name inspired from the costumes in Yul Brynner's portrayal as pharaoh in the 1956 film The Ten Commandments. The other members of "The Pharaohs" were Carl Miedke, Russell Fowler, Omar "Big Man” Lopez and Vincent Lopez (no relation to Omar). In 1962 the group made a record that did not sell. The Pharaohs disbanded in 1962. In May 1963, Vincent Lopez was playing for Andy and The Nightriders in Louisiana. When their organist quit, Sam joined. Andy and The Nightriders was Andy Anderson, David A. Martin, Vincent Lopez and Sam. The Nightriders became house band at The Congo Club near Leesville, Louisiana. It was here that Sam took the name Sam the Sham from a joke about his inability as a vocalist.

 In June 1963, The Nightriders headed for Memphis, Tennessee and became the house band at The Diplomat. In late summer 1963, Andy Anderson and Vincent Lopez left to return to Texas. Sam and David A. Martin replaced them with Jerry Patterson and Ray Stinnett and changed the name to "Sam the Sham and The Pharaohs." Shortly thereafter, the band added saxophonist Butch Gibson.

 

After paying to record and press records to sell at gigs, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs wound up with the XL label in Memphis. There they recorded their first and biggest hit, "Wooly Bully", a song about Sam's cat, in late 1964. Once MGM picked up the record, "Wooly Bully" ended up selling 3 million copies and reaching No. 2 on the Hot 100 on 5 June 1965 at a time when American pop music charts were dominated by the British Invasion. It was awarded a gold disc. Although "Wooly Bully" never reached #1, it lingered on the Hot 100 for 18 weeks, the most weeks for any single within the calendar year 1965, 14 of which were in the Top 40. The record achieved the distinction of becoming the first Billboard "Number One Record of the Year" not to have topped a weekly Hot 100 and remained the only one for 35 years until Faith Hill's "Breathe" and Lifehouse's "Hanging by a Moment" in 2000 and 2001, respectively.

 The Pharaohs' next releases – "Ju Ju Hand" (#26 US) (#31 Can.) and "Ring Dang Doo"- were minor successes. In late 1965, 11 months after "Wooly Bully", David A. Martin, Jerry Patterson, Ray Stinnett, and Butch Gibson left over a financial dispute. Sam's manager, Leonard Stogel, discovered Tony Gee & The Gypsys at the Metropole Cafe in Times Square, New York City. The band were Tony "Butch" Gerace (bass guitar and vocals), Frankie Carabetta (keyboards, saxophone and vocals), Billy Bennett (drums and percussion), and Andy Kuha (guitar and vocals). This new set of Pharaohs recorded "Li'l Red Riding Hood". On the Hot 100, "Lil' Red Riding Hood" began its two-week peak at #2 the week of August 6, 1966, just as another fairy tale title, "The Pied Piper" by Crispian St. Peters, was ending its three-week peak at #4. The track did even better by Cash Box Magazine's reckoning, reaching #1 the same week. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. It also reached #2 on the Canadian RPM Magazine charts August 22, 1966.

 A series of mostly novelty tunes followed, all on the MGM label, keeping the group on the charts into 1967. Titles included "The Hair On My Chinny Chin Chin" (US #22, Canadian #13), "How Do You Catch A Girl" (US #27, Canadian #12), "I Couldn't Spell !!*@!", and the rather confusing lyrics of "Oh That's Good, No That's Bad" (US #54). In late 1966, three girls, Fran Curcio, Lorraine Gennaro, and Jane Anderson, joined as The Shamettes. The group traveled to Asia as Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs and The Shamettes and released the album titled "The Sam the Sham Revue, which was originally to be titled "Nefertiti" by Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs (which is printed on the inside record labels)

Steve Marriott - 2008 - Moments @320

Money, Money/Good Morning Blues/You Really Got Me/You'll Never Get Away from Me



Legend is an oft abused word. There are few stars in the British pop pantheon who could legitimately be described as such. Steve Marriott is one. With an army of dedicated devotees numbering Weller and Gallagher in their ranks, the Marriott legend continues to grow. From his first role as the original Artful Dodger in Lionel Bart's first run of Oliver, to the electrifying bundle of energy that fronted the Small Faces, through his Humble Pie 'super-group' with Peter Frampton, and his eventual return to his Essex blues roots. Steve Marriott crammed a lot into a short time.

