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Going through a lot of research, I discovered a whole bunch of hand-written chart data that will be of great use for a new Journal focusing on the world of rare Late 60's singles of interest that you could get into. Without any long introduction, memories of growing up, or crazy concepts, as this era would see me being about 3, let's continue.

All research is based on US Release and success from Billboard and Cashbox. I will usually give something that Bubbled Under or did not chart the important vote, but I will consider something peaking in the 50's as a stopping point for singles, and about the 70's for albums. I also have notes about when many interesting albums and singles were given a review, so expect a lot of non-charters as well as worldwide hits that never got a proper airing in The US.

Being 4/13 as I write this, let me check my research for this time in 1968, a week that saw The Rascals' classic "A Beautiful Morning" starting it's way to the Top 10 in The States...


Starting out with some Soul, **** and the Blazers' "Funky Walk" started to move it's way into the lower reaches of the Hot 100 on this day, reaching #67 within a few weeks, but the effect that this has on the listener is timeless. Released in Original Sound, the label that Garage Punk legends The Music Machine were on in their heyday, Arlester Christian's "Funky Broadway" band would see their commercial highlight in 1969 with "We Got More Soul". Christian would pass away in 1971 (March 13) after being shot, leaving a legacy of very influential Soul music behind which still is an influence to many - he was 27.



As my notes don't have an rare album of interest on this day (There will be some for the next week!), let's go for another single, this one from the Pop world that's standing out in it's own cheesy way.

Although a big UK and worldwide hit, Dave Dee and the rest had yet another under-performing disc in The States with The Legend of Xanadu, which was campy Trumpet-filled fun that at least must have attracted the very few into Western Movie soundtracks. First appearing on the US BB charts this day in '68 in the Bubbling Under section, it crept to #123, then goodbye! Produced by Steve Rowland, Written by Ken Howard and Alan Blakley (The Honeycomb's "Have I the Right" and more).

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Let's take a trip to Apr. 15, 1967! On this week, a band called the Doors Bubbled Under with a song called "Break On Through (To the Other Side)", but almost everyone knows that one already. The record moved to #126 in The US, but became a hit in other countries later on.

Moving on, once again, we have a Soul classic from the one and only Otis Redding, who was making some major waves in the Top 40, but this single sadly did not make it past #78 on the BB chart. It's B-Side, "Let Me Come on Home" charted in The UK. I think that this was a single-only release at the time, following four from the Dictionary of Soul album, the best known being "Try a Little Tenderness" (Later to be covered by Three Dog Night among many others).

"I Love You More Than Words Can Say" is a good ballad.




While my notes don;t have much on 4/15 when it comes to rare albums, I'll take a step back for the week before and find that the G-Punk-Tastic soundtrack to Riot on Sunset Strip was given a mention in Billboard on 4/8. Back in March, the title theme by The Standells made a small mark, and I'm sure that 4/15, the film was playing in a couple of markets here and there, more than likely at Drive Ins and downtown theaters (films were usually not dumped all over back then like they have been since The Late 70's).

Here, The Chocolate Watchband do some Milk Cow Blues on "Don't Need Your Lovin' ", which despite not being very original, was a great example of how the band attracted a following with some very exciting sounds thanks to Dave Augilar's singing. The soundtrack was released on Tower, then home to a lot of AIP soundtracks (like this and The Wild Angels), the Standells and The Watchband, but very soon a then-unknown Pink Floyd would appear on Capitol's subsidiary which would later be a noted company by Garage Punk fans, but that's for later.

After this, the Watchband would face complications with members leaving through 1967 shortly after this, including guitarist Mark Loomis and vocalist Augilar.

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April 15, 1967 - The Yardbirds, Produced by Mickey Most, debut on the US singles chart with what was to be the title track to what was a half and half album which I think was only released in The US at the time (of course, there will be all the reissues to come). Creeping up to #51 by the next month, it would be a sign that the Most era would find very few takers, although of course they would be still pretty popular on the Sunset Strip as a live attraction - a great pic is on p. 159 in the great book Riot on Sunset Strip of the four-man Page era line up. Not one of their greatest, but it was a nice and catchy tune...although most fans were not expecting (or wanting) nice and catchy out of a band who helped popularize the tern Rave Up who instead went for the Greatest Hits compilation. The Little Games album only shot up to #82 in the late summer while the hits album was doing very well.

