"Spanky And Our Gang/Like To Get To Know You/Anything You Choose b/w Without Rhyme Or Reason/Live" by SPANKY AND OUR GANG – August 1967 USA Debut Album [March 1968 UK], April 1968 US Second Studio LP [August 1968 UK], January 1969 US Third Studio Album [August 1969 UK], December 1970 US Fourth Album and First Live Set – All in Stereo (April 2024 UK Beat Goes On Records (BGO) Compilation – 4LPs onto 2CDs – Andrew Thompson Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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RATINGS: 

*** to **** Material 

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"…Icecream Daydreams…"

Universal's now defunct US Mail-Order label Hip-O Select had a well-won reputation for excellence in Audio. And bam – here is (somewhat belated) proof of that.

Back in February 2005 they released "The Complete Mercury Recordings" by Spanky & Our Gang on their US website as a supposed Limited Edition of some 3,000 copies. Hip-O Select B0003620-02 (no Barcode) had 4CDs containing all three studio albums by the Sunshine Pop American band (1967, 1968 and 1969) and their one posthumous Live Set from late 1970, a whole disc of Mono Singles and some Previously Unreleased (mostly 60ts tracks). Difficult to find even then, Universal gave it a Digital Download in August 2011 – but since then – bupkis – and not surprisingly that original hard copy on Hip-O Select has amassed price tags north of £250 in 2024. ELLEN FITTON – who did every one of the magnificent Motown Singles Books for Hip-O Select – is a Remaster Engineer I seek out – and it was she who did the Spanky And Our Gang set in 2005. 

So, I mention all of this by way of history because England's Beat Goes On Records (aka BGO Records) has done the smart thing and licensed the same from Universal – albeit minus the Singles and Unreleased – allocated it a chunky booklet and colourful card slipcase - and all of it Remastered in stonking STEREO too. What a day for picking daisies and lots of bread balloons and holding hands and being with you. To the Icecream Daydream details…

UK released Friday, 19 April 2024 - "Spanky And Our Gang/Like To Get To Know You/Anything You Choose b/w Without Rhyme Or Reason/Live" by SPANKY AND OUR GANG on Beat Goes On Records BGOCD1514 (Barcode 5017261215147) offers 4 Stereo LPs Remastered onto 2CDs and plays out as follows:

CD1 (67:50 minutes):
1. Lazy Day [Side 1]
2. (It Ain't Necessarily) Byrd Avenue
3. Ya Got Trouble
4. Sunday Will Never Be The Same
5. Commercial
6. If You Could Only See Me
7. Making Every Minute Count [Side 2]
8. 5 Definitions Of Love
9. Brother, Can You Spare A Dime
10. Distance
11. Leaving on A Jet Plane
12. Come And Open Your Eyes (Take A Look)
Tracks 1 to 12 are their debut studio album "Spanky And Our Gang" – released August 1967 in the USA on Mercury Records MG 21124 (Mono) and Mercury SR 61124 (Stereo) and March 1968 in the UK on Mercury Records 20114 MCL (Mono) and Mercury 20114 SMCL (Stereo) – the STEREO MIX only is used. Produced by JERRY ROSS - it peaked at No. 77 on the US Billboard Rock LP charts (didn't chart in the UK)

13. The Swingin' Gate [Side 1]
14. Prescription For The Blues
15. Three Ways From Tomorrow
16. My Bill
17. Sunday Mornin'
18. Echoes (Everybody's Talkin') [Side 2]
19. Suzanne
20. Stuperflabbergasted
21. Like To Get To Know You
22. Chick-A-Ding-Ding
23. Stardust/Coda (Like To Get To Know You)
Tracks 13 to 23 are their second studio album "Like To Get To Know You" – released April 1968 in the USA on Mercury Records SR 61161 (Stereo only) and August 1968 in the UK on Mercury Records 20121 SMCL (Stereo only) – STEREO MIX used. Produced by STUART SCHARF and ROBERT DOROUGH - it peaked at No.56 on the US Billboard Rock LP charts (didn't chart in the UK)

CD2 (78:11 minutes):
1. Anything You Choose [Side 1]
2. And She's Mine
3. Yesterday's Rain
4. Hong Kong Blues
5. Nowhere To Go
6. Give A Damn
7. Leopard Skin Phones
8. But Back Then
9. Mecca Flat Blues
10. Without Rhyme Or Reason
11. 1-3-5-8
12. Jane
13. Since You're Gone
Tracks 1 to 13 are their third studio album "Anything You Choose b/w Without Rhyme Or Reason" – released January 1969 in the USA on Mercury Records SR 61183 (Stereo) and June 1969 in the UK on Mercury Records 20150 SMCL (Stereo) – STEREO MIX Used. Produced by STUART SCHARF and ROBERT DOROUGH - it peaked at No.101 on the US Billboard Rock LP charts (didn't chart in the UK)

