THE YOUNG RASCALS - COLLECTIONS (ATLANTIC 1967) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve mono+stereo

The ATLANTIC years 2
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The garage rock feel has been banished almost entirely from the group's second album, whose release followed a pair of disappointing singles ("What Is the Reason" and "Come On Up"). It also includes their first misjudgment on an album, Gene Cornish's too quiet, too introspective, and way-too-languid "No Love to Give," amid an otherwise wonderfully soulful body of music that picks up right where "In the Midnight Hour" from the prior album left off. Most of this record is among the most danceable white rock music of its period -- even the Eddie Brigati-sung cover of the then-current pop standard "More" has a certain rocking credibility. Their attempt at bluesy rock & roll, Cornish's "Nineteen Fifty-Six," a bit of a "Kansas City" rip-off, with a pair of crunchy guitar parts and Cornish singing lead, also comes off extremely well. They're even better with the more soulful tracks, however. "Land of 1000 Dances" was the best track on which to end this album, but it was Cavaliere and David Brigati's "Love Is a Beautiful Thing" that pointed to the future, showing the group moving toward the mix of sounds and sentiments behind "People Got to Be Free.[allmusic]

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THE PARADE - THE PARADE (A&M 1968) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

Sunshine pop pioneers Parade teamed veteran songwriter and producer Jerry Riopelle (a former Phil Spector associate who'd played keyboards on sessions headlined by the Ronettes, the Righteous Brothers, and Ike & Tina Turner) with character actors Murray MacLeod (known for his work on television series including Hawaii Five-O and Kung Fu) and Allen "Smokey" Roberds. MacLeod and Roberds -- longtime friends and songwriting partners who occasionally collaborated with Roger Nichols of A Small Circle of Friends fame, leading to erroneous rumors that Roberds and Nichols were in fact one and the same -- met Riopelle while unsuccessfully pitching a song written for Spector to produce; the trio soon christened themselves Parade, co-writing "Sunshine Girl" and selling the song to A&M producer Chuck Kay. Recorded with session legends including drummer Hal Blaine, bassist Carol Kaye, and saxophonist Teenage Steve Douglas, "Sunshine Girl" cracked the Billboard Top 20 in 1967, emerging as one of the first and most successful records to embody the summery, harmony-rich sound that would later be dubbed sunshine pop. During the process of recording the follow-up, "She's Got the Magic," fellow actor Stuart Margolin -- later "Angel" on the classic TV series The Rockford Files -- joined Parade as well; the second single failed to repeat the success of "Sunshine Girl," however, missing the pop charts altogether. The same fate befell the group's third release, "Frog Prince," although in 1968, Parade climbed as high as number 127 with "Radio Song." After two more flops, "She Sleeps Alone" and "Hallelujah Rocket," the group dissolved. While Riopelle later signed to Capitol as a solo act, MacLeod and Roberds briefly signed to Epic as Ian & Murray; as Freddie Allen, Roberds also recorded an early version of Nichols' and Paul Williams' "We've Only Just Begun," later a worldwide smash for the Carpenters.[allmusic]
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TWICE AS MUCH - OWN UP + THATS ALL (IMMEDIATE 1966 & 1968) JVC K2 mastering cardboard sleeves + 2 bonus