Following his tragic death at 44 in a house fire in 1991, the Small Faces catalogue has been reissued in a hundred different ways. Box sets, CDs in tins – virtually every track they recorded is available. For a band together for only three years, their impact still looms large as the genuine mod icons.

But what of Marriott's time before the Small Faces? A chance discovery in an east London attic has cast new light on those less well documented days. At 16, Steve Marriott formed The Moments, an east London r and b band with a loyal mod following through their residencies at the Flamingo Club. They gigged hard through 1964 but commercial success eluded them and in October of that year Marriott was dumped by the rest of the band after they decided that 'he didn't have it in him to be a singer…'

Then, according to David Bowie, he and Marriott were planning a blues band called David and Goliath when Marriott jumped ship and formed the Small Faces with Ronnie Lane.

Last year, Barry Hewitt, the bass player in The Moments chanced upon an un-played acetate recorded back in 1964. A conversation with Whapping Wharf's John Hellier led the unheard recordings to Acid Jazz, where they have been coupled with The Moments only release, the impossibly rare 'You Really Got Me'/'Money' (US World Artists 1964) for a special limited edition 7 inch vinyl EP.

Gary Lewis - 1967 - Girls In Love FLAC

Girls In Love/You're Sixteen/When Summer Is Gone/Linda Lu



 Gary Lewis (born Gary Harold Lee Levitch; July 31, 1945) is an American musician who was the leader of Gary Lewis & the Playboys.

Gary Lewis' parents were comedian, actor, singer, humanitarian, movie director, producer and screenwriter Jerry Lewis (1926–2017) and singer Patti Palmer. His mother, who was a singer at the time with the Ted Fio Rito Orchestra, intended to name him after her favorite actor, Cary Grant, but a clerical error led to his naming as "Gary". He received a set of drums as a gift for his 14th birthday in 1960. When he was 18, Lewis formed what would become Gary Lewis & the Playboys (then known as "Gary and the Playboys") with four other friends. Joking at the lateness of bandmates to practice, Lewis referred to them as "playboys", and the name stuck.

 Lewis was the drummer, but at that time singing duties were held by guitarist Dave Walker. As the band started, Gary's mother was quietly funding the purchases of equipment, as they believed Gary's father would not have supported the band. This could explain why, even though he lived down the street from the Lewis family, producer Snuff Garrett was not aware of Gary's band until a mutual friend, conductor Lou Brown, informed him that the band was playing at Disneyland and that Garrett should give them a listen.


Seeing an opportunity to capitalize on the Lewis name, Garrett put Lewis' band into the studio to develop, still with the finances of Lewis' mother. Garrett pushed Lewis to improve his drumming skill, even getting Buddy Rich to tutor him, and, more importantly, made Lewis the singer, and therefore the focal point of the group. By Lewis' own admission, his natural singing voice was not one of his strengths, and this led Garrett to employ vocal overdubbing tricks in the studio, to enhance it. "This Diamond Ring" hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on February 20, 1965, making Lewis an instant star. Lewis was Cash Box magazine's 1965 "Male Vocalist of the Year". Besides The Lovin' Spoonful, the group was the only artist during the 1960s to have its first seven Hot 100 releases each reach that chart's top 10.

In addition to "This Diamond Ring", his hits include "Count Me In" (the only non-British Commonwealth record in the Hot 100's top 10 on May 8, 1965, at number two), "Save Your Heart for Me" (number two), "Everybody Loves a Clown" (number four), "She's Just My Style" (number three), "Sure Gonna Miss Her" (number nine), and "Green Grass" (number eight). Of "Everybody Loves a Clown", Lewis says he composed the song as a gift for his father's birthday. He believed the song was too good, so instead of giving it as a gift, he recorded it. By 1966, Lewis had stopped drumming altogether and was exclusively singing, replaced at drums by, among others, Jim Keltner. His career was put on hold when he entered the U.S. Army as a draftee in January 1967, and he served during the Vietnam War era and was stationed overseas with the Eighth Army in Seoul, South Korea, to 1968.

 Lewis has expressed that he was reluctant to go to Vietnam, but he credits the Army with being the time when he "grew up". He returned to performing and recording, but did not recapture his earlier success and five releases by the band that year peaked from 13th to 39th. His musical career was later marketed as a "nostalgia act" with appearances on his father's Labor Day telethons for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, including the 2010 telethon which was his dad's final as host. In January 2012, Lewis released a new single, "You Can't Go Back".