Detroit-wise, in 1968, The Yardbirds played the Grande Ballroom on May 3 and 4, with the later concert being an exciting night billed with The MC5 (On the 3'rd The Frost was on the bill). Would have loved to see that show!




Nothing all too rare about this band, who's version of "I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night" and their follow-up hit "Get Me To the World on Time" are high in the charts for all 60's Pop fans, but their albums were not strong sellers. Their debut album itself only went to #113 on the BB charts, although it remains a favorite for 60's Music Fans who dive deep into the Garage Psych. This is a B-Side and an Album Track that's a fan favorite.

A good amount of this album was written by the team of Annette Tucker and Nancy Mantz, who wrote their greatest hit as well as a few songs on their follow-up album Underground. The featured track is another one of their many songs as a team on this album, but don't let that cloud your judgement about the band who at least do their best with the situation at hand with most (not all) of the songs being a great quality. Jim Lowe has a cool voice for this while Ken Williams plays some fine guitar. The Engineer is Richard Podolor, who's later Production work includes Steppenwolf, Iron Butterfly, and Three Dog Night.

Detroit-wise, The Prunes reportedly played The Grande on March 8, 1968, obviously not playing songs from Mass in F Minor (The first of two Producer-Dominated albums), but the Garage Rock they were best at.

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Time for a random date! Feb. 10, 1968



Joe South may have started out with the novelty "Purple People Eater", but thankfully went serious and turned into one of the most respected songwriters of his day, mainly with Country but with some songs rooted in Southern-style Rock. Also, his studio session work with people like Bob Dylan (Blonde on Blonde) and Aretha Franklin (Aretha Arrives, Lady Soul) should be noted. This is the guy who wrote "Hush", the song best known through it's Deep Purple version, and "Rose Garden", made famous by Lynn Anderson.

"Birds of a Feather" was originally a single that Bubbled Under, stopping at #106, before it's brief 1969 chart run that stopped at #96 as a follow up to one of his more successful singles, "Games People Play". The lack of success of the single, let album the two albums it appeared on - Introspective in 1968 and a re-vamp of the album with some new songs to exploit the success of Games People Play in 1969 - was not deserved, but it later turned into a hit through a version by The Raiders in their "Indian Reservation" days.

Thankfully, his songwriting in The 60's and 70's was popular thanks to Billy Joe Royal's performance of "Down in the Boondocks" and The Osmonds' version of "Yo Yo". "Walk a Mile in My Shoes" was also covered many times by various artists through the years. He's a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame as well as the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.

South passed away in 2012.



The Bonniwell Music Machine may have been the name of the second line-up of the noted Garage Punk band, but the album that carried the name which was reviewed for the Feb. 10, 1968 issue of Billboard, it actually had a lot of music recorded by the first line-up carried over, like the song featured here. "To the Bottom of the Soul" was recorded in Feb. 1967 and released as a single in December. A non-charting single from a non-charting album, this is a stand-out when all is said. Sean Bonniwell's songwriting was trying out different things after the Garage Punk attack of the first album, and this showed where the original line-up could have went to if the split-up that happened some time after never occurred, although of course the usual intense disagreements between a visionary songwriter and ultra-talented musicians happened as they usually do.

On Bonniwell Music Machine, the second line-up including musicians like Harry Garfield only covered up the spaces left after the pick of the first line-up's Early 1967 sessions was chosen. Some may possibly say that on these tracks, including "Me, Myself, and I", there was a loss of focus, and in my view it was all down to trying to develop a writing style that would catch the public's attention after losing the best line-up that did, and it was very tough after a classic first hit and a striking "all-black-clothes with one black glove image" that was put aside by Late 1967. Moving to Warner Brothers after leaving Original Sound for a number of reasons, more troubles would occur when the second album was jam packed with music, resulting in the lack of a full sound on the original vinyl release, let alone having a very clumsy-looking cover which possibly resulted in the public indifference it received.

