So what are your favourite 60s/soft/psych/weird pop records of all time?

Sagittarius, "My World Fell Down" (I haven't heard the rest of their material yet)

Sagittarius, "My World Fell Down" (I haven't heard the rest of their material yet)
i've got Blue Marble and I always think I don't like it and then I put it on and am pleasantly surprised

west coast pop art experimental band's 'a child's guide to good and evil' is pretty great too.

Cornelius.

and i used to really like Music Tapes "1rst Imaginary Symphony for Nomads"

I like Timon's "The Bitter Thoughts Of Little Jane"

Gary Usher's symphonic tribute to Brian Wilson is surprisingly good.

Also underrated were some of Chad & Jeremy's experimental soft folk pop.

^ look up :) ^

"Wichi-Tai-To" (one of my all time fave songs) and "The 59th St Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" -great vocal harmonies at the end!

fun & games - topanga canyon road
love generation - montage from 'how sweet it is' (jimmy webbs 2nd best song)
dino, desi & billy - thru spray colored glasses (from the 1969 stu phillips scored surf film 'follow me')
the sandpipers - never can say goodbye (from their last lp in 1972)
the sandpipers - misty roses (one of their bigger hits)
stoufville grit - cause i dont have you (from the soundtrack to 'bs i love you)
jackie & roy - didn't want to have to do it (from the 1967 lp changes, i think this is a lovin spoonful cover)
dave grusin - california montage (this was from bs i love you as well)
gary usher - sacramento (slightly countrypop ish story song from 1964)
wendy & bonnie - i realized you (best track on the lp by far)
mort garson - big sur (best song ever! from the 1969 weirdonoisefest wozard of iz, but this is a totally incongruous beautiful little song towards the end)
the groop - jet song (not that groop, but the other groop, which other groop? how many groops were there? 1969 7")
year one - will you be staying after sunday (a british song! and, superior to the more famous peppermint rainbow original)
steve & stevie - merry go round (maybe not really softpop, but i think it fits. carousel themed pop from melbourne 1968)

stoufville grit - cause i dont have you

the love generation - montage from 'how sweet it is'

mort garson - big sur

The missing link between Lonnie Donegan and Saint Etienne.

inner dialogue - yesterday the dog

as well as his old band, Flipper's Guitar. Their last album, Dr Head's World Tower is a fantastic pop mix of Screamadelica, MBV, Madchester and proper psych weirdness and a precursor to 69/96 and Fantasma.

Others:
The Shortwave Set - The Debt Collection (out next month, currently my album of 2005 and definitely a decade highlight. "St Etienne in a Peters and Lee-style fantasy.")
Mum and Dad - s/t (a hugely underrated Sabbath do Broadcast up the ass-Twisted Nerve released LP)
The United States of America - s/t (how can I be the first to mention this?)
The Avalanches - Since I Left You (the band are fans of both Brian Wilson and Cornelius and there's a definitely psychedelic element to the record that no one talks about)
Wonderful - God Bless Our Pad (this is a side project of the United States of Electronica, and are infinitely better for my tastes. Middle ground between the Avalanches and Cornelius)
The Beta Band - s/t (mad as a hatbox of jelly and dicks)
Plus-Tech Squeeze Box - Cartooom! (Treads the line between Disneyworld J-Pop and total madness)
And here's a soft spot vote for Prince - Around The World In A Day

Also, The Shortwave Set: http://lastsoundofsummer.blogspot.com/2005/06/shortwave-set.html

(Check comments box for extra mp3)

x-p MC, that's not exactly what I said, and even so, then I'd've expected it to have been mentioned in this capacity before I even turned up.

are you in the shortwave set?

well what you do mean no one talks about it then?

It's just that on a place like here, where Since I Left You is one of ILM's top 5 albums of the decade thus far, it would have been one of the first answers or cropped up as soon as Joseph asked for modern examples, ahead of (yes) Cornelius even. I may go in the archives later, but I don't think the pop weirdness or psychedelics of our Oz friends are noted so much ("it's all samplin', maaaan").

Why, even talking about it has reminded me of Disco Inferno, and I'd expect Dog Latin to mention them here before me!

Also, Cut Copy - I Thought Of Numbers (psyche dance, with sunshine numbers to boot)

A track from Tim Smith's solo album Oceanlandworld, also worth checking out are his other projects Sea Nymphs and Spratley's Japs.

