The Monkees, perhaps, are the best example - or worst, depending upon your point of view - of a manufactured pop group who scored significant chart success. But The Strangeloves aren't that far behind. The Strangeloves were 3 guys from New York who said they were former sheep farmers from Australia. Their story went that they got rich over a new form of sheep crossbreeding and used their millions to start a rock group. Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein and Richard Gottehrer, at the time succesfull record producers, adopted the monikers Giles, Miles and Niles Strange and a musical conceit was hatched.
The fictitious brothers ran into a bit of a problem in 1965 with the success of I Want Candy. It ranked so high on the charts the demand to tour as live artists forced them to send out the session musicians who performed in the studio. But they could lip-sync, as this clip demonstrates... Hey, in 1965 what did I know. I was 13 and I thought they were kinda cool.
The Strangeloves were pretty much a one hit wonder, releasing their first and last album, also titled I Want Candy, in 1965.
This post first appeared on dufusdownbeat November 2009.
This post first appeared on dufusdownbeat November 2009.
This is my Theme Thursday post. Dance on over and see how other bloggers have approached "candy" the theme for this week.
Comments
I had never heard of this group before, or their song for that matter, thanks to powers that be.... :D
cool theme post.
Very interesting post. And now I feel a hankering for some....
Cheese!
Ha! You thought I was gonna write candy, didn't you. hee hee
I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.
However, I have to defend the Monkees here.
First of all, they really did play their own instruments, although not on the original album. Mike Nesmith(whose mother invented White Out) had been performing as a musician for quite a while before becoming a pop idol. Following his time with the Monkees, Mike went on to play with The First National Band, a group often considered one of the pioneers of country rock. He became well-known as a producer and created Pop Clips for Nickelodeon, which Time Warner bought and turned into MTV. One of Mike's most famous post-Monkees works was the highly acclaimed Elephant Parts video.
Davy Jones, of course, already had a musical career behind him as a singer in England (I used to have one of his albums from this period, which included such songs as "It Ain't Me Babe," and ""Maybe It's Because I'm a Londoner.") Davy was also inadvertently responsible for creating one of the biggest names in rock history when a rising young singer also named David Jones wanted to avoid being confused with the Monkees and changed his name to David Bowie.
While it's true that Mickey Dolenze had never touched drums before becoming a Monkee, he learned quickly. He also smoked dope with Paul McCartney, which is pretty good street (if not exactly musical) cred for anyone.
Peter Tork started studying piano when he was nine, and went on to become proficient in a number of instruments.
Not that I'm a Monkees fan or anything.
Oh, and one more thing -- for their American tour, the Monkees took on an amazing, but disastrously inappropriate musician they admired for their opening act: Jimi Hendrix. He lasted a few shows before the throngs of teeny-bopper girls screaming "We want Davy" finally got to be too much and he left the tour.
I'm always reminded of him when I see Matthew Perry ("Chandler" on Friends).
Did you know the show was supposed to showcase the Lovin' Spoonful? Apparently there were contractual problems so the producers ran a newspaper ad to cast individual members.
Did you know Stephen Stills was among the try-outs? After he was turned down he formed Buffalo Springfield with Neil Young.
Michael Nesmith? I have two of his solo albums and two by The First National Band. Good stuff.
Daydream Believer, I'm a Believer, Last Train to Clarksville, Mary Mary...ahhh the memories.
Good thing I didn't.
And when I said I had that Davy Jones' 1965 album, titled David Jones, from his pre-Monkees days when he was singing music hall songs in England -- complete lie. Never happened.
And I didn't have Monkee shoes by Thom McCann either. Nope. Not me.
Come to think of it, I've never even heard of the Monkees. Who are they again?