New England Spotlight: The Blue Beats - Extra Girl and She's The One

We're going to spend a little time looking at records by geographical location. A bit of an old school Battle of the Bands, if you will. We're going to start in New England, since that is where the country started anyway. 

A few weeks back we wrote about The Blue Beats who hailed from Ridgefield, Connecticut, an affluent bedroom community of New York City. (You can read that article here.)  The quartet of Kit Miller, Peter Robbins, Lance Drake and Jack Lee kicked out two nice records for Columbia Records. Today we look at both sides of their first single. Extra Girl was written by Lee and Drake, while the Flip-Side of She's The One was written by Lee and Robbins. The single was released with a picture sleeve on September 6, 1966. The single didn't do too much, which is a little surprising as Extra Girl is quite the catchy number. Both sides, but particularly She's The One, mine that same vocal-first/pained-John Lennon influenced genre that The Merry-Go-Round and The Left Banke also did so well. 

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

The Blue Beats - Born In Chicago

Despite what the title says, The Blue Beats actually were NOT born in Chicago. The band, in fact, hailed from Ridgefield, Connecticut and were Kit Miller, Peter Robbins, Lance Drake and Jack Lee. The band released two singles, both on the titan of a label, Columbia Records.

Born In Chicago is the Flip-Side of their second single, released in April of 1967, and is the only one of their four recordings that is not an original song. The number was written by San Francisco music guru Nick Gravinites who wrote for a ton of San Francisco performers like Big Brother and the Holding Company, Janis Joplin, Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Chicago band, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. The latter first recorded Born In Chicago in 1965. This is likely where The Blue Beats picked up on it and, rather ironically, gave it a British Invasion feel. 

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