Mid-Atlantic Spotlight: The Myddle Class - Don't Let Me Sleep Too Long / I Happen To Love You

The Myddle Class first came onto their local suburban New Jersey scene in 1964 as the King Bees but upgraded their name to avoid confusion with the King Bees releasing stuff on RCA Victor. Their first show under this new moniker was on December 11, 1965 in Summit, New Jersey. One of the opening acts for that show was a group playing its first live performance with its now core membership, The Velvet Underground. That's an auspicious start for our guys which consisted of Dave Palmer on vocals, Rick Philips on guitar, Danny Mansolino on Organ, Charles Larkey on bass and Michael Rosa on drums. Meanwhile, Al Aronowitz, New York Post columnist and band manager introduced the band to the songwriting team Jerry Goffin and Carole King who agree to write and produce for the Myddle Class. The bands first 45 was released on the short-lived Goffin-King label Tomorrow and features an excellent cover of Gates Of Eden as well as the brilliant folky original Free As The Wind.

Their next release on Tomorrow is our featured disc, released in June of '66. It opens on side A with the charging, barn-razing Don't Let Me Sleep Too Long. It's got screaming guitar work as well as some plain old screaming and gives the impression of the kind of raucous live performance for which they were known. The song is credited to the band, but it is well known that they copped it from The Blues Project's Wake Me, Shake Me while opening for them and even managed to get an earlier release than the original, itself taken from a traditional song. A later release on Buddha, while still crediting the band, gives arrangement credit to Al Kooper and The Blues Project. That's thoughtful.

The flip-side brings us to a Goffin-King song we flipsiders happen to really love, I Happen To Love You. The band was somewhat of a song tester for Goffin-King with some songs redirected to The Monkees, and one can easily imagine Micky Dolenz voice on this song. There are demos of Goin' Back and Pleasant Valley Sunday as well as others waiting for a well-deserved retrospective of The Myddle Class. The band only released one more single, also on Tomorrow. Charles Larkey married Carole King, Dave Palmer was an early vocalist for Steely Dan, and Rick Philips was senselessly murdered in 1969 by a jealous roommate.

You can also hear a version of I Happen To Love You by Them here.

See you on the Flip-Side!

Mid-Atlantic Spotlight: The Young Rascals - You Better Run/Love Is A Beautiful Thing

Day 4 of the Mid-Atlantic Battle of the Bands has us looking at a band that scored big on the national stage with their second single, a cover of Good Lovin'. Today we feature their third single, released on Atlantic Records in the Summer of 1966. It's the double A-Side of You Better Run with a Flip-Side of Love Is A Beautiful Thing. Both songs are originals. You Better Run composed by keyboard player/singer Felix Cavaliere and singer Eddie Brigati. Love Is A Beautiful Thing, written by Cavaliere and guitarist Gene Cornish. Drummer Dino Danelli rounded out the group.

You Better Run is a great tempest of a song boiling with anger and frustration. Gene Cornish's rhythm guitar work harkens back to that of their previous hit, Good Lovin'. Pat Benatar would score a hit with a unintentionally comical cover of this song in 1980, thirteen years to month after this was first released. In fact, Benatar's cover was the second video ever played on MTV!

Love Is A Beautiful Thing is a great Flip-Side! Cool organ, soulful delivery, back and forth vocal leads a la Sam and Dave, and that patented, fast rhythm guitar work growling under it all. Garage legends, We The People would curiously cover this song very faithfully late in 1967.

All in all, the Rascals hit the big time, but it doesn't mean they weren't still just a garage band at heart!

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

Mid-Atlantic Spotlight: The Enfields - She Already Has Somebody/I'm For Things You Do

[Ed. Note: Please see the comment section below for a little bit of color from the song's author, Ted Munda]

Day three of our Mid-Atlantic Battle of the Garage Bands. Today we move to Wilmington, Delaware.

