Pacific Northwest Spotlight: Don and the Goodtimes - Little Sally Tease/Little Green Thing

Day five of our Pacific Northwest spotlight takes us to Portland, Oregon. Here we find a band called Don and the Goodtimes. Lame name. Not lame music.

Don Gallucci had been the organ player for The Kingsmen. That's him that opens the legendary recording of Louie Louie. But after that song hit it big, The Kingsmen went in to upheaval as the drummer and his parents smelled money and began pushing everyone out of the band to assert control. Don was one of those casualties as was singer Jack Ely. Ely apparently served as the earliest singer of Don Gallucci's band, but I am not clear if that is him singing in this record. I assume it is Don Gallucci singing.

Today we spin the a-side of the band's second single, released in 1965 on the Seattle based Jerden Records. Little Sally Tease was written by the band's guitarist, Jim Valley. The number only gained modest local attention, but it was enough to get Dunhill Records to release it nationally in August of 1965. Little Sally Tease tells the tale of a young gal who liked to lead the boys on and had all the skills to get what she wants. The number would later be picked up by The Standells for their 1966 LP, Dirty Water. As fine as that more famous recording is, we prefer this, the original version.

The initial release on Jerden came with a cover of the Rogers and Hammerstein number, You'll Never Walk Alone. I can't seem to find that so I will share a YouTube vid of the flip-side of the Dunhill Release, Little Green Thing.

Members of Don and The Goodtimes would swap spots with members of The Kingsmen and Paul Revere and the Raiders often. The Kingsmen would even go on to record Little Sally Tease with a particularly banal version released on Wand Records in 1966. They also did a rendition of Little Green Thing as the flip-side of their third release of Louie Louie, in 1965. 

The photo above was taken from the website, Pacific Northwest Bands and has a credit of Trisha Nerney. 

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!