Not classically psychedelic but quite florid and, where the Sea Nymphs are concerned, pastoral/dreamlike.

todd rundgren - a wizard, a true star
judee sill - s/t
fleetwood mac - tusk
love - da capo, forever changes
emitt rhodes - s/t
broadcast - ha-ha sound
robert wyatt - rock bottom

Silly bits?
Simultaneus Ice Cream and Algebra Spagetti comps on Siesta both cover in a very playful way many of the artists listed above

Weird?
Joe Meek - I Hear A New World

I also really like the Grapefruit album, the one with "Marianne" on it. They're quite Beatley in parts, which makes sense cos they're on Apple. There's a good group from Atlanta (I think) called Smoke who put out an excellent album with a Brian Wilson-influenced lead-off called "Cowboys and Indians." Right now I'm deep in "Unicorn" and "A Beard of Stars" by Tyrannosaurus Rex but any of theirs will do!

I never got the Left Banke hype. I got that compilation and it just sort of bored me. Maybe I should listen again..

Btw, Wonderwall is a fantastic movie, and the group of gypsies in it is called The Fool and they have their own record out too. A bit like the Incredible String Band, but more poppy and more gypsy too.

xpost

deram did a decent amount of freakbeat/psych stuff, but in the 60s/early 70s they put out stacks of prog lps..

dino, desi & billy - thru spray colored glasses

A Hollywood trio that were barely into their teens when they hit the charts in 1965, Dino, Desi & Billy anticipated the bubblegum fad with records that usually featured none of their own contributions, except their characterless vocals. That may be phrasing matters too kindly. The best bubblegum is far more distinctive and catchy than the lowest-common-denominator L.A. session pop-rock that they recorded. But they knew the right people, as they say in the business, which made them stars for a brief time, although they never had an ounce of credibility.

their voices are way lower than i thought they'd be (i thought they were kids). i've been looking for something from them for a while. i'm assuming that wasn't a Lee Hazlewood production?

the groop - jet song

year one - will you be staying after sunday

anyone who knows the peppermint rainbow version, which do you prefer?

Mum and Dad - 'Kiss Of Death' (2001)

http://s46.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=31RZGA0YAXSSG2QC0JURNUCI8T

Cornelius - 'Brand New Season' (1995)

http://s46.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0IPACLMK4A6O21FV6552NK3X3D

and 'Clash' (1997)

http://s46.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1AM29GRDLGS0F2O1LECGFCL167

Flipper's Guitar - 'Dolphin Song' (1991)

http://s46.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=17NH4YFG6FMM63PUREVRMGUQKN

Neil and Iraiza - 'Oracle Noises' (2002)

http://s46.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2M0XWTBGM7HIS3MJG7S4L2YJZB

Wonderful - 'My How You Come Alive' (2004)

http://s46.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=19U4EZ7IL3W1T03XUE7DGZXYDG

Enjoy.

I'll second this. Finally got it last week. So good.

anyone who knows the peppermint rainbow version, which do you prefer?

Just YSI'ed the Year One version from you - thanks!! I really like the Peppermint Rainbow version better. Neither pretends to actually mean the lyric, but while Year One takes its cues from perkyites like Lesley Gore and Lulu, Peppermint Rainbow gives it the full-throated Spanky & Our Gang treatment. Since the song is pretty much just a vocal exercise with peppy backing chirps, I'll take the big vocals.

what is known about the groop?

i've been listening to my love generation and lemom pipers albums a lot lately, on repeat.

that would rock my world.

i like the year one version of will you be staying after sunday more than the peppermint rainbow version, because its somehow very MFI, british 70s, slightly stilted, very anglia tv 1972. normally i prefer american versions of stuff like this, but not in this case

dont know much about the groop at all, there seemed to have been 3 groops at this time, and its really not clear what is what

*Billy Nichols - Would You Believe * and his mid-'70s "Love Songs" is pretty amazing too, he sounds like Speedy Keen from Thunderclap Newman (whose "Hollywood Dream" fits in here too, I think).