Like everyone else I know who has heard this song, I first came to it by way of the outstanding 1980s compilation, What A Way To Die. Many years later I was lucky enough to come across the single and scoop it up. Because of misinformation from that compilation, I had it in my head that these cats were out of Pennsylvania, but a little internetting showed that -- as usual -- I was wrong. It appears The Enfields hailed from the Wilmington, Delaware area. They put out a number of singles between '65 and '67 and then the band splintered. 

The frontman and songwriter, Ted Munda, was apparently still in high school when he penned She Already Has Somebody (with V. Rago) as well as it's top notch Flip-Side, I'm For Things You Do. It's the band's second single and was given to us in 1966, of course. It features gentle, warbly guitar work by John Bernard who sounds like he has been digging on some surf music. The song also comes with some stellar whispered harmonies courtesy of Munda and Charlie Berl, each of whom appear to have worshipped devoutly at the church of The Holy Zombie with pastors Blunstone and Argent leading the minor key sermons. 

She Already Has Somebody is top notch all the way through. But this Flipper thinks it reaches it's zenith at the surprising and convincing music break starting at 1:20. The break starts with a little bit of a Pete Townshend influenced dead pickup switching and then rolls into a peppy drum beat. The lead then changes keys and goes into beautiful stutter rhythm. The Flip-Side, I'm For Things You Do, is another wonderful rocker that shows great restraint and mousy vocals.

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

Mid-Atlantic Spotlight: The Werp's - Love's A Fire.

We're back after a wonderful weekend with more Battle of the Bands for the The Mid-Atlantic Region.

Today we play a record by a band with the miserable name of The Werp's. Not sure why they have a possessive apostrophe in their name. The band hailed from Somerville, New Jersey and recorded only one record for WGW Records in 1967. That song is the catchy Love's A Fire.  But what we present to you today is not really that record. You see the one released was a much faster number with the guitar mixed way down, the organ mixed way up and some poppy horns scatting all over the song. It's okay, but the horns drive me crazy. So what we give you is an earlier unreleased take of Love's A Fire thanks to the hard work of Tim Warren from the Back From The Grave series. This version is a little slower, has the nice guitar hook at the beginning and gets a good non-Herb Alpert type mix. It also clocks in at a minute longer.

The song was written by J. Serenko and J. Matzko and recorded in New York city. Don't know too much more. Below is a YouTube link to the released version.

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

Mid-Atlantic Spotlight: Richard and The Young Lions - Open Up Your Door/Once Upon Your Smile

We move our regional Battle of the Garage Bands Battle a little further south. We started with New England where The Squires ran away with the not-so-friendly competition with their double sided gem, Going All The Way/Go Ahead. Then we dealt with New York and the winner of that region was The Blues Magoos with We Ain't Got Nothing Yet/Gotta Get Away. Today we turn our attention to the Mid-Atlantic region of these United States. For our purposes, that will incorporate the Mason-Dixon line states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and The District of Columbia. 

We start in Newark, New Jersey where we have the mighty cool looking Richard and The Young Lions. We've written about the band's third single and even included a bunch of cool photos. We turn our attention today to their debut single: Open Up Your Door b/w Once Upon Your Smile. The record was released on Phillips Records in July of 1966 and even got a rice-paper thin picture sleeve. Both sides were written by the songwriting team of Brown, Nader and Bloodworth who also get production credit. Those cats were associated with Detroit's Bob Crewe who was working with Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels about the same time. That association meant the Young Lions record actually did okay in the Detroit and Buffalo markets, but not so much in New Jersey. Curious. 

Open Up Your Door is a great raver with Richard Tepp's gravely, snot-nosed voice leading the stomper of a song. I'm particularly fond of the balance between jangly guitar and fuzz guitar as well as the odd African drum sound that runs throughout (see the scan of the Flip-Side of the single).

The Flip-Side of Once Upon Your Smile doesn't get a lot of attention from garage fans but I love this song. Slow and brooding, Richard Tepp's vocals are in top form. The lyrics are clever and the horns are perfectly utilized. And then you get that really groovy bridge where the horns really shine. 

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