One of the most anonymous-sounding acts of the British Invasion, Twice as Much was the duo of Dave Skinner and Andrew Rose, harmony singers who also wrote much of their own material. Signed to the Immediate label (run by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham), the pair recorded several singles and a couple of albums between 1966 and 1968. Most of these recordings were innocuous, pleasantly forgettable pop affairs in the Peter & Gordon/Chad & Jeremy mold, with light orchestral pop/rock arrangements that sometimes employed a touch of the Baroque. They had their only British Top 40 success with a cover of the Stones' "Sitting on a Fence"; although the Stones' version was one of their best cuts from the Between the Buttons era.
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Twice as Much's debut album was an odd exercise in twee pop-Baroque production, very typical of producer Andrew Oldham's ornate, sometimes over-the-top grandiosity. The LP was evenly divided between group originals and covers of hits by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Small Faces. There was also the Spector-Goffin-King composition "Is This What I Get for Loving You Baby?" and "I Have a Love," both of which, coincidentally or not, were done in the mid-'60s by another one-time Oldham client, Marianne Faithfull. The originals, interestingly, were better, though hardly great. David Skinner and Andrew Rose were pleasant, though unexceptional, harmony singers, and played out their introverted, somewhat sad pop/ballads against orchestral production with heavy debts to the mid-'60s Beach Boys and California sunshine pop. "Life Is But Nothing" would be covered to good effect by Del Shannon on another Oldham production, and "Why Can't They All Go and Leave Me Alone?," in which the introversion slides into solipsism, is a notable obscure exercise in crashing, epic symphonic pop/rock. The covers do the originals no favors, emasculating classics like "Help" and "Sha La La La La Lee" into fey pop ballads suitable for upper-class parlors. Incidentally, there's a true all-star supporting cast on this record. The session musicians include guitarists Jimmy Page, John McLaughlin, Joe Moretti, and Big Jim Sullivan; drummer Andy White; keyboardists Nicky Hopkins and Art Greenslade (the latter of whom did the arrangements), and engineer Glyn Johns.
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Twice as Much never got much more than a couple of dismissive comparisons to Simon & Garfunkel (to whom there's admittedly a slight vocal resemblance, although the U.K. duo's brand of lush psych-pop owes little to the New Yorkers' folk-rock roots) and a footnote in pop history for covering a Rolling Stones song on their first Immediate single ("Sitting on a Fence," the country-tinged opener here). This is a shame, because the vocal blend of Dave Skinner and Andrew Rose is simply gorgeous, and they were a dab hand as songwriters as well. Nothing on That's All is up to the level of "Night Time Girl," the album track from the debut, Own Up, that's among the loveliest songs of the entire psych-pop era, but this album is much more consistent than the patchy debut. Soft and gentle, along the lines of Chad and Jeremy's Of Cabbages and Kings, or perhaps Curt Boettcher's work, the album includes gems like a pair of Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane rarities, "Hey Girl" and the trippy "Green Circles," a dreamy take on the Dionne Warwick classic "You'll Never Get to Heaven," and an inspired medley of the ghostly original "Life Is But Nothing," with an oddly resigned version of Bobby Freeman's "Do You Wanna Dance." That's All is second-string work to be sure, but it's certainly of interest to all sunshine pop and lite-psych fans. [allmusic]
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COLLAGE - COLLAGE (CREAM 1970) Korean mastering cardboard sleeve

Collage was an obscured outfit released only one album in 1970 on Cream records.
Twelve cool soft rock tracks are backed up by brass,fuzz guitar and chorus which strongly reminds of Free design,Beau Brummels and Beach Boys. Highly recommended for soft rock enthusiasts.[Big Pink Music Review]
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RICK PRICE - TALKING TO THE FLOWERS (GEMINI 1971) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 12 bonus

Rick Price is probably the least famous member of the Move (with whom he had a stint in the late '60s and early '70s), and it comes as a surprise even to some major Move fans to learn that he recorded a solo album shortly after leaving the group. If the equally obscure LP he'd done with Mike Sheridan in 1970 (This Is to Certify That...) sometimes sounded, in a good way, like Move-lite, Talking to the Flowers was yet milder, though not at all bad. Traces of the poppiest sides of the Move and late Beatles are highly audible on this likable if low-key set, sometimes with slight country and orchestral pop tinges to the arrangements. Price doesn't have the greatest voice in the world -- you can hear why he wasn't going to displace Roy Wood, Carl Wayne, or Jeff Lynne as a primary vocalist in the Move, for instance -- but it has an acceptably pleasant tone that's not far afield from those singers' styles. His songs (some written with Mike Sheridan) are nice slices of non-saccharine, occasionally Paul McCartney-esque early-'70s British pop/rock, too, mixed with less impressive but acceptable covers of songs by Tim Hardin and Neil Diamond, as well as a version of an obscure Everly Brothers song in the title track. It all adds up to something worth hearing for Move fans.
The bonus here is an unreleased solo album Price recorded shortly after Talking to the Flowers that's similar, but less impressive and developed; and some other non-LP material from the era.
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THE MAGIC SOUND OF THE "IDLE RACE","MOVE", & "E.L.O." FAMILY.
LISTEN...
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RICK PRICE & MIKE SHERIDAN - THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT... (GEMINI 1970) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 3 bonus

