Category Archives: Philips

The Tuesday Club

Garfield Air Mattress Promo Flyer
Before becoming the Tuesday Club, they were the Garfield Air Mattress. Flyer courtesy of Bruce Lambert

The Tuesday Club started as the Garfield Air Mattress, a band formed in 1966 by Bruce Lambert and Tony Tezak in Grand Junction, Colorado.

In an early flyer they are shown as a quartet with three members from Grand Junction: Terry Tezak (bass), Daryll Cooper (guitar and keyboards), Bruce Lambert (lead guitar); plus Salvador “Pete” Friese from Fort Collins on drums. Bill Wagner managed the Garfield Air Matress, who advertised as playing “rhythm and blues and what have you”.

Tony Decker of Salt Lake City, a freshman at Mesa College, joined on guitar and lead vocals.

Garfield Air Mattress, the Criterion, May 16, 1967
The Garfield Air Mattress profiled in the Mesa College Criterion in May, 1967, courtesy of Bruce Lambert.
From left: Daryll Cooper, Bruce Lambert, Pete Frease, Terry Tezak and Tony Decker

When the Mesa College paper, The Criterion profiled the Garfield Air Mattress on May 16, 1967, Mercury Records had just signed the group and Ray Ruff was their manager. All of the group were freshmen at Mesa College, except Bruce Lambert, a senior at Grand Junction High School. Tony Decker had already written “A Goddess in Many Ways”, which would be the A-side of their single for Philips (a Mercury subsidiary), and the group had already decided to change their name to The Tuesday Club.

The Tuesday Club relocated to Amarillo, Texas, recording at Checkmate Studios, with Marty Cooper and Ray Ruff producing. Ray Ruff was producing and managing a number of bands at the time, including Tracers, Them, the Orange Confederation and the Page Boys.

The Tuesday Club, Philips 45 Only Human

 A-side of their single, with goddess misspelled!
A-side of their single, with goddess misspelled!

Even though Tony Decker wrote both sides of the 45, each song is incredibly different from the other; they could almost be by separate bands. The top side is “A Goddess in Many Ways” a gentle paean to a seventeen year old beauty who commits suicide. For years it’s been overshadowed by the flip, the garage classic “Only Human”, but will probably be garnering more fans from the recent resurgence of interest in Fargo. It did reach #24 on Grand Junction AM station KEXO on August 26, 1967.

Notice in Billboard, August 19, 1967

I’m sure “Only Human” is familiar to every fan of ’60s punk, with it’s memorable opening bass slides and tambourine, the powerful guitar line and Tony Decker’s shouting delivery of the lines “… when you turn the heads of everybody in the crowd!” and “… but all this competition’s driving me insane!”

After the 45 was recorded, Terry Tezak and Bruce Lambert left the group and returned to Colorado. Dean Wilden joined: he had been in Maudz Only with Tony Decker at their Salt Lake City high school. The band changed their name to Fargo, and in 1968 relocated first to Grand Junction, where Cooper and Friese left the group, and then to Salt Lake, where Randle Potts joined on drums, later replaced by Bob Holman. By the time they became Fargo, neither song from the Tuesday Club single was part of their live sets.

Fargo traveled to Los Angeles to record a single, “Robins, Robins” / “Sunny Day Blue” for Capitol and an LP I See It Now for RCA, both produced by Marty Cooper.

Dean wrote to me about how he joined the group and their change to Fargo:

Garfield Air Mattress was a Grand Junction based band with Tony Decker. When they moved to Texas, two of the members quit and I joined. At that time we were called the Tuesday Club. Tony & I had previously played together in a band called Maudz Only.

I never recorded with Tony’s early Grand Junction band, so I really don’t know where the two tunes were recorded. I don’t remember ever even hearing those two Tuesday Club songs, and they weren’t anything we ever played live. The Tuesday Club/Fargo, Texas drummer was Pete Frease. I was on bass, Tony on guitar & Daryl Cooper on keyboard. Tony & I went to Grand Junction for a short time after Texas. Long enough to lose the other two and return to Salty.

In Amarillo, Ruff’s company, Checkmate Productions, included the bands Them, The Tracers, The Orange Confederation & Fargo. We played Texas, New Mexico, Kansas & Oklahoma. I would take a dozen or better of the Salt Lake bands over the best band I ever heard in Texas, during that period. We played venues alongside many of them & they all seemed to be listening in the past. You didn’t hear much of the British Invasion coming out their speakers. In fact, having played both Texas & Oklahoma, I’d say the three most requested songs were “Louie Louie”, “Wipe Out” & “Gloria”. It was as if they couldn’t comprehend beyond three chords. It was nice to leave there & get back to the ’60s.

