Many musical artists benefit from a change in direction and format. This applies to artists at the top, like the Beatles, who went from an entertaining live band that wrote short, smart pop tunes to important studio artists who crafted engaging pop suites. This also applies to bands that got their one shot at the brass ring and popped out that one great record after their change in direction. Such is the story of L.A,’s Stand ells.
From Teen Discotheques to Poor Boys Born in a Rubble
The Standells formed in early 1960s, Los Angeles. Some of them had Hollywood connections. Larry Tamblyn was the kind brother of actor Russ Tamblyn. Dick Dodd, a former Mouseketeer, joined the band later. Playing rock ‘n roll in Los Angeles in those days meant wearing sharp uniform suits and carefully coiffed hair. It also meant playing to teen audiences in the local twist clubs and belting out some Beatlesque tunes and teen dance faves.
Their Hollywood connections no doubt aided their career. They appeared on The Munsters playing I Want To Hold Your Hand, and, Do the Ringo. It was during this period , that also included recording such non-memorable fare as Peppermint Beatle, alluding both the to the Peppermint Twist dance craze and the Beatles.
They also appeared in the forgettable, Get Yourself a College Girl, belting out The Swim and Bonie Maronie.
This label-hopping period of theirs yielded their first LP, a live set at the trendy twist-and-martini-club, PJ’s, in West Hollywood.According to a personal communication from Larry Tamblyn, the band members preferred shaggy hair and mod clothes, but the dress code at PJ's forced them into the shorter hair an uniform suite.It also yielded their first national chart record, a Sonny Bono composition and production, The Boy Next Door, which made it to #102 on Vee-Jay.
But, an unlikely pairing with former Four Preps vocalist, Ed Cobb, really launched their career. Gone were the prim suits and neat hair. In were Carnaby Street Mod Clothes, shaggy hair and an attitude. The group started a chart run on Tower Records.
Cobb gave them the #11 record, Dirty Water, a tale of sin and grime on the Boston waterfront. Cobb followed them up with two more chart hits, Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White (#43) and Why Pick On Me (#54). Both songs copped a loner/loser attitude. But it was the next single that stalled them out.
The semi-salacious, Try It, got banned by many radio stations, largely due to the efforts of radio executive Gordon McLendon who objected to the lyrics. While some reference sources say that Cobb did not produce their last Top 100 record, Can’t Help But Love You (#78), Larry Tamblyn, in a personal communication, said that Cobb did produce this record, and that this is what led to a rift between Cobb and the band. Tamblyn says that Cobb wanted the badn to go more in an R "n B direction, and the band didn't approve of this change ins style.
The band and Cobb parted ways, but the Standells did one last Top 100 record for Tower without Cobb,
Tower released the soundtracks for many of the teen exploitation flicks put out by American International Pictures. The Standells and label mates, the Chocolate Watch Band, played themselves as Sunset Strip bands, in the teen rebellion flick, Riot on Sunset Strip.
Not too many radio stations would have liked to be linked to rioting in 1967, and so the movies theme, as performed by the Standells stalled at out #133 on the national charts.
But years later the Standells and their like would be remembered.
The Standells’ Legacy
1972’s Nuggets compilation LP included Dirty Water as one of the all-time snarling, I-don’t-care classics. As fondness for 1960s garage-rock increased, among those who bought the Nuggets album, admirers of this music increased. The English band, The Inmates, copped their own attitude in 1979 and placed Dirty Water back into the Top 100 at #51.
Boston Red Sox fans have never been shy of singing this ode to their city’s seamy side.
The Standells’ singles-ready brand of rock faded by the end of the 1960s, but they are fondly remembered by everyone who wears an attitude on their sleeve and digs classic rock and roll.
Jon Pike - Pike is a Ph.D. in communication and writes about activism and popular culture topics for Suite101.
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