Rick Price is probably the least-known member of the Move, if only because he never really established a well-defined musical (or personal) identity of his own, as the other members did. In the latter regard, Ace Kefford can be pigeonholed (fairly or not) as a drug/acid casualty, Roy Wood as a genius, Jeff Lynne as a pop genius, Trevor Burton as a frustrated rock & roller, the late Carl Wayne as a pop/rock crooner, and Bev Bevan as one of the two or three best drummers ever to come out of Birmingham. But who, apart from some really inquisitive Move fans, really knows anything about Rick Price? His most visible work from the most widely covered part of his career, the Rick Price & Mike Sheridan collaboration referred to as This Is to Certify: Gemini Anthology, released at the start of the 1970s, seems hardly to have sold at all in its own time. And since then, he's had to stand in the shadow of the similarly named Australian vocalist.
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An astonishingly good collection of the post-Move recordings of Rick Price, both solo and in his collaboration with Birmingham rock singer Mike Sheridan, originally cut for Gemini Records and released circa 1970. The music is an often appealing mix of psychedelia, pop/rock, and art rock, rather McCartney-esque at times but in the best possible way -- think of the production on "Martha My Dear" and "Your Mother Should Know," and the texture of the Move's "Beautiful Daughter" from the Shazam album and you've got the idea...is a vital addendum to the Move's history, and at least as essential listening as the first ELO album.[allmusic]
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THE MAGIC SOUND OF THE "IDLE RACE","MOVE" & "E.L.O." FAMILY.
LISTEN...
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INNER DIALOGUE - INNER DIALOGUE (RANWOOD 1969) Jap/Kor mastering cardboard sleeve

A superb sunshine pop album, with some baroque touches. Two women singers and their intertwining vocals weave complex vocal parts around top rate arrangements. This record could give Free Design a run for their money any day.
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Yes, it is very good sunshine pop that manages to not cross over the line into…saccharine embarrasment. Never as elaborately conceived and just out and out radical as The Free Design at their best, nor as perfectly realised as the Curt Boettcher produced Eternity’s Children…this, if you are into sunshine pop with that ever so slightly subversive element, is a thoroughly worthwhile purchase and as good if not better than some of the major names in this odd and wonderfully time-locked genre. (RYM Reviews)
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SOFT SOUL TRANSITION - S.S.T. (TRANSITION 1970) Jap/Kor mastering cardboard sleeve + 7 bonus

Not SST as in the LA hardcore label, or the sound of a jet – but SST, as in Soft Soul Transition, a very groovy group with a Sunshine Pop sort of sound! The trio has some wonderful harmonies in their music – echoes of more familiar pop of the late 60s, but presented here in a cool, stripped-down sort of way – with a quality that's similar to some of the best work by Roger Nichols & The Small Circle Of Friends – intimate enough to get past some of the more commercial modes of the time. Many cuts are originals by the group – and singer Chris Demilo plays a lot of great keyboards on the grooves – creating a wicked sound that would have been right at home in the A&M scene of the late 60s. Titles include "Gotta Move Along", "Soft Soul Transition", "Put Love First", "Don't Turn On Me", "It's Love", "Happy With You Girl", and "Lights Of Freedom". CD features 7 bonus tracks too – including "Dreamweaver", "Banyan Bay"...
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DOUG RANDLE - SONGS FOR THE NEW INDUSTRIAL STATE (KANATA/CBC 1970)