As for those Texas bands, I’d say the Tracers were the best I heard. Richie was The Tracers drummer & one of the funniest people I ever knew.

Ray was our gig manager, and a good record producer, but Marty Cooper was our producer. Marty was based in L.A. and this was where Fargo recorded all it’s tracks. Tony & I had a unique vocal blend. Our – Fargo’s – earliest Capital recording was “Robins, Robins” / “Sunny Day Blue”.

Back in Utah, we decided to go three-piece. We needed a drummer and I suggested my old school mate & drummer from Maudz II, Randle Potts. He played on one album cut, “Lady Goodbye”. He froze up like playing in front of 100,000 people, so we hired 2 different studio players to finish off the recordings. We got rid of Potts and stole Bob [Holman] from a band called the Avanti’s, which was strange, seems how Potts drove an Avanti. So Bob was our live drummer and was with us to the end. We’re still in touch. Bob is a remarkable artist with a clever edge to his creations.

I played bass on all but two of the “I See It Now” cuts, and Tony did a great deal of the guitar work. Why bass & guitar credits were given otherwise on the back of the album is baffling. Kind of negated us as musicians. We were damned good & tight on stage. Dr. John played piano on the album but was given no credit, nor were the drummers. Tony was given composer credit for “The Sound Of It,” which is one of my songs. I had Tony sing the first verse because of how I’d layered the harmonies, thus the confusion. When I first saw the back of that album I thought I must be in a parallel universe. The references to religion, alone, blew me away. I was and am as far removed from that world as is possible.

The post-RCA Fargo recordings were mostly made on a Sony sound-on-sound recorder using those cheap little microphones. We were a 3 piece band back then: Tony on guitar, Bob Holman on drums, & me on bass. These later nine sound-on-sound recordings need to be tuned-up a bit before I’d feel comfortable with anyone hearing them.

I’m still writing up a storm & recording “one-man-band” tracks in my studio. I’ve recorded recently in Nashville, & am now working with a couple of different people to promote me as either a singer/songwriter, or songwriter.

Dean and Tony are working on reissuing Fargo’s Capitol single and RCA LP, possibly with bonus tracks from their later self-produced recordings.

Thank you to Dean for information on his time with the Tuesday Club and Fargo.

Special thanks to Bruce Lambert for the Garfield Air Mattress flyer and news clip and for additional information about the group.

“A Godess in Many Ways” enters KEXO’s survey at #24, August 26, 1967 (chart from ARSA)

Mike and Herb with the Silver Strings

Mike and Herb from Singapore were backed by the Silver Strings, the same band that backed the great Shirley Nair. It seems that together they formed a ‘show’, with one set fronted by Mike and Herb, one by Shirley Nair and one by the Silver Strings on their own. I have read that the first song Shirley Nair ever wrote was for Mike and Herb, but that doesn’t feature here.

Let ‘Em Come, a quite reasonable, rollicking sort of number, is credited to Peter van Dort and might be a cover version, but I haven’t been able to discover anything more about the writer or the song.

The standout on this single for me, however, is definitely the A side, I’ve Been A Fool, written by Dicky Tan, who was for some time the Silver Strings lead guitarist. The song has a shuffling Louie Louie/Farmer John type of rhythm punctuated by a couple of excellent guitar breaks, presumably executed by Dicky himself. I haven’t been able to find out much more about the Silver Strings, but judging from the cover photo this is the same line-up as appeared on Shirley Nair’s EPs. Mike and Herb, who appear to be brothers, are in the centre of the photo.

Shirley Nair with the Silver Strings

Shirley Nair with the Silver Strings Philips 45

Shirley Nair with the Silver Strings Philips 45 You're the BoyIf you have ever seen the Girls In The Garage Oriental Special comp and wondered who the ‘Unknown Artist’ was who performed “If You Ever Go”, I can tell you. It was Shirley Nair and the Silver Strings from Singapore. The song appeared on what I believe was their first single.