He appeared uncredited in his father's movie The Nutty Professor (1963). He also appeared in a credited role singing "The Land of La-la-la" with his dad in Rock-A-Bye Baby (1958), where he played Jerry Lewis as a boy. He also was seen in the movie The Family Jewels (1965).

 In 1971, Lewis took a break from performing, operating a music shop in the San Fernando Valley and giving drumming lessons. A brief attempt at starting a new band called Medecine, with Billy Cowsill of the Cowsills in 1974 did not go anywhere. Lewis began touring again in the 1980s, with various incarnations of the Playboys, generally featuring no original members. On the nationally syndicated program Inside Edition, Gary got to meet his half-sister Suzan Klienman, who had learned from DNA testing results that they are related siblings, the children of comedy star Jerry Lewis.  Lewis and his family reside in Rush, New York.

In the summer of 2013, Lewis, along with a group of 1960s musicians including Gary Puckett (Gary Puckett & the Union Gap), Chuck Negron (formerly of Three Dog Night), Mark Lindsay (former lead singer of Paul Revere & the Raiders), and The Turtles featuring Flo & Eddie toured 47 cities in Paradise Artist's "Happy Together" tour. As of 2016, Gary Lewis and the Playboys are still touring the world on their own and occasionally with other popular 1950s, 60s, and 70s acts. The group performs on cruise ships, at casinos, festivals, fairs, and corporate events.

Bob Lind - 1968 - Elusive Butterfly @320

 Elusive Butterfly/Cheryl's Going Home/It Wasn't Just The Morning/I Can't Walk Roads of Anger



"Elusive Butterfly" is a popular song written by Bob Lind, released as a single in December 1965, which reached #5 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the adult contemporary chart in the spring of 1966. In Australia, Lind's "Elusive Butterfly" entered the charts on April 10, 1966 and spent three weeks at #2 during July 1966. In the song the narrator sees himself as a butterfly hunter. He is looking for romance, but he finds it as elusive as a butterfly.


Lind was born in Baltimore, Maryland. His parents divorced when he was five, and his mother remarried; his stepfather was in the air force, and the family travelled for some years before settling in Denver, Colorado. He became interested in folk music while a student at Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado, and abandoned his studies to become a musician.

 In 1965, Lind signed a recording contract with Liberty Records' subsidiary, World Pacific Records, and it was on that label that he recorded "Elusive Butterfly." The single might have done even better on the UK Singles Chart had there not been competition from established Irish recording artist Val Doonican, who released a cover version of the song at the same time. In the end, both versions of "Elusive Butterfly" made number 5 in the UK in 1966. Lind also wrote "Cheryl's Goin' Home," which was covered by Adam Faith, the Blues Project, Sonny & Cher, John Otway, the Cascades and others. Lind compositions were eventually covered by more than 200 artists including Cher, Glen Campbell, Aretha Franklin, Dolly Parton, Eric Clapton, Nancy Sinatra, The Four Tops, Richie Havens, Hoyt Axton, The Kingston Trio, Johnny Mathis, The Rokes (with the Italian cover "Ma che colpa abbiamo noi") and Petula Clark.

Plagued by drug and alcohol problems, Lind gained a reputation in the business for being "hard to work with." In 1969, Lind severed ties with World Pacific. Three years later, Capitol Records released Since There Were Circles, an album that was well received by critics but not commercially successful. Lind dropped out of the music industry for a number of years. He was a friend of the writer Charles Bukowski, who turned him into the character "Dinky Summers" in his 1978 novel Women and other writings He has been clean and sober since July 1977.

In 1988, he moved to Florida. He wrote five novels, an award winning play, and a screenplay, Refuge, which won the Florida Screenwriters' Competition in 1991. For eight years he was a staff writer at the supermarket tabloids Weekly World News and Sun. He's been credited as co-creator (with photo artist Dick Kulpa) of the famous "Bat Boy" Weekly World News cover story. Lind returned to music in 2004 when, at the urging of his friend Arlo Guthrie, he played the Guthrie Center in Becket, Mass. Since then Lind has been touring.
 

Lind established an official website in 2006. That same year, RPM Records re-issued the album Since There Were Circles, and Lind self-released the Live at Luna Star album featuring performances of new material. In 2007, Ace Records (UK) released Elusive Butterfly: The Complete 1966 Jack Nitzsche Sessions.