A stunning collection of songs for and about the time we live in from the Canadian musician. Though the album was originally released in 1971, it's musical themes sound modern and timeless nearly 40 years after the album's original release. Songs was an introspective look at ever-dominant corporations, the cutthroat advertising world, our consumer society, decaying environment, and his own personal condition. The results crossed the epic studio creations of David Axelrod's Capitol output with Free Design vocal harmonies from notable vocalists Tommy Ambrose and Laurie Bower.
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This unique and curious piece of work from Canadian composer and arranger Doug Randle represents a song cycle based upon a dystopian vision of our consumerist future (or rather, our present). Each song cradles its barbed message within a package of sweet vocal harmonies and the kind of big band arrangements that would rival David Axelrod's output. "Doug was, and still is, a writer, arranger, musician, and conductor with roots deep in the Canadian jazz scene of the 1950s. After a lengthy spell working in England during the first half of the 1960s, he returned to Toronto and took up an in-house position at the government sanctioned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), where in 1970 he recorded his very own What's Going On. Commercially released by the short-lived Kanata Records label, Songs was an introspective look at ever-dominant corporations, the cutthroat advertising world, our consumer society, decaying environment, and his own personal condition."[boomkat]
A Great Pop-Psych Album...don't miss it!

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THE MILLENNIUM - BEGIN (COLUMBIA 1968) Jap mastering Blu-Spec CD + 9 bonus

Begin is the only album ever released by the collective known as The Millennium during its lifetime (though there have been several compilations since the group's demise).
Begin has gained notoriety throughout the years as being the most expensive album that Columbia Records had released by that time, though critics generally agree that the money was well spent. It is now generally considered to be a classic of sunshine pop.
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Influenced by psychedelia and California rock, pop/rock producer Curt Boettcher (the Association) decided to assemble a studio supergroup who would explore progressive sounds in 1968. Millennium's resultant album would find no commercial success and only half-baked artistic success, but nonetheless retains some period charm. Influenced in roughly equal measures by the Association, the Mamas and the Papas, the Smile-era Beach Boys, Nilsson, the Left Banke, and the Fifth Dimension, Boettcher and his friends came up with a hybrid that was at once too unabashedly commercial for underground FM radio and too weird for the AM dial. It would have fit in better on the AM airwaves, though; the almost too-cheerful sunshine harmonies and catchy melodies dominate the suite-like, diverse set of elaborately produced '60s pop/rock tunes. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
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UNIT 4+2 - UNIT 4+2 (FONTANA 1969) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 12 bonus

POSTED BY REQUESTS...
Unit 4+2 was a one-hit wonder that probably deserved better. As one of the better acoustic-electric bands of the mid-'60s, the group stormed the charts with one memorable hit, "Concrete and Clay," scoring on both sides of the Atlantic, but they were never able to come up with a follow-up that was as catchy.
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...Their 1966 release "I Was Only Playing Games" had some proto psychedelic elements, and a heavy orchestral accompaniment that rather anticipated elements of the sound that the Moody Blues would perfect at Decca early the next year. Unit 4+2 was less successful in their orchestral-psychedelic experiment, and after three failed attempts at another hit, they left Decca in 1966 and signed with Fontana Records. They continued to record pop-flavored singles (and the label subsequently put out an LP), all of which seemed less and less attuned to the times in which they worked.
Garwood, Halliday, and Meikle exited in 1967, and were replaced by Ballard and Henrit (the Roulettes having broken up that year). The band continued as a quintet, strengthened in some ways by the new lineup; the Roulettes had been a first-rate rock & roll band, with a great ear for hooks and first-rate material, and Ballard and Henrit toughened up the sound of Unit 4+2. In 1968, the band made a valiant effort at getting in front of the pop music pack with a cover of Bob Dylan's "You Ain't Going Nowhere," which failed to compete with the version by the Byrds.
They moved back into a full-blown psychedelic mode in 1969 with their final single, ""3.30" b/w "I Will," filled with harpsichords and lavish orchestration. It failed to chart, and the group disbanded in 1969 -- Ballard and Henrit hooked up soon after with ex-Zombie Rod Argent in the band Argent, which had exactly the kind of heavy, arena rock-type sound needed to compete in the early '70s.[allmusic]
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ZOMBIES - ODESSEY & ORACLE (CBS 1968) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve mono & stereo + 2 bonus

