A Mind Blowing Collection Of 18 Boss Sounds

THE CHYLDS – ’I Want More (Lovin)’/’Hay Girl’ (Giant Records 101) May 1967

Here’s a super 60s teenbeat double sider on Giant Records. The Chylds were from Canton, OH and were very popular in their area. So much so that a huge label like Warner Bros were impressed enough to sign them up and release this disc on their label in July ’67.

Both sides really MOVE with an R’N’B/soul crunch, seemingly very much influenced by Paul Revere & the Raiders with a coolsville Mysterians organ buzz. (19/12/13)

excerpt from my interview with Avengers member Gerry Blake. Go here for more information:

The very first Avengers song I heard was ’Be A Caveman’ from the mid 80s comp ’Get Primitive – The Best Of Pebbles – Volume 1’. This came out in England on Ubik. I thought the song was pretty damned great especially the lyrics and the ultra cool guitar break. It’s very politically incorrect – ha ha ha.

I’m not sure we even thought about how politically incorrect Caveman was. We just liked the song. It would get people dancing for sure. I don’t think the girls thought much about it either. It was a different time back then. It was just music.

We weren’t dragging any girls behind the stage by the hair. Although some of them might have gone for it! By the way, the ”monkey” sounds was one of us trying to make monkey sounds. Didn’t cut it. So Gary Paxton just looped it and sped the recording up. I was the Tarzan yell.

THE FIFTH ORDER – ’Goin’ Too Far’/’Walkin’ Away’ (Diamond D-212) November 1966

Teenage group The Fifth Order hailed from Columbus, Ohio and their 1966 release ’Goin’ Too Far’ is considered a garage classic and quite rightly so. By late 1966, The Fifth Order had acquired a strong fan base due in most part to their wild gigs and lead singer Billy Carroll who had a stage presence that the girls went nuts for.

The group recorded the fruits of this 45 at a studio in Louisville, Kentucky. The chose two originals by songwriter Jack Sender (who was not in the group) and it was released on the small indie label Counterpart. Sales of the record went through the roof.

According to the liners of the Break-A-Way retrospective from 2004, it sold upwards of 18,000 copies. It was a number 1 smash in Columbus and charted in Ohio and the Midwest.

Diamond Records then licensed it for national release but it didn’t sell in the quantities hoped for. But good news for garage fans in 2011 because it’s a fairly easy 45 to score. The flip ’Walkin’ Away’ has merseybeat moves and is another strong song with immediate appeal. (20/04/11)

THE SMOKE RINGS – ’Love’s The Thing’/’She Gives Me Love’ (Prospect 101) 1966

The Romancers were a very popular East Los Angeles group playing mostly soul and pop music. From the material I’ve heard by them they didn’t really ’pound’ too much, apart from this garage rocker titled ’Love’s The Thing’ written by the Uballez brothers.

The Romancers disc was released on Linda Records during September 1965 but curiously it was re-released on Prospect Records with a name change to The Smoke Rings. The disc also got distributed on Dot.

The flip ’She Gives Me Love’ has their usual soul pop overtones.
But it’s the killer ’Love’s The Thing’ that gets in my L.A. Sounds, Select 50 and quite rightly so.

THE RUMORS – ’Hold Me Now’/’Without Her’ (Gemcor 5002) July 1965

IMO the best release on the short lived Gemcor label and it proved to be The Rumors only release which is a shame because they had obvious talent and a special garage pop sound. The mix of vox organ and surf tinged guitar are a heady brew but sadly nobody else thought so and the single went un-rewarded.  

’Hold Me Now’ can be heard on the Nuggets box set from the 90s, the flip ’Without Her’ sounds even better.