“THE BANANA SPLITS” and “THE BEAGLES” were both 1960s’ TV icons,which established their history in Saturday Morning TV.”
”The Beagles were a pair of animated canines known as Stringer and Tubby (Stringer was the tall one playing the guitar, Tubby handled acoustic bass). Together with their manager Scotty, each episode would find the pair bungle their way through some comedic scenario which saw them learn a valuable lesson along the way which would then be encapsulated in a song.
Released on Columbia’s budget Harmony label, 1967’s “Here Come the Beagles” may have been marketed as a kids album, but offered up a great mixture of Beatlesque pop, folk-rock and even more radio-friendly bubblegum sounds. Credited to W. Buck Biggers, Treadwell Covington, J. Harris and Chet Stovers (Biggers and Stovers were apparently responsible for writing the cartoon scripts), material such as the title track ‘Looking For the Beagles’, ‘Sharing Wishes’ and ‘I’d Join The Foreign Legion’ offered up an irresistible blend of strong melodies and great harmony vocals (love to know who these guys were) which should have stormed up the charts. While virtually any of the ten tracks would have made a dandy single, personal favorites included the organ powered ‘Indian Love Dance’ and the rockin’ ‘Humpty Dumpty’.”
”The core of this 31-song disc is the entirety of the group’s sole ’68 album, We’re the Banana Splits. For all its good-natured, well-produced late-’60s pop, it is too sweet and happy in one dose, like having a banana split for appetizer, lunch, and dessert. Still, those songs do include the well-remembered hit “The Tra La La Song,” plus some surprisingly raving garage- soul-pop with “I’m Gonna Find a Cave” and the Wilson Pickett-like “Doin’ the Banana.” The more bubblegummy happy-go-lucky numbers and ballads are harder to bear, but obviously the session cats playing on these tried harder than they had to, putting sitar on the lightly psychedelic “In New Orleans” and Baroque harpsichord on the uncharacteristically moody “Wait Til Tomorrow.” The CD also adds eight non-LP bonus tracks, including more typically bouncy lightweight kiddie pop/rock and a boisterous alternate version of “The Tra La La Song,” but also the rather fetching ballad “Pretty Painted Carousel,” which sounds a bit like early Peter & Gordon. Actually the best part of the package, though, are the ten tracks from the rare 1967 LP by fellow kiddie TV group the Beagles, who are actually not bad mid-’60s pop/rockers with a Beatles-Merseybeat influence to the songs and harmonies, though the production bears strong American soul and pop influences.” [allmusic]
Garage pop rock for 60s kids and others. Brought to you by the kind request, Dig!!!
SURFADELIC 