Category: Music

Turtles on Whale

The megahit singles from the Turtles were on the otherwise obscure White Whale record label. “She’s My Girl” was released with a picture sleeve on November 11, 1967. It reached #14 on the Billboard hit chart.

How I love everything about this absolutely perfect production. From the songwriting of Gary Bonner and Alan Gordon, to Howard Kaylan’s superb vocal, to the arrangement, to the dynamics of the sound.

So let’s hear that one again, and this time in stereo, with the tape hiss left intact, compliments of Bob Irwin at his reissue label, Sundazed Records. Bob will be hosting Big Planet Noise with Gina Bacon at this link tonight at 9 ET.

White Whale released a lot of singles from groups that failed to hit the charts like the Turtles did. Some of them are collected in a CD that I’ve been playing in my car, and I haven’t gotten tired of it yet. Land of Sensations & Delights: Psych Pop Sounds of White Whale Records 1965-1970.

A couple of weeks ago I noted here that my car paused the CD to read a text message to me that came in while I was driving. This was the song that happened to be playing.

The “crank it up” tune that comes after it on the CD is a prime example of the garage bands that helped to make the second half of the Sixties the most amazingly creative period for music.

The Ultimate Play Room

A tip o’ the Dog Rat toupee to tastewar for catching a video tour, posted today, of Studio 2 at Abbey Road. The place was known as EMI studios when the Beatles were recording there. There’s a lot of tech talk about vintage gear.

Studio 2 is a huge room for pop music recording, and there’s discussion about the room’s acoustics. This early Beatles recording, engineered by Norman “Hurricane” Smith, is a good example of the effect of the room on the sound.