The Electric Prunes - You've Never Had It Better (1969)

The Electric Prunes were one of the best US garage bands of the 60's, but will forever be associated with their two hit singles, 'Get Me To The World On Time' and 'I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)'. As good as those songs are, and they are classics of the psychedelic genre, the band had so much more to offer in their rather short and extremely complicated career. They formed Los Angeles in 1965 and signed to Reprise Records in 1966, releasing their first single 'Ain't It Hard in the latter part of the year. Their first album, 'The Electric Prunes', included those two nationally charting songs, alongside an impressive set of other tracks which showcased their unique style. For their second album 'Underground', the band was more free to create their own material, and some of the songs had a harder psychedelic edge to them, like 'The Great Banana Hoax' and 'Long Day's Flight'. However, the original group disbanded in 1968 when they proved unable to record the innovative and complex arrangements by David Axelrod on the albums 'Mass in F Minor' and 'Release Of An Oath'. Both albums were released under the band's name, as the rights to it were owned by their record producer David Hassinger, but the music was largely performed by other musicians, and so it's debatable whether they should really be included in the band's canon of work. The final album on which the group wrote and played their own music was 1969's 'Just Good Old Rock And Roll', but after touring the album throughout 1970 and 1971, the band broke up. During their career they did release a few singles which were not from albums, as well as recording a handful of songs that were never issued at the time, and as this collection includes alternate versions of some of their hits, as well as b-sides and rare singles, then it's a fine overview of this great band. 

Track listing

01 Ain't It Hard (single 1966)
02 Little Olive (b-side of 'Ain't It Hard')
03 Everybody Knows (You're Not In Love) (single 1967)
04 You've Never Had It Better (b-side of 'Everybody Knows (You're Not In Love)) 
05 Shadows (promo single 1968)
06 Hey Mr President (single 1968)
07 I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night (mono single take 1966) 
08 Flowing Smoothly (b-side of 'Hey Mr President')
09 Sanctus (mono single take 1968)
10 Credo (mono b-side of 'Sanctus')
11 The Great Banana Hoax (alternate take)
12 I've Got A Way Of My Own (1966 out-take released for Record Store Day 2016)
13 Get Me To The World On Time (mono single take 1966)
14 World Of Darkness (1966 out-take released for Record Store Day 2016)
15 Long Day's Flight (alternate take)