The Painted Faces were formed in 1967 under the original name of the Fifth Dimension, and their original line-up consisted of Jack O'Neill (vocals), Jerry Turano (lead guitar), Harry Bragg (drums), John McKinney (rhythm guitar) and Craig Guild (bass). Later that year they recorded several demos at Qualicon Studios in Naples, Florida, which consisted of a Crown 2- track recorder in a garage, from which their first single, 'Things We See' b/w 'I Want You' would be selected for release. Before the single was issued, Guild departed and McKinney temporarily switched to bass until a replacement could be found, and 'Things We See' was then released in April 1967 on Qualicon Records. The label was owned by producer Walter Fredrickson, who had close ties with Mike Curb of Sidewalk Productions, and through the Curb/Sidewalk connection, the group signed with Manhattan Records, which was operated by Curb's publishing company, Mirby Music. Eventually the band changed its name to The Painted Faces, inspired by William Golding's novel 'Lord Of The Flies', and their first single to be released under that name was 'Anxious Color'. It was their debut release on Manhattan in late 1967, and became a popular hit in south Florida, topping the charts for four consecutive weeks, and gaining airplay on local and national radio stations. After the single was released, George Schule joined as the band new bass player, and McKinney returned to rhythm guitar. With this line-up the band recorded the follow-up record, 'I Think I'm Going Mad' b/w 'I Lost You In My Mind'. The record company received complaints from disc jockeys about perceived drug references in a couple of the songs released on the 45's, and so 'I Lost You In My Mind' never received much airplay outside of south Florida.
Nonetheless, Painted Faces were beginning to land better gigs and often travelled to New York City, although the parents of Turano and McKinney objected to these excursions to New York, and convinced their sons to leave the band to pursue careers outside of music. They were replaced by other musicians, but the core of the band remained with O'Neill, Schule and Bragg. The group became popular in Greenwich Village clubs such as Cafe Wha?, whose manager sent them to Puerto Rico to do a two-week residency at popular nightspot, the Jet Set, and at the end of 1967, the groups released another Manhattan single, 'In The Heat Of The Night' b/w 'Don't Say She's Gone'. Upon returning to New York City, popular New Jersey band The Critters expressed interest in recording a new Painted Faces song, 'Girl, You're Growing Up', but the band decided to record it themselves for a single to be released on the Sidewalk label, although this never materialised. Around this time that the group recorded an entire album worth of material, which was to be released as an LP on Sidewalk, although the album never got beyond the acetate stage and was shelved. It would have included several original songs, such as 'Hard Life', 'Lady', and 'Black Hearted Susan', and they did their own arrangement of The Rolling Stones' 'Play With Fire', played in 7/4 time. As was the case with countless American bands of the era, the Vietnam War led to the ultimate demise of the group, when drummer Bragg was drafted into combat, and without his services the group fell into disarray and disbanded in 1969. If Sidewalk had followed through on their offer of an album from Painted Faces in 1968, then it could have sounded very much like this.
01 Hard Life
02 I Lost You In My Mind
03 Don't Say She's Gone
04 I Want You
05 Black Hearted Susan
06 Things We See
07 Anxious Color
08 I Think I'm Going Mad
09 Incense & Peppermints
10 Lady
11 Play With Fire
12 I Can't Wait
13 Shovel Song
14 Girl, You're Growing Up