Marxy - 'We Won't Be Sold' (2004, by an American living in Tokyo. Think of him as an American Cornelius)

http://s39.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0BQGIZLDZCG5Q0DAZMIMLWU4RL

The Beta Band - 'It's Not Too Beautiful' (1999)

http://s39.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0WM4L70TZI6YC2SCHFZ6QSU6IL

with the Spanky & Our Gang reference. PERFECT fodder for this thread.. especially their second of three albums Without Rhyme Or Reason

(which reminds me, I just got the CD version of this, and i need to re-mp3 the "Leopard Skin Phones" track I put on the ilMIX0r blog mix called Maximalism, so it doesn't have all the crackles and pops of the vinyl version I digitized then.)

"Laboratorio" - Manolo Diaz

http://s49.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3C7GVZIPP5KP707XZOU3UJDSZY

Apparently, he had something to do with Los Bravos of "Black is Black" fame.

http://s49.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3OFX339HC9YVN0XX00GXRK303F

http://s49.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3RAYPPHYJUD7Q0KJHRWGR24H8Z

http://s49.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0FLS7ZA46NSYB14WYW9COCV4ZJ

http://s49.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0NRLTP8GDTYPN1C0BR5I4XTQKE

http://s49.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=07DZYZ83ZGMED31AU1WQLEOSF5

Sorry fot the atrocious sound quality of all these, by the way

http://s49.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=32119MTMYW0AU2FMMYZ3C1VXZS

http://s49.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2XFZ6JKLIC2AC0OVJF5ZUI4ZFZ

I'm sure I started a thread a wee while back about bands who went "psychedelic" for one album in the wake of Sgt Pepper. I love these sorts of things - the Tokens, Frank Sinatra, The Temptations and The Four Seasons all went down this route, but I'd like to know if anyone else did this, either out of a genuine love for psych or as an exploitative marketing ploy?

i have to ask : which was franks psych album !?

[cos i'm going to need to hear that !]

"Watertown". It's great but it's not psych. It's Bob Gaudio/ Jake Holmes - same as "Genuine Imitation Life Gazette"

ahh .. of course.
that's one of those i will one day get that type of albums.

Yeah, took me a while too

No, it's not strictly psych, but it's definitely influenced in the way that it's a concept album with a clear narrative, and the Gaudio/Holmes influence.

Concept albums not exactly a novelty for Frankie

The Association, And Then...Along Comes The Association and Insight Out

I would say "Birthday" and "The Association" fit the bill far more than those two

i'm obsessed with these too.

here's Jackie Gleason's - The Now Sound...For Today's Lovers

http://i637.photobucket.com/albums/uu92/damien_stone/jg_nowsound.jpg

which skates right on the edge of psych and exotica cuz he brings in sitar & a bunch of ethno instruments. pure swankadelic

(xp) Belong on the Vocal Harmonies POX thread too of course!

there's the really wacked-out stuff like Sonny Bono - Inner Views and William Shatner - The Transformed Man, but one of my favorites is

Johnny Rivers - Realization

where the Secret Agent Man takes Leary's advice and moves to Big Sur to get his head together. great panoramic soul-searching psych, takes it's cues more from Pet Sounds than Peppers

Never heard that album but love "Rewind"

Also Lou Christie went all post-psychedelic for a while too

I haven't heard Martin Denny's Exotic Moog album, but I can't imagine it not being psych. I don't know if it's full-fledged pop-rock or just mooged-up exotica; the latter would probably be more interesting.

Don't know if this counts:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3356/3278959863_ff29fec84e.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradley_loos/3278959863/&usg=__tl0D7VxxT6v9moOgButMcmD4yhA=&h=492&w=500&sz=203&hl=en&start=2&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=SIQ51LYmGG3eGM:&tbnh=128&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3D101%2Bstrings%2Bastro%2Bsounds%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=cNA9TZL6CYf6swPxqMWRAw

http://d21uwzfkfy2yiv.cloudfront.net/101_strings_astro_sounds_from_beyond_year_2000-LSD006LP-1167773322.jpeg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8cPKZMRJGY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgqTS3XcAuI

http://i637.photobucket.com/albums/uu92/damien_stone/moog-enoch-light-spaced-out.jpg

and
Enoch Light and the Light Brigade: Permissive Polyphonics

i love that raquel welch video. do you know what the music is in it?

it's the original music from the TV special afaik

might as well mention the Barbarella soundtrack by The Bob Crewe Generation while I'm at it