After the band's final split up in Late 1968, Bonniwell would later switch to Capitol for his Singer/Songwriter solo album Close before moving to Exploitation Soundtrack work, including Day of the Wolves and one of the first Mason Exploitation films in The Other Side of Madness (aka the Helter Skelter Murders), retiring from the music business, and then witnessing a new interest in his music in the 80's. He wrote Beyond the Garage, a book detailing his life experiences.

Bonniwell passed away in 2011.

In the first line-up was a Bassist by the name of Keith Olsen...yes, the Keith Olsen who went onto produce The Grateful Dead, Fleetwood Mac, Pat Bennitar and others. He learned a lot about the recording process in his Music Machine days and later being part of the development of what was known as "Sunshine Pop" as a Producer for Eternity's Children.

Guitarist Mark Landon, now noted for makeup work in film, went to be a musician for the Ike and Tina Turner Review.

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April 19, 1969 - The Bob Seger System's "Ivory" debuted in the Bubbling Under section only to reach #97, and I'm sure that the band had a major buzz kill after getting a Top 20 US hit from "Rambling Gambling Man". It would take Seger many years to actually break out of the Detroit music scene with Beautiful Loser, but at least he stuck to it. Those who have only heard his 70's and 80's hits may be surprised at this and many other 66-71 Seger songs that have the edge missing from his best known work.




For the album, let's go for Ike and Tina Turner's Outta Season, the one with a sound based more in their Blues side than their Soul sound which debuted in this day in '69. Released by Blue Thumb, a label led by Bob Krasnow that had a number of interesting albums including two by the post-Forever Changes version of Love as well as commercial successes, it only went to #91 and R&B #19 through the strength of their devoted following who turned it into a cult classic.

Here's the show-stopper from the album, "I've Been Loving You Too Long", a song known to wow the audiences. One of their performances of this classic was used in the film Gimme Shelter.



I'll get to a track from Tim Buckley's Happy/Sad sometime in the near future (#81...well, at least it did better than Goodbye and Hello), but I feel that Ike and Tina deserve more of an airing with an album that's easy to find for streaming, but not as noticed as much. This was their debut album chart appearance, with River Deep Mountain High being next appearing on the US album chart in Sept. 1969.

Their next Blue Thumb album was The Hunter also in '69, and a small hit that again deserved better.

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BONUS TRACK TIME!!!!!


In the Winter of 1966, The MC5 went into Tera Shirma Studios in The D to record a number of titles that will partially form the basics of their Pre-Kick Out the Jams recorded history, including a version of "I Can Only give You Everything" and the song featured in this post.

In the Spring of '69, AMG re-issues their cover of the Them classic and replaces the original B-Side of "One of the Guys" with something more relevant to what was going on with the High Energy sounds they were creating with "Kick Out the Jams" for Elektra. "I Just Don't Know" seriously blows the original B away, substituting decent Garage Punk with a wild feedback drenched mania.

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After a long time away...time to start again!
4-20-68 - BB Magazine - The soundtrack to Richard Rush's Dick Clark-Produced Hippie Exploitation classic Psych Out starring Jack Nicholson is given a review. The album, released on the all mighty Tower Records, who were going to have one of it's biggest hits that year with the Wild in the Streets soundtrack, this was a nice souvenir of it's existence. The theme song performed by the Strawberry Alarm Clock is a reminder that they may have been a one-hit wonder, with that song featured in the film itself, but they had some other songs worth noticing.

As a bonus in this post, I will feature my favorite scene featuring the legendary Seeds with another two chord killer "Two Fingers Pointing At You".




For the single, It's very early George Clinton, in his Soul years, with The Parliaments! OK, it's a little before the Mothership showed up, but still this is a nice and catchy song that showed that they could have been contenders, but it had to take a full on re-arrangement of the show to break through.

Chart-wise, this debuted at #126, then the next week went to #124, then off the face of the page. As you can see, the game plan had to be changed.

Look At What I Almost Missed is an apt title...I almost forgot to put the You Tube on here!!! Teaches me to rush-post before going out.