Odessey and Oracle was recorded in 1967 after the Zombies signed to the CBS label, and was only the second album they had released since 1965. As their first LP, Begin Here, was a collection of singles, Odessey can be regarded as the only "true" Zombies album. While their first album included several cover versions, Odessey consisted entirely of original compositions by the group's two main songwriters, Rod Argent and Chris White.
The group began work on the album in June 1967. Nine of the twelve songs were recorded at EMI's Abbey Road Studios, where earlier in the year the Beatles had recorded Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Pink Floyd recorded The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. This was the first time Abbey Road would be used for an independently produced (non-EMI) release.
In August, when Abbey Road was unavailable, the Zombies temporarily shifted base to Olympic Studios where they recorded Beechwood Park, Maybe After He's Gone and I Want Her She Wants Me. They returned to Abbey Road Studios in September. The sessions ended in November and the final two tracks to be recorded were Time Of The Season and Changes.
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Argent and White mixed the album down into mono, but when they handed the master to CBS, they were informed that a stereo mix was required. The recording budget having been spent, Argent and White were forced to dip into their songwriting royalties in order to pay for the time and resources needed to create the stereo mix. Unfortunately, this was the last straw for Paul Atkinson and Colin Blunstone, who quit and effectively split up the band. The stereo mix was completed on January 1, 1968, but by then the Zombies were no more.
One major problem arose when it came time to mix This Will Be Our Year into stereo. Zombies original producer Ken Jones had dubbed live horn parts directly onto a mono mixdown. With the horns not having been recorded on the multi-track beforehand, a faked stereo mix had to be made of the mono master, and it wasn't until the 1997 Zombie Heaven boxset that it was finally given a stereo mix, albeit minus the horns. This was made possible because the Zombies owned the multi track masters, which are in the possession of Chris White.
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Odessey and Oracle was released in the UK on April 19, 1968 and in the United States in June. The single "Time of the Season" became a surprise hit in early 1969, and Columbia Records (in the United States) re-released Odessey in February, with a different album cover that severely cropped the original artwork.
American CBS boss Clive Davis initially decided not to release the album. However, at the urging of staff producer Al Kooper, the U.S. CBS/Columbia Records label was eventually persuaded to release the album on their small Date Records subsidiary label. Kooper had picked up a copy of the album during a trip to London, and when he returned to America and played the album, he loved it and believed it contained three hit singles. CBS chose to release Butcher's Tale as the first single in the States, feeling the song's anti-war theme would resonate with record-buyers due to the Vietnam conflict. After its release, Time Of The Season slowly gained popularity before finally hitting big on the US charts in 1969, by which time Rod Argent and Chris White were busy with their new band, Argent...
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TERENCE - AN EYE FOR AN EAR (DECCA 1969)

A mindblowing mixture of pop, psych and electronica, this mysterious 1969 studio project was recorded in Toronto and New York by youthful vocalist Terry Black, who’d had six top 40 hits in Canada as a teenager, as well as recording the cult Black Plague LP in 1966. Veering from the catchy pop of Priscilla and soul-inflected Second City Blues to the experimental The Emperor and freaky Lighting Frederick’s Fire, the album features one of the greatest psychedelic tracks of all time in the fuzz blow-out Fool Amid The Traffic, and makes its long-overdue CD debut here. 1. An Eye for An Ear 2. Rap 3. Second City Song 4. Power 5. Exiles 6. Fool Amid the Traffic 7. Priscilla 8. Lighting Frederick's Fire 9. The Emperor 10. Does It Feel Better Now?
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"Alright so this is a lost gem from 1969 by vocalist Terry Black, at least that is what they tell me. Who you ask? The pigeons that live in my brain… no just kidding I read it on the album notes. It’s a pretty odd mixture of psych-rock-soul-and some early electronics. Apparently Terry Black was some of hit maker as a teenager. And then released this oddity later on. So I had to go and listen to these hits and they are pretty good in that teen idol Paul Anka kind of way. This is really nothing like them.

