THE GODZ - "Contact High With The Godz" (1966)

 

The Godz were the third member of the 1960's ESP trifecta of talent along with The Fugs, and Pearls Before Swine, and they released this LP called "Contact High With The Godz" in 1966.

Talk about raw, here they completely destroy this classic Hank Williams' song, and didn't even use the correct title which was "May You Never Be Alone"

THE GODZ - "May You Be Alone (Hank Williams)"

ONE-HIT WONDERS, PT 2 - Crabby Appleton ("Go Back," 1970)

 

Rich here. By the end of the Sixties the Album-Era had definitely arrived. It wasn't just the Beatles and The Who and The Beach Boys making great albums, anymore. Many of the major bands liked the freedom that making an album provided, with longer songs and thematic & sonic experimentations, and some of them were turning away from making singles altogether.

 

But making albums was an expensive proposition, and a band had to earn a certain level of stature and experience before the record company would give them the budget to make an album.

 

All of which meant a band needed to score some hit singles first, and the early '70s were full of one-hit wonders -- bands that recorded their best song as a single, which might go on to garner lots of radio play and an admirable showing on the singles charts. But, oftentimes, a band was unable to follow up their hit single with another record its equal. 

 

But, indeed, there were some GREAT one-hit wonders in the early '70s. And one of my favorites was by Crabby Appleton. No, not the villain from the animated Tom Terrific cartoons on the daily Captain Kangaroo TV show, but a band who released a terrific single in 1970.

 

"Go Back" is a radio-friendly rocker full of fizzy guitar riffs, hard-charging drums & percussion fills, lots of guitar-jangle, and a catchy straight-through-to-the-chorus by a commanding lead singer whose occasional welps explode into the mix. 

 

"Go Back" was unquestionably as good as songs being released by other bands from the newly emerging Power Pop movement, like Badfinger, The Raspberries, and Big Star -- but, unfortunately, just like their one-hit-wonder brethren Sugarloaf, nothing else by Crabby Appleton ever made a dent on the charts. Nonetheless, the song remains a classic power pop gem.

CRABBY APPLETON - "Go Back" 

CRAZY ELEPHANT - Gimme Gimme Good Lovin' (1969)

 

Crazy Elephant was another one of those bands that was created by Kasenetz-Katz in the studio, and they also have the notoriety of being another of the 60's one hit wonders.

The record came out in 1969, and this single made it to number 12 on the charts.

This is not really one of my favorite songs, but it ain't bad in a goofy kind of way, but more than anything, I like this video, because it's always amazing how you can take footage of people dancing, and it will almost always be in sync with the music, and using footage of some of the TV goddesses of the 60's is sheer genius.  

CRAZY ELEPHANT - Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'

YUSEF LATEEF - "The Blue Yusef Lateef" (1968)

 

To say it simply, Yusef Lateef was a musical genius!

He taught a course at The Manhattan School Of Music in "Autophysiopsychic Music,"aka "Music From The Heart," and he had the creds to back it up.

Yusef played Tenor Sax, and Flute, but he also experimented with other instruments and was known to also record with the Oboe, Bassoon and anything else that had a mouthpiece.

He was literally making "World Music," before it was even a term. 

Here's about the most standard blues song I've ever heard by Yusef, and it just shows how versatile he really was. I dig this song because it swings, and is so unlike most of the man's music!

This tune sounds like it was from some low budget 60's horror movie, and you can't get much cooler than that! 

Another saxophonist by the name of Buddy Lucas is the one blowin' the harp! 

Yusef Lateef - "Othelia" 

RUSTY DRAPER - "In The Middle Of The House" (1956)

 

Farrell Haliday Draper, aka Rusty Draper, at one time was one of the biggest pop and country crossover stars of the 50's, but that was a long time ago, so you probably have never heard of him.

I had this record as a little kid, and I always thought this song was the 'B' side.

Another singer named Vaughn Monroe also released this same song a couple of weeks earlier than Rusty Draper. 

Monroe's version made it to number eleven, and Rusty's version peaked at 24 on the charts. On a separate set of charts, Rusty's was one notch higher.

The song was so damn popular in the UK that there were three different versions in November of 1956 on the UK charts, one by Alma Cogan, one by Jimmy Parkinson, and one by The Johnston Brothers.

That's crazy! 

The writer Bob Hilliard must have been in heaven to see his song in the charts in the same year by five different artists.

I hope he made a lot of money!

RUSTY DRAPER - "In The Middle Of The House" 

THE BUGGLES - "The Age Of Plastic" (1980)

 

This album titled "The Age Of Plastic" by The Buggles in 1980 had the song "Video Killed The Radio Star" on it which made it to number one in 16 countries, but only made in to number 40 on the U.S. charts.

 

Whatever you do, don't get The Buggles mixed up with Sid and Marty Krofft's The Bugaloos.

 

Or even worse, the world's most obnoxious kid's show, "The Teletubbies."

 

The Buggles' music might be very cartoonlike but they are much better than that!

Here's the proof! Try to not tap your foot!!

THE BUGGLES - "Clean Clean"

THE COLLECTORS - "She (Will-O-The-Wind)" (1968)

 

It was suggested to me by my friend Robert Lindsey to give this 1968 album by The Collectors a try, so I did, and I remember this album cover, but I don't think I ever owned this one.

The Collectors were from Canada, and started out in 1961 as the CFUN Classics, and they recorded two singles in 1963, one as The Classics, and one as The Canadian Classics before morphing into The Collectors, and in 1969 they became Chilliwack.

There is one song on this album that is a 19 minutes and 15 second long suite. That's ambitious but I like this one better.

THE COLLECTORS - "She (Will-O-The-Wind)"