One bonus track for you from an album that also got reviewed by BB on that day, also on Tower...The Inner Mystique by The Chocolate Watchband which is a cult favorite, but not the best place to understand why The CWB are ranked high with Garage Punk fans. Featuring instrumental songs created by Producer Ed Cobb just to fill in the gaps as the band was fragmenting (Mark Loomis was already in another band in Late 1967, Tingle Guild, before returning to the CWB), hardly anyone except for those going to their concerts and noticing the line-up changes seriously knew what was going on with the band. Still, especially with the title track, Cobb's contributions are seriously on par with an AIP Exploitation film when it came to faux-Psych even if they were not representative of the band.

As for the Watchband tracks, there was a re-recording of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue", a song featured on their first single back in 1966 as well as a version of the G-Punk classic by the Brogues, "I Ain't No Miracle Worker". A cover of We the People's "In the Past" certainly had what it took to remain a fan favorite leading to numerous covers, including one by Ulver.




Despite the messed-up state of affairs at that time, the eye-catching cover certainly did some work to place it in a precursor of the Bubbling Under Albums chart called the Action Albums list, and it must be admitted that as a whole, the album actually works well.


Excuse some of these add-ons, just trying to make up for lost time...

Unknown Soldier

The Bob Seger debut Ramblin Gamblin Man is great album, but I think it gets overlooked. I think it's partly due to the fact, that classic albums in the late 1960s were coming out virtually non-stop and it just gets passed over as just another solid album.

Liked the MC5 video and a good mention on the Chocolate Watch Band, the Inner Mystique album was one of the great psychedelic albums of its time.

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Thanks!

I agree with your words about the Seger System album. I was looking through my notes, and noticed that it was one of the many albums that had a quick rise and fall on the charts in Early '69 from Feb. to Apr., pretty much the norm for a lot of Rock albums at that time (BB peak #62). This was a time when The Beatles' "White Album" was still selling strong and The Stones' Beggars Banquet was not far behind while there was interest in Elvis' return to form that resulted in a good-selling Top 10 album.

It was at a point where Seger's career was only very popular in Detroit and Florida, with some major interest elsewhere only when "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" was a hit. I can see where not much has been mentioned about it despite being in print for a very long time. Overshadowing that album with some of the industry's focus on Detroit a month after the album's check into the Top 100 was none other than The MC5's Kick Out the Jams, so right there and then you can see a small reason why the interest in the System's debut taped off quickly, resulting in yet another album fans love but gets overlooked - here's a straight ahead solid album and then here comes something loud, powerful, and controversial that turns into big news enough to eclipse the rest of the Detroit scene for a little while.

This was part of the continuing saga of Seger trying to make a strong break out of the local music scene, now with running the risk of being a one-hit wonder: "Heavy Music" was about to break through, but Cameo-Parkway closed it's doors just when the single was trying to break into the Top 100 only to stop slightly short of that; "2+2=?" was the Capitol debut single that had some interest, but was possibly making Capitol worry about aiming for Detroit talent after missing with The Rational's fine ballad "I Need You"; The Ramblin' Gamblin' Man album slightly under-performing after breaking through with a strong single. Plus, when it came to grass-roots Rock, you could say a band called Creedence Clearwater Revival were possibly stealing Seger's thunder (Right place, right time) as Bayou Country was released at the same time - talk about being overshadowed by an album you can compare it to in terms of style and quality.

The System's next album, Noah, certainly broke the momentum with only a half-good album (Tom Neme's tracks watering down the album), and then it was a series of albums that were overlooked before things changed around by the time of Beautiful Loser. Sometimes little slips like that can kill off the momentum, leaving a quality album left standing alone with it's fans, and many of it's follow-ups up to and including Beautiful Loser were championed by a lot of listeners along with that debut but not heard by the mainstream.


The CWB: Neat trivia time - as The Inner Mystique was an Action Album, another vinyl in that list a few months later was Pink Floyd's A Suaserful of Secrets, at that time also on Tower in The US! Those album had their listeners, although in the case of the Floyd, it was a case of what if it was on the parent label, Capitol instead of the sub-label that concentrated on AIP soundtracks.

Unknown Soldier

I remember Noah being a poor album, but from that period his best album along with Ramblin Gamblin Man was probably Back in 72 another very good album, then after that they became the Silver Bullet Band.

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