Canada Spotlight: The Haunted - 1-2-5/Eight O'Clock This Morning
Day 2 of our Canada Battle of the Garage Bands has us visiting Montreal, Canada. In this hip town we find a band called The Haunted. The band was formed in 1965 by gutiarist Jurgen Peter and grew to include Bob Burgess on vocals, Al Birmingham on lead, Mason Shea on bass and Dave Wynne on drums. The Haunted immediately became THEE band in Montreal and opened for the Stones, Them and a host of other cool cats.
The band cut their first single for Quality Records in May of 1966. We feature that number today. The released version of 1-2-5 required a recut as the record company deemed the lyrics too risqué for the French-Canadian audience. Ironically, the original version, which is not nearly as good as this recording, saw the light of day in the puritanical US on Amy Records. Now that is a hard record to find! 1-2-5 tells the tale of a boy just strolling down the street with five bucks burning a hole in his pocket. Who does he see but Mary Jane, a local prostitute. Exchange of cash, and then she is pulling down the shades.
The flip-side is Eight O'Clock This Morning. Composed by Burgess and Birmingham, this proves the band knew what they were doing. Great bass, great vocals, great guitar. All great.
1-2-5, replete with snarly vocals, edgy lyrics, a brilliant bass line and a killer guitar lead, broke nationally and made the band a household name across the great white north. But whose name? You'll note from the picture above that the band's name was misprinted on the first pressing of the single as The Hunted. These record companies did this so frickin' often back then it is really hard to imagine who they had editing their work.
The sound sample above apparently comes from the LP, with a different singer, than either of the released single versions, which are linked below.
The "1-2-5" track you post here is not the version released on the Quality label 45 pressing (or on the Amy label issued in the U.S.A.) The soundclip of "1-2-5" is the re-recorded version with a different lead singer (Johnny Monk instead of Bob Burgess who had left the band), as issued on their LP in 1967.
hmmm. came off of the old Haunted comp from the Pebbles folks. Also the same version that appears on Nuggets and the same one that is on just about every YouTube clip
The "1-2-5" track you post here is not the version released on the Quality label 45 pressing (or on the Amy label issued in the U.S.A.)
ReplyDeleteThe soundclip of "1-2-5" is the re-recorded version with a different lead singer (Johnny Monk instead of Bob Burgess who had left the band), as issued on their LP in 1967.
hmmm. came off of the old Haunted comp from the Pebbles folks. Also the same version that appears on Nuggets and the same one that is on just about every YouTube clip
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