The Strangeloves - I Want Candy

Bang 211 (1965)

What are Strangeloves? Unusual combinations of romanticists? Or parted sweethearts?
Actually, a more logical question would be: Who are The Strangeloves?
Anyone who has had his ears tuned in to teenage radio in recent weeks would probably describe The Strangeloves as the swingingest trio to hit the music scene since the British invaded these shores two years ago.
The Strangeloves, oddly enough, don’t come from England. They hail from the backlands of Australia, a wild and uncivilized area of the continent from whence the trio acquired its earthy, hip swiveling rhythms...

Okay, not exactly.  The Strangeloves were a fake band created in 1964 by the New York-based American songwriting production team of Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein, and Richard Gottehrer. Similar to what P.F. Sloan and Steve Barry did the following year in L.A. with their pretend "Grass Roots" group, this was an attempt to get some publishing revenue and experiment with marketing their songs to a changing and mysterious teen Pop market.  And, also like Sloan/Barry out west with Lou Adler's Dunhill, they found a fledgling new label that was game to give it a try in Bert Berns' recently launched Bang imprint.

Critical consensus on this, their sole LP, is that aside from the three hit A-sides included here, there's not much more to recommend.  Maybe I'm a sucker for this kind of garage pop, but this collection feels pretty tight, front to back.  Great session players, and catchy tunes throughout, even if the gimmicky faux-Aboriginal Bo Diddley bit gets repeated a bit much.  

Then there's also the matter of "Hang On Sloopy". It's first appearance is here, in a version suspiciously indistinguishable from The McCoys' later hit. But that's a whole 'nother fake band story for another blog entry sometime...



Side note: The version of "Night-Time" on this is considerably longer than the hit 45 - different edit.

::LISTEN::

Wild In The Streets (Original Soundtrack)

Tower SKAO 5099 (1968)

Of all the American International teen exploitation films, "Wild In The Streets" is arguably the most bizarre. I won't bother explaining the film here (this wiki article is a good read), but it's a must-see.

Unlike other films of this genre, like "Psych-Out" or "The Wild Angels", there are no recognizable names to put to the soundtrack LP (most tracks are credited to the fictionalized "Max Frost & The Troopers"). The only published credits are to Mike Curb for production and Les Baxter for musical score.  It's likely that Dave Allan and The Arrows (or members thereof) are the actual band playing on most of this, as they were under contract at the time to Tower and had a history of film scores with American International.

Not a classic by any measure, this LP is special in its own way - undeniably a product of its era. The absence of any star power actually helps. Most of the better tracks were penned by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil (including the top 20 hit "Shape Of Things To Come"), and the whole thing has that late-'60s Wrecking Crew production vibe to it.



::LISTEN::

Introspection IV

Warner Bros W1372 (1960)

Not sure how to best categorize this.  "Spoken Word meets Exotica" is pretty close.  The liner notes describe the contents as "flip-end vignettes", and the front cover touts "weirdos from the uncommon world of Johnny Gunn with the outre musical sounds of Don Ralke".

Don Ralke cranked out a bunch of Exotica-flavored releases during the late '50s-early '60s, most notably the soundtrack for 77 Sunset Strip and the brilliantly conceived Gershwin With Bongos.  The narrator is a bit more of a mystery. The album notes mention that Johnny Gunn was a frustrated ad writer who teamed up with Science Fiction author Fredric Brown to write these pieces - so, perhaps that's all there is to it.

I own older records than this, but Introspection IV may be the one record I've possessed the longest, having pilfered it from my dad's record collection long before I had finished primary school.  This was in regular rotation in the room I shared with my brother, usually saved for after "lights-out" for maximum effect.  Listening to it now, I can recall being mostly creeped out by the strange music - long after the corny "flip-end" storylines' surprise wore off.



::LISTEN::

The Chambers Brothers - The Time Has Come

Columbia CL 2722 (1967)

Their first LP for Columbia.  The album didn't get much attention at first, but the following year it blew up, thanks to the single release of "Time Has Come Today". By that time, Columbia had stopped pressing mono LPs, hence the rarity of this original mono mix.



::LISTEN::