The Catsanovas may have been from California, but otherwise they’re a total mystery to me. They had this one great 45 on the Check Mate label in cool blue vinyl.

I doubt these were teens in a garage, more likely a professional show band, as the flip side sax instro “Flight Stewardess” sounds like vintage ’62 roadhouse, even if it was recorded in ’65 or ’66. That song’s never been comped by the way.

Top side is the great reverb groover “I Want to Be Loved”, where maybe the horn player puts down his sax to take a shot at singing. He does a good job, but the guitarist shines on the chorus, plus the rhythm section is solid.

Songwriting credits go to the band, production by Shirley Mallory Enterprises, published by Jakk Music.

The Checkmate label had at least one other 45, also on blue vinyl, “Rock-a-Bye Baby” written by Shirley Mallory b/w “I Don’t Love You Now”. The label lists Johnny Fiore below the song title, and he is almost certainly the vocalist on the track, but it also lists “Linda and the Majestics” at the top: they might be the backing band. It’s certainly not the soul group the Majestics who recorded on Linda.

And that’s all I know right now…