The Beau Brummels - Here We Are Again (1966)

Singer Sal Valentino grew up in the North Beach area of San Francisco, and following a string of appearances on local television, he received an offer to play a regular gig at El Cid, a San Francisco club. He needed a band, and so he called childhood friend and songwriter/guitarist Ron Elliott, who recruited drummer John Petersen, rhythm guitarist/singer Declan Mulligan, and bassist Ron Meagher, and that gig later led to a more lucrative deal at the Morocco Room, a club in nearby San Mateo, California. Meanwhile, San Francisco disc jockeys Tom Donahue and Bobby Mitchell were looking for new acts to bring to their fledgling Autumn Records label, aiming to capitalize on the Beatlemania craze that had originated the previous year in the UK, and which was spreading across the U.S., and The Beau Brummels, as they had named themselves, signed with Autumn, where house producer Sylvester (Sly Stone) Stewart produced the group's early recording sessions.The band had taken their name from the Regency era English dandy Beau Brummell, and they liked having a British-sounding name, which, as legend has it, so closely followed The Beatles in the alphabet that their records would be placed immediately behind those of The Beatles in record-store bins. Although Valentino has since dismissed this notion, it's a nice story. The band's debut single 'Laugh, Laugh' entered the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in January 1965, and as the song climbed the charts, many listeners assumed that the band were British, a fact which was not denied by Donahue and Mitchell, who knew that the publicity could only help the band. The follow-up single, 'Just A Little', became the band's highest-charting single in the U.S., peaking at number eight in June, and both songs were included on the band's debut album, 'Introducing The Beau Brummels', which was released in April and reached number 24 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. By the time that recording began for the band's second album, 1965's 'The Beau Brummels, Volume 2', Mulligan had left the group, and their third single 'You Tell Me Why', became their final U.S. top 40 hit, peaking at number 38 in August 1965. The band continued recording new material despite Autumn Records being on the verge of collapsing, but before the album was completed and released, the entire Autumn roster, including the Beau Brummels, was transferred to Warner Bros. Records. However, as Warner Bros. did not control the band's publishing, the company chose not to have the band release an album of original material, and instead released an album of cover versions titled 'Beau Brummels 1966'. As usual, money was the label's only consideration, and so instead of giving the group's fans a chance to hear the new songs that they'd written, they forced the band to deliver an album of old songs by other artists. Luckily, their original songs weren't thrown away, and many of them have since surfaced on box sets, and so we can piece together an album of original material which would have cemented their reputation as one of the better beat bands of the 60's. In the end we had to wait for the release of 1967's 'Triangle' before that happened, with that and the subsequent 'Bradley's Barn' proving what a great band they really were. So this is the record they should have released in 1966, and although 'Two Days 'Til Tomorrow' didn't come out as a single until March 1967, a demo titled 'She's Coming' was taped in 1966, and so that's included as well.  

Track listing 

01 Here We Are Again
02 Guitar Talk To Me
03 On The Road Again

04 Gentle Wandering Ways

05 This Is Love
06 Delilah

07 She Reigns
08 Candlestickmaker
09 God Help The Teenagers Tonight

10 Dream On

11 Down On Me

12 I Grow Old

13 Love Is Just A Game

14 Two Days 'Til Tomorrow

15 It Ain't No Use

16 Hey Love
17 Out Of Control