In October 2012, 41 years after the release of his last studio album, Lind issued a critically acclaimed CD of new music: Finding You Again, produced by veteran rock guitarist Jamie Hoover of the Spongetones and released by Ace Records. In November 2013, Lind was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame, along with Judy Collins, the Serendipity Singers and Chris Daniels. In July 2016, Ace Records released a new album of new songs, entitled Magellan Was Wrong. Jamie Hoover was once again involved in the production; other producers were Frank “Rat” Falestra, jazz master Greg Foat and Lind himself. All songs are originals, with the exception of a folk style cover of the Tom Paxton classic "Bottle Of Wine".

Badfinger - 1972 - Four Smash Hits FLAC

Day After Day/Come And Get It/ No Matter What/Baby Blue



Badfinger were a Welsh rock band that, in their most successful lineup, consisted of Pete Ham, Mike Gibbins, Tom Evans, and Joey Molland. The band evolved from an earlier group called The Iveys that was formed in 1961 by Ham, Ron Griffiths and David "Dai" Jenkins in Swansea, Wales. The Iveys were the first group signed by the Beatles' Apple label in 1968. The band renamed themselves Badfinger and in 1969 Griffiths left and was replaced by Molland. In 1970, the band engaged American businessman Stan Polley to manage their commercial affairs. Over the next five years the band recorded five albums for Apple and toured extensively, before they became embroiled in the chaos of Apple Records' dissolution.
 

 Badfinger had four consecutive worldwide hits from 1970 to 2013: "Come and Get It" (written and produced by Paul McCartney), "No Matter What", "Day After Day" (produced by George Harrison), and "Baby Blue". In 2013, "Baby Blue" made a resurgence onto the Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart at number 14 after it was featured in the series finale of the television show Breaking Bad. Their song "Without You" has been recorded many times, including a Billboard number-one hit for Harry Nilsson and a UK number one by Mariah Carey.

 

After Apple Records folded, Badfinger signed to Warner Bros. Records, but Polley's financial machinations resulted in internal friction that soon caused Ham to quit Badfinger, to be replaced by Bob Jackson on keyboard and guitar, then led to Ham rejoining and Molland leaving the band instead. However, a lawsuit filed by Warner's music publishing arm against Polley over missing escrow account money led Warner to withdraw Badfinger's 1974 Wish You Were Here from the market seven weeks after its release, which effectively cut off the band's income. Warner then refused to accept (or pay the band for) Badfinger's next album, Head First, because of the dispute with Polley, leaving the band destitute. Three days before his 28th birthday, on 24 April 1975, Ham committed suicide by hanging himself, leaving a note that included damning comments about Polley.
 

Over the next three years, the surviving members struggled to rebuild their personal and professional lives against a backdrop of lawsuits, which tied up the songwriters' royalty payments for years. The Badfinger albums Airwaves (1979) and Say No More (1981) (both of which excluded both Gibbins and Jackson) floundered, as Molland and Evans see-sawed between cooperation and conflict in their attempts to revive and capitalise on the Badfinger legacy. Having seen Ham's body after Ham's wife had called him immediately after Ham's death, Evans reportedly never got over his friend's suicide, and was quoted as saying in darker moments, "I wanna be where he is." On 19 November 1983, Evans also took his own life by hanging.

R. Dean Taylor - Indiana Wants Me @320

Indiana Wants Me/ Ain't it A Sad Thing/Gotta See Jane/Candy Apple Red



 "Indiana Wants Me" is a song written, composed, and originally recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter R. Dean Taylor. It was released on the Rare Earth label, a subsidiary of Motown Records, in 1970, and was a top ten hit in both the US and UK. In Cash Box magazine, the single hit #1. The song spent two weeks at #2 in Canada.

The song is written from the viewpoint of someone who has murdered a man who insulted his woman; he is missing his family and hiding from the Indiana police, who eventually catch up with him. Taylor wrote and composed the song after watching the movie Bonnie and Clyde. In addition to writing, composing, and originally recording the selection, Taylor produced the record and arranged it in collaboration with David Van De Pitte. It was released on the Rare Earth label, formed by Motown in an attempt to establish itself in the rock music market. The police siren sounds at the start of the record were removed from some copies supplied to radio stations after complaints that drivers hearing the song on the radio had mistakenly pulled over, thinking that the sounds were real.