14. Anything You Choose [Side 1]
15. Amelia Earhart's Last Flight
16. Waltzing Matilda
17. Brother, Can You Spare A Dime
18. Steel Rail Blues
19. Oh Daddy
20. Dirty Old Man [Side 2]
21. The Klan
22. That's What You Get For Lovin' Me
23. Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives To Me
24. Wasn't It You
25. You Got Trouble
Tracks 14 to 25 are their fourth album (first live) "Live" – released December 1970 in the USA on Mercury Records SR-61326 in Stereo (no UK issue). Produced by RICHARD KUNC – it was recorded at The Gaslight Club South, Coconut Grove in Florida - no dates advised other than most likely 1969 (it didn't chart).

(Debut Album) SPANKY AND OUR GANG was:
ELAINE "Spanky" McFARLANE – Lead Vocals
NIGEL PICKERING – Rhythm Guitar, Vocals
MALCOLM HALE – Lead Guitar, Trombone, Vocals
PAUL "Oz" BACH – Bass Guitar, Vocals
JOHN SELTER – Drums 

(Second LP onwards) SPANKY AND OUR GANG was:
ELAINE "Spanky" McFARLANE – Lead Vocals
NIGEL PICKERING – Rhythm Guitar, Vocals
MALCOLM HALE – Lead Guitar, Vocals
LEFTY BAKER – Lead Guitar
KENNY HODGES – Bass Guitar
JOHN (Chief) SELTER – Drums 
Guests:
Little Brother Montgormery and the Blues Band, Red Rhodes, Artie Schroeck, Lee Katzman, Mike Deasy, Larry Knechtel

The outer card slipcase and substantial 24-page booklet with new liner notes from CHARLES WARING (dated 2024) give an extraordinarily detailed overview not just of the four albums presented here – but how their short-lived career also included a Greatest Hits LP in October 1969 (before the Live set) and what happened to Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane, the sad loss of Lead guitarist Malcolm Hale during their hit-years – their sunshine Pop music and witty lyrics – how the public lumped them in with The Mamas & The Papas and The Association. And those walls of layered vocals – check out "Sunday Will Never Be The Same" – sunshine and you were mine - gorgeous stuff even if it comes across as a tad twee in 2024. 

The artwork for all four albums front and rear is here as are any liner notes – even the poster that came with original copies of the "Like To Get To Know You" LP is reproduced on Page 19. Other pages have sheet music for various singles like "Lazy Day" and "Making Every Minute Count" and so on. Long-time contributor to the Mojo Magazine – Charles Waring taps Net references and credits them too – tales of Republican Presidential-candidate Richard Nixon being outraged at the anti-Vietnam references in their lyrically brave "Give A Damn" (not so squeaky-clean US politics highlighted amidst a youth call-to-arms). It makes for a hugely entertaining read and a microcosm of the wild-ride that was the late Sixties.

But all of that is kicked into touch once you get a lugful of the Remastered Stereo – ANDREW THOMPSON doing transfer justice to the ELLEN FITTON transfers. These CDs sound AMAZING – gorgeous clarity. However, it will not take fans long to notice that the "Greatest Hits" set is not here which contained longer versions of songs like "Sunday Mornin'" (6:15 minutes compared to 3:54 on the original LP) and "Like To Get To Know You" (3:18 minutes compared to 2:15 minutes on the original LP). And as there was room at the end of CD1 – it's a shame they're not Bonuses – but perhaps such rarities have been kept only to the Hip-O Select release. To the tunes…

Spanky And Our Gang had all the wit, sass, and vocal musical chops of The Mamas & The Papas – Sixties Sunshine Pop with loved-up prescription-induced attitudes – and all of it with a lady out front Spanky McFarlane while her five male cohorts brought up the Young Rascals meets The Association meets The 5th Dimension rear. The self-titled 1967 Summer of Love debut opens with a seriously hippy-happy moment in "Lazy Day" – a daisies and dancing-in-the-park upper Mercury Records paired with "(It Ain't Necessarily) Byrd Avenue" on the flipside of Mercury 72732 in October 1967. Far better is the seriously clever and funny "Commercial" where a garbage man discovers weed – given him by one of his with-it colleagues – and suddenly the flies and the smell don’t seem to matter anymore. And while their covers of "Brother, Can you Spare A Dime" and "Leaving On A Jet Plain" are cleverly worked versions that still sound pleasing - "Sunday Will Never Be The Same Again" and the wake-up-and-see there are no differences "Come And Open Your Eyes" are standouts.

