A LITTLE BIT OF SOUND – ’Incense And Peppermints’/’I Want You To Know’ (Carole Records 1002) October 1967

A Little Bit Of Sound | Incense And Peppermints | Carole | 1967 | Carole Records, a division of Sidewalk Records were a small Los Angeles label distributed by GNP Crescendo but who & why & where obscurities A Little Bit Of Sound came from is unknown. Perhaps they were a studio based group of hipsters put together by L.A songwriter/producer Jerry Styner.

Mr Styner’s usual line of mischief involved working with Mike Curb on movie scores for exploito flicks put out by Sidewalk Productions and producing records for the likes of The Second Time, Boston Tea Party and this combo.

I did a random search on google and his name appeared as a born again Reverend out in some Californian desert area. Talk about a career change!

’Incense And Peppermints’ is a loose and rougher version of the big hit in the Summer of ’67 by Strawberry Alarm Clock. It certainly doesn’t have the same polish as the original but who cares cos this less refined punker with a cheapo organ break is killer.

The flip, the short and to the point ’I Want You To Know’ has plenty of fuzz and organ sound.

update from Billy Goodnick:

Billy Goodnick here, drummer for A Little Bit of Sound. We did win the Pepsi Boss Battle of the Bands, but our contract was with Uni Records and it never amounted to anything. They were not required to negotiate the stock contract and we decided to pass.

Sherman Oaks

Jerry Styner ”discovered” our band playing a backyard party at Dale Korngold’s house in Sherman Oaks. He lived up the block. He asked if we wanted to do a recording and ’Incense and Peppermints’ was the result.

The instrumental track was waiting for us when we got there – Hollywood heavyweights including Hal Blaine on drums had already laid down the tracks.

We learned the lyrics, made up the harmonies and recorded the vocals in one day. Then we did the B-side, written by the band (no time to go upstairs and look at the vinyl).

Other group members were Steve Diamond (now a multi-grammy-winning song-writer), Ron Ziskin (creator of the original American Gladiators TV show and now a film producer), Scott Whitman and Mike Abramson. We all went to Van Nuys High School together and played for about 3 years.