Listen: 3 O’Clock Flamingo Street / The Bachelors
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My Mom always loved these guys, they were Irish and so was she. But then most Moms did. You see, the very square looking Bachelors co-existed effortlessly with beat groups in ’64 and ’65. There were a few others, like The Vogues and The Four Seasons, sporting dreadful hair cuts, who dressed decidedly old yet were accepted by the youngsters and their parents as well. The Bachelors fell into that space. I guess it was the quality of their songs and music that worked. It was good stuff.

Think about it, The Walker Brothers pretty much did the same thing, but they had it down in the image and looks department, hence becoming deservedly seminal in rock history.

’3 O’Clock Flamingo Street’ was The Bachelors first non-charting UK single after a solid three or four year run. Although I remembered it being a bit psychedelic, having heard the single a few times on the radio in summer ’67, it’s acutally not musically psychedelic at all.

Lyrically though, very twisted. There’s a definite implication something sinister was going on at 3AM. That drew me in. This was indeed the summer I was sneaking out and visiting our local cemetery late at night, alone, in an effort to see if spirits would attempt contact. The reasons for that morbid and thankfully temporary attraction are rather unexplainable still. I will say it was fairly terrifying. Anyways, my radar was up for just this type of record.

Alan Tew contributed that UK Decca orchestration and arrangement that I love, sounding not unlike the Cat Stevens ‘Kitty’ and ‘A Bad Night’ singles from that period.

And it was produced by Dick Rowe, now world famous for turning down The Beatles at Decca UK and subsequently signing The Rolling Stones as penance. In my opinion, therefore, he made two perfect and unbeatable career moves.

Listen: You Can’t Sit Down / The Dovells DovellsCantSit.mp3

I may be wrong, but ‘You Can’t Sit Down’ seems to mix doo wop with hully gully and jitterbug rock, if there are such things. Preceding the English Invasion revolution, this sound was about to be exterminated. Still, during it’s brief moment, it was raucous and rocking.

In a previous post about The Vogues a few days back, I referred to Len Berry as having been a member. Wrong. Thanks to Chris Miller for catching my mistake. He indeed was with The Dovells, eventually going solo and having some hits. Everyone loves ’1-2-3′. Despite making the creative step forward, he was determined to keep that DA hairdo during the height of mop top. Too bad, even Lou Christie and Brian Hyland had loosened up.

Listen: You’re The One / The Vogues VoguesYoure.mp3

One of the member’s vocal style bordered on yodeling and these guys looked not unlike The Four Seasons or The Righteous Brothers aka dreadful. But the early singles: hands down greatness. It’s hard to pick a favorite, as both ‘Five O’ Clock World’ and ‘In The Land Of Milk And Honey’ are close runners up, but I’m going with ‘You’re The One’.

The Vogues eventually moved to Reprise where the schmaltz sound and image got….worse. Suddenly they were more like The Letterman than ever before, although I can admit it, ‘Turn Around, Look At Me’ is an occasional guilty pleasure.