Shirley Nair with the Silver Strings Philips 45 Don't Leave MeAt the age of nineteen Shirley had joined a group called the Checkmates singing Beatles covers and other beat songs. That was in late 1964. She did not stay with the Checkmates long before she teamed up with the Silver Strings. It seems the band only released a handful of records backing Shirley, including the songs “If You Ever Go”, “You’re The Boy”, “Too Late For Tears”, “Come Home To Me”, “Don’t Leave Me”, “I Won’t Let You See Me Cry”, “I’ll Remember Today”, and “Two People”.

Unlike many other Singaporean performers of the day, Shirley wrote her own material, at least that’s the case with the stuff I have seen. The overall impression I get from Shirley the singer/songwriter and the Silver Strings is a positive one. These are good pop songs.

Included here are what were probably Shirley’s second and third singles, from late 1965 or 1966. Why the band did not go on to produce more music, I do not know. I cannot find any information about what happened to Shirley, but it seems the Silver Strings may still be performing in Singapore at sixties revival concerts.

Shirley Nair with the Silver Strings Philips PS back

Shirley Nair with the Silver Strings Philips PS You're the Boy

Shirley Nair with the Silver Strings Philips PS You're the Boy back

Alfian

The vibrating deep baritone of Alfian Harahap (aka Nasution) was one of the most distinguishable voices in Indonesian pop music of the 1960s. His greatest hit was Semalam di Cianjur (A Night in Cianjur) recorded about 1965 for Remaco.

The song was reportedly written spontaneously by Alfian in the studio and concerns the singer remembering the wonderful night he spent in the East Java town of Cianjur and his promise to return some day. One explanation of the song I have heard is that Cianjur at the time was a transit stop for travellers through Java who would overnight there and continue their journey the next day. So the song could be about a romantic encounter in a travellers’ hotel.

Following the success of Semalam di Cianjur Alfian’s subsequent Remaco recordings were released in Singapore by Philips under license. I feature two songs of Alfian’s from that period, Relakan (Acquiesce), from a Philips EP, and Andaikan (Suppose), on a record with the Pop Sounds label, which appears to have been a Malaysian subsidiary of Philips. On both EPs Alfian is backed by the band Arulan led by Jarzuk Arifin. I would say these recordings were made in 1966. These two songs contain some good guitar work; the other songs on the two EPs are more subdued.

Alfian remained a popular singer until the early 1970s when the Indonesian music scene began to be dominated by bands and solo singers were out of fashion. Alfian chose to retire from the music industry and spent several years working in a warehouse on the Jakarta waterfront. In 1978, however, he was involved in a traffic accident and spent two years recovering.

In 1980 he returned to the music industry working for a record company as a coordinator and supervisor of new singers. He also re-recorded a number of old hits. In 1992 he passed away as a result of diabetes and heart problems. His son Tonny, who is said to have a similar voice, has recorded a number of songs made popular by his father.

Rose Iwanaga and the Avengers

Rose Iwanaga & the Avengers Philips EP front cover

Rose Iwanaga & the Avengers Philips EP
Rose Iwanaga and the Avengers came from Kuching, capital of Sarawak in eastern Malaysia. Iwanaga is a Japanese name, but I don’t know anything of Rose’s background or how she came to be living in Sarawak.

Rose Iwanaga and the Avengers are credited as the first band from Malaysian Borneo to make an English-language recording. They are said to have made three EPs in total, but I have only ever seen this one, their debut, which I reckon was released in 1967. The Avengers were James Ong – rhythm guitar, Jimmy Ho – lead guitar, Peter Ho – bass, and Jalek Zula – drums.

James Ong (rhythm), Jimmy Ho (lead), Peter Ho (bass), Jalek Zula (drums), Rose Iwanaga
James Ong (rhythm), Jimmy Ho (lead), Peter Ho (bass), Jalek Zula (drums), Rose Iwanaga

I love the liner notes description of Jalek Zula as a ‘violent’ drummer. This isn’t obvious from the recording, however, most of which is saccharine-sweet with huge doses of strings added into the mix. I wonder what the band might have sounded like when they played the small nightclubs of Kuching without all the accompaniment? Much better I am sure.

Too Young seems to be the song that most older Malaysians remember from this record, but my favourite is Please Tell Terry, which is a straight ahead pop song and the only one without the annoying strings or horns. This song and Say You’re Mine are credited to Adrian C. Tills. I have not been able to find out anything about Adrian and do not know whether these songs are cover versions or were written for the band. I have seen Adrian’s name on a record from a Singapore singer also, so perhaps he was a local.

What became of the Avengers is a mystery to me, but I have read that Rose was still performing in Kuching nightclubs until at least the late 1990s.