The second LP saw a line-up change and produced a far more sophisticated and commercially accessible album - "Like To Get To Know You". The opening Side 1 track "The Swingin' Gate" throws in Guitars, Trombones and seriously layered melodies and words – and in glorious STEREO too. Talked in intro like a distant oldie from the radio "Prescription For The Blues" sees Elaine get a chance to go all Vaudeville and let rips with the vocals – all misery and a lover who went away. Lead Guitarist Lefty Baker penned "Three Ways From Tomorrow" – an attempt at a single that is filled with abba-dabba vocals. Witty returns with the unpaid final bill song – remittance needed – mail a cheque pretty please (even if you don’t have a job). "Sunday Mornin'" is Spanky And The Gang in all their vocal Beach Boys pomp – the Margo Guryan song hitting No.30 on the US Billboard singles charts. 

Personally, I am more enamoured with their seriously great (almost Beefheart slinky) cover version of the Nilsson song "Everybody's Talkin'" used for the John Schlesinger movie "Midnight Cowboy" which they title "Echoes (Everybody's Talkin')". Spanky does counter-vocals while guitar and strings and a very cool shuffling beat make the cover both new and familiar. Another fab re-working follows with their version of the Leonard Cohen song "Suzanne". Vaudeville tuba kicks in with "Stuperflabbergasted" where our heroes go at it for one minute. The two-minutes of "Like To Get To Know You" is gorgeous but feels too short and that once witty spoken intro now a tad waring. The acoustic guitar beginning of "Chick-A-Ding-Ding" is immaculate as are the so-in-love-with-you vocals where Elaine and Hale play off each other. The same astonishing audio ends their second LP with bop-boo-ya bouncing vocals of Stardust.

After a twenty-five-week chart run for "Like To Get To Know You" and a healthy Billboard LP position of No.56 – it must have come as a disappointment when platter number three "Anything You Choose b/w Without Rhyme Or Reason" – started the New Year of 1969 with a peak of almost half - No.101 and only seven weeks on the Rock LP charts. As it opens with the big and brassy "Anything You Choose" – the audio is once again in yer face. That segues into the very Beach Boys "And She's Mine" – she gives me everything and no other girl comes close – a great song from Bassist Kenny Hodges. Like many of the tracks - "Yesterday's Rain" suffers instead of gains from an arrangement that is too busy – too eager to impress production-wise. After a misstep into cod-wit with "Hong Kong Blues" – Producer and Arranger Richard Scharf gives Spanky and her Crew a gem in the brilliant "Give A Damn" – fear lying beside most ordinary folks in Vietnam 1969 – few of them though thinking about stifling air in the ghetto. 

A Stereo Show on Headphones is the theme of "Leopard Skin Phones" – another misplaced too-clever tune. Two Montgomery men discuss playing bars and dives in the old days which then segues into Spanky singing like Judy Henske on the old-timey for "Mecca Flat Blues". The title track for Side 2 "Without Rhyme Or Reason" sings of how the world goes round – a sort-of Salsa shuffler with their trademark harmony vocals – a Sixties Manhattan Transfer. Sophisticated love hits again with "Jane" and the final Side 2 Nico-sounding moment "Since You've Gone" (gorgeous audio on both). But while the album "Anything You Choose b/w Without Rhyme Or Reason" was undoubtedly better technically than its second studio album predecessor – it somehow lacked the charm or clear winning singles. 

The "Live" set has no recording date (presuming 1969) but has the band tight and well-rehearsed. "Live" also introduced five or six new songs for fans starved of material - but in December 1970 – it must have felt like an artifact from a long-ago time that was not far away enough. There is no doubt about their vocal prowess when they do an Acapella cover of "Waltzing Matilda" and the audio is far better than it had any right to be. But stuff like "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime" and covers of the Gordon Lightfoot songs "Steel Rail Blues" and "That's What You Get For Loving Me" feel like a Bar Band just about justifying their existence. "Live" is well recorded but it lacks any real magic and no wonder it bombed as a seller. Worse – it did not do their three-studio-album legacy the reappraisal it deserved.

Spanky And Our Gang have always been an acquired taste and a band completely tied to their time and sound – the Sixties and Sunshine Pop. But with the fab audio, professional presentation, and availability once again – fans should dive in if they missed out first time – and the curious can understand why BGO is rated by music lovers – giving us ageing hippies audio flowers to put in hair we no longer have. 

"Give A Damn!" about music and legacy - Beat Goes On does...