It is pretty strange. I think he was trying to shake off his teen idol days or something, or maybe just smoking a whole lot of reefer. It’s really all over the place, not really sitting comfortably in any one genre. “Second City Song” is like totally Stax records, and it actually sounds good. Though An Eye For an Ear sounds very much like a product of it’s times. As odd as it is, it really doesn’t sound out of place being from the late 1960s. Like even though it absolutely reflects the values musical styles, and forms of that era, it sounds very odd and progressive. Like at the same time very much a music of it’s time, but also wholly looking towards the future.

And of course the lyrics are very hippie dippy, like what if soldiers carried flowers.. etc. I wonder if it has something to do with Terrence being unable to make it as a teen idol in the United States, so there is this bitterness with the industry, but also that maybe he couldn’t quite get what people wanted. And perhaps this being recorded in Toronto sort of segregated it from the what was happening, I mean there was a big psychedelic/hippie thing going on in Toronto at the time, but maybe being removed from everything he was just trying to create some sort of giant fuck you to the industry in all it’s forms.

Or maybe this was just an attempted cash grab that didn’t quite work, which would also explain the strangeness inherent on it. Maybe the weirdness is jus at disassociation from the music, like maybe this Terrence never really got the style, and didn’t care to. Who knows. Could be any number of reasons, but really I’m just wondering here. Because I find it actually very good. So much bluesy soul stuff on here, just really intriguing. Then “Fool Amid the Traffic” is also a great just totally a psychedelic masterpiece, totally warped and echoy and so stoned out. With some of that great wah wah guitar on it. Oh yeah." [reviewed by Matthew Rich]
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SMALL FACES - THERE ARE BUT FOUR SMALL FACES [US LP] (IMMEDIATE/ODE 1968) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 15 bonus

The Small Faces' first album for Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate label originally appeared in two different forms, in England (where it was known as Small Faces) and America (There Are but Four Small Faces). The music here is much more fully developed and experimental than their preceding album, still largely R&B-based (apart from the delightfully trippy "Itchycoo Park," the band's sole American hit) but with lots of unusual sounds and recording techniques being attempted.
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Their mid-1967 single "Itchycoo Park" is one of Small Faces' best-remembered songs and was also the first of the band's only two charting singles in the United States, reaching No. 16. "Itchycoo Park" was the first British record to use flanging, the technique of playing two identical master tapes simultaneously but altering the speed of one of them very slightly by touching the "flange" of one tape reel, which yielded a distinctive comb-filtering effect; it was an effect developed by Olympic Studios engineer George Chkiantz in 1966. "Itchycoo Park" was followed by "Tin Soldier" (originally written by Marriott for American singer P.P. Arnold, who can be heard clearly on backing vocals); it remains one of their best-known singles. However, when the song only reached No. 73 on the US Hot 100 chart, Immediate Records was said to have abandoned its short-lived effort to establish the act in America...
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ASSOCIATION - BIRTHDAY (WARNER BROS 1968) Jap mastering + 3 bonus

Birthday is a strong record. Vocally, the intricate harmonies shine, and there is a lyrical depth on some songs that challenge the Association's reputation as a mere pop group. Granted, there are some light moments, such as the opening cut, "Come On In" (though the vocals do stand out on this cut). And "Toymaker" and "Hear in Here" show the vocal limitations of the lead singers. But "Like Always" does an excellent job of wryly commenting on the loss of a relationship, with the usual fine vocal interplay. "The Time It Is Today" mixes the political and personal in an effective way. And "Everything That Touches You" (their final Top Ten ) is one of their finest love songs, if not one of their best songs, period. The vocals are as intricate as the arrangement, and the sincerity of the lyrics is very apparent. Production by Bones Howe gives the record a very commercial, clean sound that fits well with the material presented. ~ Michael Ofjord, All Music Guide
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Released in March 1968, Birthday was probably the Association's most pop-sounding album, as producer Bones Howe and the group polished their trademark harmony sound to a brilliant sheen. And, like on Insight Out, studio musicians extraordinaire Blaine and Larry Knechtel lent expert accompaniment. This album spawned the top 10 hit "Everything That Touches You" and another top 40 hit in "Time for Livin'". Later that year, the group released a self-produced single, the harder-edged "Six Man Band". This song is also one of the three bonus tracks here...
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HONEYBUS - STORY (DERAM 1969) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 13 bonus