Rose Iwanaga & the Avengers Philips EP back cover

The Blue Birds

Blue Birds ROL 45 Julie

Blue Birds ROL 45 Just Remember

Blue Birds ROL 45 Sweet PollyThe Blue Birds formed in the port town of Piraeus, near Athens. They were one of the first Greek garage bands, releasing a national hit “Julie” in 1965 on Philips. The flip, “Way to Heaven” is supposed to be a good, moody song, but I haven’t heard it because I have the ROL release, in which Julie is backed with an instrumental number by different band. The ROL label 45s were given away to promote ROL laundry detergent!

Their next 45 was also released on both Philips and ROL, both sides included this time. Sweet “Polly” / “Just Remember” are both excellent garage numbers, with fantastic farfisa organ playing and good harmonies.

Two other early singles are highly rated, but with a change in lineup in 1967, their music developed with psychedelic and folk influences. They stopped singing in English and wrote songs with Christian themes to the lyrics. In total the Bluebirds released thirteen 45s and one fine album, Xylinos Stavros (Wooden Cross).

The following list of band members is adapted from an autotranslation of a good list of 60’s bands in Greece.

* BLUE BIRDS (1964, Piraeus)
Giorgos Petrides: Vocals (-1967, + Lj’a Laoyta’ri)
Yannis Bjmoppoylos: Guitar, Vocals
Leonidas Loyloy’dis: Bass (-1967, Manolis Laoyta’ris)
Swkra’tis Ardava’nis: Organ
Gavrj’lis Pantzi’s: Drums (-1972, + Nikos Kalogera’kis)

* BLUE BIRDS (1964, Πειραιάς)
Γιώργος Πετρίδης: Τραγούδι (-1967, + Λία Λαουτάρη)
Γιάννης Ψιμόπουλος: Κιθάρα, Τραγούδι
Λεωνίδας Λουλούδης: Μπάσο (-1967, Μανώλης Λαουτάρης)
Σωκράτης Αρδαβάνης: Όργανο
Γαβρίλης Παντζής: Ντραμς (-1972, +Νίκος Καλογεράκης)

The Magic Mushrooms

 Magic Mushrooms publicity photo taken by Ted Cahill in Philadelphia, Fall, 1966
Magic Mushrooms publicity photo taken by Ted Cahill in Philadelphia, Fall, 1966

The Magic Mushrooms A&M 45 It's-a-HappeningFive students at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia formed the Magic Mushrooms. Original members were Stu Freeman vocals and guitar, Ted Cahill lead guitar and autoharp, Dick Richardson keyboards, Charles Ingersol on bass and Joe LaCavera on drums.

Allen Ginsberg gave them the Magic Mushrooms name after a campus lecture in late 1965. In early 1966, Josh Rice joined the band on vocals, flute and harmonica.

Sonny Casella heard the band playing at Drexel University and became their manager. Contrary to previous reports, he did not sing or play in the band, but he was responsible for mixing, arranging and producing their records.

The Magic Mushrooms Philips 45 Never Let GoThey recorded their first 45 in New York, “It’s A-Happening”, an original credited to Casella and Rice, but perhaps really written by Stu Freeman and Josh Rice. A bizarre psychedelic montage, it was released on A&M in September, 1966 and reached as high as #93 on the Billboard charts in November, backed with another original, “Never More”.

The Magic Mushrooms East Coast 45 Let the Rain Be MeA close comparison could be made to the Electric Prunes, but unfortunately we’ll never know how far a record this strange could go – when Herb Alpert of A&M realized the drug reference in the band’s name, he pulled the record from the shops and ended their relationship with the label.

A&M Spurns Psychedelic Records, Billboard August 1967
Item in Billboard, August 19, 1967.

Despite this setback the band hooked up with Philips for their second record, “Look in My Face”, which didn’t chart. However, it was backed with the intense “Never Let Go”, an original by Stu Freeman and Josh Rice and my favorite track by the band.

Their final release is the corny “Municipal Water Maintenance Man” on the East Coast label, hiding a very fine hippie-ish track on the b-side, “Let the Rain Be Me”, another Freeman/Rice song.

