Great '60s major label records that were not hits (and possibly remain obscure)

Inspired in part by some of the discussion on one of the recent Velvet Underground threads. Seeing the VU as part of a wider group of artists whose major label contracts did not result in big successes.

Group from Hays, Kansas called the Blue Things (or Bluethings) that actually had an album on RCA in 1966. Super solid group who did a bunch of things including Lennon-like folk-rock:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmLLg7DPHbU

uh aren't there a million of these

Looking for examples that people think are really good, which would seemingly narrow it down. What would a sort of canon of really great major label records that were not hits from the '60s look like?

And just to clarify, I don't mean records by well-known artists that were not hits. I mean artists that had no hits, no big selling albums.

Some artists on major labels that did not even make an album. In some cases, they were regional hits that were re-released through a major, but this one sounds to me like the group could have actually been recording for Columbia. Great record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmA6ylfKpe4

Maybe not all that obscure; 60s psych-heads probably know this one, but I've been fascinated by this record since I was 11. The Queen's Nectarine Machine, ABC Records, 1969.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEH1X3goPaU

Great might be overstating, though...

hmm okay yeah acts that had NO hits narrows it considerably

love the idea behind this thread. is there a companion thread -- or something similar -- for 50s songs? been kind of obsessed with 50s music off-and-on recently.

the most obvious answer would seem to be Beefheart we all know all about him so

I think the "remains obscure" qualifier narrows it quite further

The Choir were a band that had a regional hit ("It's Cold Outside") re-released on a fairly big label, Roulette, for whom they continued to record:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvppl2fzlds

Also thinking of the Bob Seger 45s on Cameo-Parkway.

well if yr gonna dig into Nuggets pretty much all those bands had (at least) regional hits

Right, was talking about instances where regional hits were reissued on big labels, though. The original Nuggets album had Cryan Shames and Sagittarius, who were both on Columbia.

I think the Gants are a good example. They were on Liberty, which also had Gary Lewis and the Playboys, the Ventures, Martin Denny, etc.

i like this jacob's creek album that no one talks about...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwakRgm6-tM

Occurred to me that there are probably tons of British artists that fit here. Seems like it was more common for U.K. artists signed to majors only ending up putting out a few singles.

Tim, if you like The Blue Things, Val's post-breakup album might also be of interest.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51igHKIA04L.jpg

I have heard that, actually! It's been a while. Anyone ever heard the Sean Bonniwell solo (post-Music Machine) album on Capitol?

He was such an extraordinary songwriter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDJW_d9DASg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIpNP-qmpU8

"Cowboys and Indians", the first track from The Smoke's 1968 release, and I really like the whole album. Not sure if it's a major label release though, certainly sounds good enough to be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsGGbY20SR0

"Dreamworld" by The End from 1969, also not sure if it's a major label release. But it's produced by Bill Wyman and is a great psychedelic pop album that feels very much in the mood of "Her Satanic Majesties Request".

Huh, the Smoke album was on Sidewalk, which was a Capitol subsidiary.

That album is killer. There are a few tracks that had me thinking it was really a modern band aping that sound. The middle has a really great math-rock section that I think is named after some LOTR lore or something.

LOL

T-5905...Casey Kasem: Astrology for Young Lovers LP (1967)

Listening to another track from that, it says produced by Michael Lloyd (presumably the guy from the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band) on the label.

There's a video of the Music Machine playing "Astrologically Incompatible" on Kasem's show and he has an exchange with Bonniwell about the fact that he had already put out an astrology-themed record.

http://thumbs3.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/miJkgjW_O8RQ-21Yyij0hNg.jpg

Have you heard the Gandalf record? I had no idea about this:

But Capitol spurned them and only released the LP in 1969 with the wrong record inside the sleeve. The copies were recalled and damaged the band's career. Capitol didn't promote the record which made the sales worse.[citation needed]

No, I never have. There are definitely some obscurities from the time on Capitol like SRC and Lothar and the Handpeople.

Gandalf is pretty great. Their heavy cover of "Golden Earrings" that opens the album is wonderful!

Yeah Gandalf rule! There's also a second unreleased album that Sundazed put out, I think.

Big fan of the Gandalf record... how about KAK on Epic? was that late sixties or early seventies?

1968. I always think it's later than that for some reason.

Black Monk Time. End thread.

That album got pretty UNobscure in the nineties, but now it's been so long that it's probably obscure again.

Have always loved the album Emotions by the Pretty Things, which does seem quite neglected in comparison to both the freakbeat that preceded it and the psyched-out proto-prog that followed it. Lots of great tunes, this one's a really nice psychedelic soul pastiche:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaNB2QHhLUM

Tripping is a pretty great song from that.

Also, how about The Moon - Without Earth. Was Liberty a major?

Tripping is a pretty great song from that.

There's loads of good stuff on it! 'Death Of A Socialite' and 'The Sun' sound like something off Forever Changes.

Occurred to me that there are probably tons of British artists that fit here. Seems like it was more common for U.K. artists signed to majors only ending up putting out a few singles.

first band i thought of when i saw the thread title were The Poets - managed by Andrew Loog Oldham and released singles on Decca and Immediate but never broke though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PM5-zF85LE

Guitars/bass are so great on that!

how about The Moon - Without Earth. Was Liberty a major?

Oh yeah, that was the group David Marks (from the Beach Boys) was in. Yeah, I mentioned that the garage group the Gants were on Liberty. I think it was a pretty big label.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU_MI7n8pNc

Tavares when they were known as Chubby and the Turnpikes, 1967:

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

And the other side of the record - talk about a double A-side:

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

this thread could literally be endless...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCdeTt31bV0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoVWKgwcStE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=968naSqNH98
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljb4F2x1sCk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR29AkGxcJo

err... sorry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCdeTt31bV0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoVWKgwcStE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=968naSqNH98
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljb4F2x1sCk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR29AkGxcJo

Euphoria was major label? That album is great

Yup, on Capitol, which had arguably the most adventurous A&R dept. in the whole biz from the mid-60s through the early 70s (chasing another Beatles, I guess).

I know next to nothing about the band or why that record got made. it is a really strange artifact, really all over the place.