Their debut single, "Delighted to See You," which was cut with the help of Roulettes members Bob Henrit and Russ Ballard, sounded more like the Beatles than anything heard in British pop/rock since the Searchers had faded from view in early 1966. The B-side, "The Breaking Up Scene," could have been the work of the Jimi Hendrix Experience or the Creation. Actually, if anything, they sounded a great deal like the Bee Gees, who had just begun establishing themselves as something more than Beatles sound-alikes -- the difference was that the Bee Gees were a performing band as well as a top-notch studio outfit, fully capable of doing (and willing to do) most of their output on-stage Then Honeybus hit with their third release, "I Can`t Let Maggie Go," in March of 1968, which rode the British Top 50 for three months and peaked at number eight. One of the most fondly remembered examples of psychedelic pop/rock to come out of England in 1967, with a richly textured, reed-dominated arrangement (with a bassoon very prominent and a break played on oboes and clarinets) and a pleasant McCartney-esque lead vocal surrounded by gentle high harmonies, all wrapped up in a melody that wore well on repeated listening. The record should have made the group, but instead it shattered them. All three of the songs are on this cd.
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"Honeybus` sole album was recorded in 1969 and released in early 1970, by which time "I Can`t Let Maggie Go" was fading from the memory of the British public, original leader Pete Dello was long gone, and the band themselves had been inactive for months. It`s therefore not entirely representative of what the group was about. They did show themselves to be one of the few bands that could emulate the lighter and quieter sides of the 1968-69 Beatles with a degree of competence, although as is usual when the Beatles were imitated, the songs and execution were much more lightweight than what the Beatles themselves recorded. At times it sounds like Badfinger without the muscle or occasional outstanding songs that made Badfinger recall the Beatles without sounding like tepid wannabes. The Beatlesque harmonies are nice and the lyrics sometimes clever, and the arrangements are tasteful, sometimes employing substantial traces of country music and subtle orchestration.
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JAN & DEAN - SAVE FOR A RAINY DAY (J&D Record 1966) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 13 bonus

.....BY REQUEST!
Unlike their friend Brian Wilson, who had previously guided the Beach Boys from surf band to cutting-edge pop/rock outfit without totally abandoning the band's signature sound, Jan & Dean didn't really have the capacity or songwriting chops to make the transition to serious and sophisticated pop. Nevertheless, when the architect of the duo, Jan Berry, was incapacitated in early 1966 by a terrible car accident that ultimately left him brain-damaged, Dean Torrence took up the business and musical reins of the band and made a nearly convincing one-shot stab at progressive pop with Save for a Rainy Day. In a sense, the album is still more commercial acquiescence than legitimate artistic statement, yet it is perhaps the most interesting musical stretch in the duo's catalog although it is a Jan & Dean album in name only rather than in practice, as Berry understandably does not appear on the album in any capacity. The album is conceptual, in the loosest sense of the word, in that each song is about or refers to rain and is held together like a song cycle by thunderstorm sound effects. In addition, most of the tracks were also created by Joe Osborne and Larry Knetchel, as well as another of Torrence's friends and neighbors, James Burton. As opposed to an opulent studio creation, however, most of Save for a Rainy Day was stitched together in Osborne's garage. Jan & Dean's version of Gary Zekley's "Yellow Balloon" uses the very same backing track that Zekley made for the group Yellow Balloon, and is nearly as good as that version, while "Lullaby in the Rain" is a heartbreakingly pensive hymn. On the other hand, the music occasionally dips into uncomfortably sappy sentiment and easy listening sounds. Nevertheless, the album really is a lovely Californian artifact and worthy blue afternoon listen. This Japanese reissue nearly doubles the length of the original album with bonus cuts, most of them instrumental tracks and stereo versions of the album songs.
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