 Magic Mushrooms on stage
Magic Mushrooms on stage, from left: Chris Barbieri, Stu Freeman, Joe LaCavera and Josh Rice. Out of frame: Bob Grady and Ted Cahill.
Magic Mushrooms Manager Sonny Cassella, Ted Cahill, Stu Freeman, Chris Barbieri and Josh Rice
Manager Sonny Cassella, Ted Cahill, Stu Freeman, Chris Barbieri and Josh Rice taking a break from recording

Lead guitarist Ted Cahill and vocalist and guitarist Stu Freeman have filled in some details on the band:

Ted Cahill:

I was the lead guitar playing for The Magic Mushrooms. I am still in touch with Stu Freeman, and Joe Lacavera, the drummer.

The original bass and keyboard players were replaced, I think, in the Spring of 1966. Those guys were replaced by Chris Barbieri (bass) and Bon Grady (keyboards). They had both been in a band with Stu in Westchester County, NY before Stu came to Penn.

That summer we played the Jersey shore at a place called Tony Mart’s in Somers Point. We had a dispute with the owner later in the summer and quit. One of our lead singers had been sick and the guy docked us some money. Little did we know it was a mafia bar; our days of playing that part of the Jersey Shore was over. If you have ever seen the movie Eddie and the Cruisers, Tony Mart’s is the club where a lot of the action in the movie happens.

Chris Barbieri and Bob Grady of the Magic Mushrooms. Ted Cahill's Vox 12-string on the guitar stand
Chris Barbieri and Bob Grady

We played a lot around Philly, the Hy Lit show on TV, some bars around the city and lots of frat parties at Penn. We also were supposedly in a movie the Andy Warhol shot at Penn’s Mask and Wig Theater in Center City Philly, whether that really happened I don’t know, but we were asked to play the party there and there was filming going on.

We saw no reward for the Nuggets appearance, all the money we made was from the gigs we played.

Stu Freeman:

I grew up in New Rochelle and presently live in White Plains. The band I had in high school was called the “Foremost” and later the “Fiendish Thingies”. The other members were Barbieri, Grady and a guitar player named Lloyd McCool. All from Pelham Manor.

Barbieri and Grady replaced Charlie Ingersol and Dick Richardson in the Mushrooms after about a year. After about another year, Cahill, Josh Rice and drummer Joe LaCavera were out and the Mushrooms was composed of myself, a guitar player named Steve Rundle, bassist Pete Gries (both from Penn) and a couple of different drummers from around Philly.

“It’s a Happening” was recorded in Sigma Sound studios on Broad Street in Philly, NOT in New York. Engineer was Joe Tarsia, who worked with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff on all those great “Philly sound” records (Harold Melvin, MFSB, Ojays, Archie Bell, Jerry Butler, Soul Survivors, etc). Tarsia expanded and opened up a studio in NY after the huge success of the Philly studios.

 Stu Freeman of the Magic Mushrooms
Stu Freeman

Also, Allen Ginsberg did indeed provide the name “Magic Mushrooms” (he was speaking at a Penn function and Josh caught up with him and asked him for a suggestion). And, there was never any “David Rice” on guitar. BTW, Josh Rice is nephew of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Elmer Rice.Q. Did you ever see much in the way of royalties from It’s a Happening?

We all received some royalties from the original sales (eons ago), but interesting you should ask that, because one of my erstwhile Penn roommates and current good friend asked me a while ago, after noting the success of the “Nuggets” albums, if any royalties had been received from them. I told him no and he suggested that I investigate, but I never did. I have no idea where Josh Rice is so I never contacted him about it either. Casella owned much of the original publishing so he may have received something from “Nuggets” but it’s also possible the publishing had expired and he got nada.

I got involved with “Stars On 45” in 1981 with my current partner Ed Garr and we still play regularly (everything from weddings to CBS News holiday parties to Vegas conventions).

I believe Joey Gennetti was a later keyboard player for the group.

In 2011, acetates of two songs, “Pain” and “I’m All Ears”, turned up from a later version of the group that included only Stu Freeman and Josh Rice from the original six that had cut “It’s-A-Happening”.

Sonny Casella also helped produce the first record by The Snaps (later known as the Underground Balloon Corps) “You Don’t Want Me”/ “You’re All Mine”.

These Magic Mushrooms shouldn’t be confused with the California group the Magic Mushroom (singular) who recorded “I’m Gone” / “Cry Baby” on Warner Bros.

Photos from the collection of Ted Cahill. I am sorry to report that Ted passed away on March 16th, 2020.