The sirens are also heard during the instrumental section in the middle of the song. At the climax of the song, soon after the narrator has sung, "Red lights are flashin' around me,/ Yeah, love, it looks like they found me", and the chorus, the voice of a cop on the bullhorn is heard, commanding: "THIS IS THE POLICE. YOU ARE SURROUNDED. GIVE YOURSELF UP. THIS IS THE POLICE. GIVE YOURSELF UP. YOU ARE SURROUNDED." However, the narrator apparently ignores the command, and a gun battle ensues between the narrator of the song and the police, as the song fades out. An alternate version of the song fades out at the end without the gunfire sound effects.

The record became Taylor's only hit as a performer in the US, where it rose to No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1970. Taylor appeared on the TV show American Bandstand to promote the record. In the UK, where Taylor had had an earlier hit with "Gotta See Jane," it also became his biggest hit, reaching #2 on the UK singles chart in May 1971.

The Righteous Brothers - 1965 - The Righteous Brothers Spectacular @320

 My Prayer/ In That Great Gettin' Up Mornin'/ Love Or Magic/What'd I Say

They weren't brothers, but Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield (both born in 1940) were most definitely righteous, defining (and perhaps even inspiring) the term "blue-eyed soul" in the mid-'60s. The white Southern California duo were an established journeyman doo wop/R&B act before an association with Phil Spector produced one of the most memorable hits of the 1960s, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'." The collaboration soon fell apart, though, and while the singers had some other excellent hit singles in a similar style, they proved unable to sustain their momentum after just a year or two at the top.

When Medley and Hatfield combined forces in 1962, they emerged from regional groups the Paramours and the Variations; in fact, they kept the Paramours billing for their first single. By 1963, they were calling themselves the Righteous Brothers, Medley taking the low parts with his smoky baritone, Hatfield taking the higher tenor and falsetto lines. For the next couple of years they did quite a few energetic R&B tunes on the Moonglow label that bore similarity to the gospel/soul/rock style of Ray Charles, copping their greatest success with "Little Latin Lupe Lu," which became a garage-band favorite covered by Mitch Ryder, the Kingsmen, and others.
 

 Even on the Moonglow recordings, Bill Medley acted as producer and principal songwriter, but the duo wouldn't break out nationally until they put themselves at the services of Phil Spector. Spector gave the Wall of Sound treatment to "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'," a grandiose ballad penned by himself, Barry Mann, and Cynthia Weil. At nearly four minutes, the song was pushing the limits of what could be played on radio in the mid-'60s, and some listeners thought they were hearing a 45 single played at 33 rpm due to Medley's low, blurry lead vocal. No matter; the song had a power that couldn't be denied, and went all the way to number one.

 

The Righteous Brothers had three more big hits in 1965 on Spector's Philles label ("Just Once in My Life," "Unchained Melody," and "Ebb Tide"), all employing similar dense orchestral arrangements and swelling vocal crescendos. Yet the Righteous Brothers-Spector partnership wasn't a smooth one, and by 1966 the duo had left Philles for a lucrative deal with Verve. Medley, already an experienced hand in the producer's booth, reclaimed the producer's chair, and the Righteous Brothers had another number one hit with their first Verve outing, "(You're My) Soul and Inspiration." Its success must have been a particularly bitter blow for Spector, given that Medley successfully emulated the Wall of Sound orchestral ambience of the Righteous Brothers' Philles singles down to the smallest detail, even employing the same Mann-Weil writing team that had contributed to "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'." It's a bit of a mystery as to why the Righteous Brothers never came close to duplicating that success during the rest of their tenure at Verve. But they would only have a couple of other Top 40 hits in the 1960s ("He" and "Go Ahead and Cry," both in 1966), even with the aid of occasional compositions by the formidable Goffin-King team. In 1968 Medley left for a solo career; Hatfield, the less talented of the pair (at least from a songwriting and production standpoint), kept the Righteous Brothers going with Jimmy Walker (who had been in the Knickerbockers).
 

Medley had a couple of small hits in the late '60s as a solo act, but unsurprisingly neither "brother" was worth half as much on their own as they were together. In 1974 they reunited and had a number three hit with "Rock and Roll Heaven," a tribute to dead rock stars that some found tacky. A couple of smaller hits followed before Medley retired from performing for five years in 1976. The Righteous Brothers continued to tour the oldies circuit off and on in the 1980s and 1990s. It was while on one of these tours that Bobby Hatfield died suddenly on November 5, 2003.