 Chris Barbieri and Ted Cahill, with Stu Freeman in background
Chris Barbieri and Ted Cahill, with Stu Freeman in background
Joe Lacavera of the Magic Mushrooms
Josh Rice of the Magic Mushrooms on harmonica
“Joey Gennetti, our last keyboardist when I was with the band. He had an awsome Hammond B3 organ and Leslie cabinet. I piped some of my leads through the Leslie” quote by Ted Cahill
Ted Cahill with his Gretsch Country Gentleman, Stu Freeman and Chris Barbieri during a practice

Lind and the Linders

I’d like to know more about the strangely named Lind and the Linders. Buis’ comment below has given me some info. I’ll repeat most of it here:

The Lind & Linders are strictly based in Osaka, far from Tokyo’s major conglomerate-dominated music scene. Sadly no albums materialized. Most all of their original materials are written by leader Hiroshi Kato, but strangely both sides of this 45 is not (staffer Tsuneaki Tone did, including the mindblowing strings arrangement).

They broke up in 1969 and after which Kato involved with more experimental projects, and in the 70s went to England and worked as a studio guitarist. Vocalist Tetsuya Kaga also started solo career, but sadly passed away last December [2007]. Until his death, several attempts at reforming have been occurred, mainly performing at Osaka clubs.

Kurosawa Susumu’s Nihon Rock ki GS-hen (Japan Rock Chronicles: Group Sounds Compendium) gives the lineup and has more info in Japanese I’ll try to scan and post here soon:

Tetsuya Kaga – vocals
Teruo Sakaki – vocals
Shuji Mukai – vocals
Hiroshi Kato – lead guitar
Kazuki Takagi – guitar, vocals
Kazuo Unoyama – bass
Akio Shima – drums

replacement members:

Fujimaru Hamada – drums
Koji Hori – guitar
Aki Mori – bass

Their first and third 45s from 1967 simply show a man with a guitar on the cover. The second has a photo of a seven piece group: three vocalists upfront with some bizarre mod-style hairdos and the band behind them. It features the songs “Moero Circuit” and “Do the Crap”. Why hasn’t “Do the Crap” been compiled somewhere? I’m sure there’s a reason.


They settled into a six piece group and released four more 45s in 1968 definitely in a pop vein, but often with inventive arrangements. The first of these, and their fourth 45 overall has a great b-side, “Koi ni Shibirete”. Strings double the guitar line and the song has the usual whistles and shouts to denote ‘excitement’ in GS records.

The A-side, “Gin no Kusari (Golden Chain)” is more traditional pop, but as a fan of this kind of song I think the vocal works well.

Their next 45 “Yuhi Yo Isoge” is pretty good, and was followed by Huey Smith and the Clowns’ “Ha Ha Ha (Don’t You Just Know It)” with horns.

“I Dig Rock and Roll Music” is their mildly psychedelic tribute to Donovan, the Mamas and Papas and the Beatles. I thought it was one of the few original songs from a 1968 compilation called Group Sounds World Top Hits, but Milton corrects me in a comment below that it’s a Peter, Paul and Mary song. The transcribed lyrics are, as always, a hoot.

That’s all of their work that I’ve heard – their last 45 “Yoake no Jujika” features a Christian cross on the cover I wonder what that was about?

Back of sleeve for "Koi ni Shibirete"
Back of sleeve for “Koi ni Shibirete”

Quadrangle

The Quadrangle were a New York group, and this is their only 45, released in October of 1966.

“She’s Too Familiar” now is a classic garage song. Every element is striking: the keyboard intro, the bass line and drums, the sharp guitar parts and the fantastic vocal, with a tambourine-led chorus that brings it all together.

The b-side, “No More Time” combines a New Orleans type beat with a bit of Donovan’s Mellow Yellow vocal delivery.

I had thought they were only a studio group until I found a mention in the April 30, 1966 issue of Billboard that states “Ray West’s group the Quadrangle closed at Arthur last week and will now record under the supervision of Artie Kornfeld.” Artie Kornfeld did produce them, using the songwriting team of Michael Konstan and Jay Fishman.

Kornfeld had a lot of experience writing classic songs as half of the Changin’ Times with Steve Duboff. Their original versions of “Pied Piper” and “How Is the Air Up There” were covered with more success by other bands. Kornfeld went on to work with many other acts as producer. Michael Konstan released a solo lp on RCA in ’73. I’d like to know more about the other members of Quadrangle, though.

Los Shimmys

Don’t know a thing about this band other than the Argentine origin. “Me voy de fiesta con mis amigos” is a cool rocker with an “A Day in the Life” interlude and strange ending that seems to cut too soon. The song was written by ‘Timoteo’.