(2021) Harpers Bizarre – Come to the Sunshine: The Complete Warner Brothers Recordings





Review:

Short-lived sunshine pop group Harpers Bizarre weren’t around for long, but for a brief window in the late ’60s, they recorded and released new material at a rapid clip. The group scored only a few hits, but their best work ranks alongside the Association, the Left Banke, Chad & Jeremy, and other champions of baroque psychedelia from this specific pocket of rock & roll history. Come to the Sunshine collects the band’s first four albums as well as several B-sides and non-album tracks from each session. The group’s first and biggest hit was a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy),” which producer Lenny Waronker and Harpers Bizarre reworked under the heavy influence of the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations.” Layered vocal harmonies and chamber pop instrumentation gave the band’s version of the song a unique appeal, and those elements earmarked much of their early output. Harpers Bizarre released two albums in 1967, their debut Feelin’ Groovy and its follow-up Anything Goes. Both were overflowing with giddy Tin Pan Alley melodies, playful arrangements of strings and woodwinds, and the softer side of AM radio pop songwriting. The group often worked with songwriters Harry Nilsson and Randy Newman, and their influence creeps in more by the time of third album The Secret Life of Harpers Bizarre. Lazy, strolling pop tunes like “I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise” take on the same unserious approach as Nilsson’s output from that time, adding in ambitious orchestral arrangements to enhance the band’s commercial appeal. By the time of 1969’s Harpers Bizarre 4, they had all but abandoned their naïve, squeaky-clean sound from just a few years earlier. Instead, their last album (not including subsequent partial reunions in the ’70s) was a set of greasy rock & roll and hippy takes on soul, complete with slide guitar from Ry Cooder. The quick evolution from the lighthearted fun of the first album to the acid-dazzled bliss of songs like “Witchi Tai To” in just two years is even more striking when placed in the chronological context of their complete discography on Come to the Sunshine. Almost all of the late-’60s acts later classified as sunshine pop never rose much beyond relative obscurity, but Harpers Bizarre left behind a wealth of incredible songs that morphed quickly between styles. Come to the Sunshine exposes a catalog full of hidden gems in every phase of the band’s fast-burning career.











Track Listing:



CD 1: Feelin’ Groovy (Warner Bros. LP WS 1697, 1967)

01.Come to the Sunshine

02.Happy Talk

03.C'mon Love

04.Raspberry Rug

05.The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)

06.The Debutante’s Ball

07.Happyland

08.Peter and the Wolf

09.I Can Hear the Darkness

10.Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear

11.Lost My Love Today

12.Bye, Bye, Bye



CD 2: Anything Goes (Warner Bros. LP WS 1716, 1967)

01.This Is Only the Beginning

02.Anything Goes

03.Two Little Babes in the Wood

04.The Biggest Night of Her Life

05.Pocketful of Miracles

06.Snow

07.Chattanooga Choo Choo

08.Hey, You in the Crowd

09.Louisiana Man

10.Milord

11.Virginia City

12.Jessie

13.You Need a Change

14.High Coin

15.Malibu U

16.Cotton Candy Sandman (Sandman’s Coming)



CD 3: The Secret Life of Harpers Bizarre (Warner Bros. LP WS 1739, 1968)

01.Look to the Rainbow

02.Battle of New Orleans

03.When I Was a Cowboy

04.Sentimental Journey (Interlude)

05.Sentimental Journey

06.Las Mananitas

07.Bye, Bye, Bye/Vine Street

08.Me, Japanese Boy (I Love You)

09.(I’ll Build A) Stairway to Paradise (Interlude)

10.(I’ll Build A) Stairway to Paradise

11.Green Apple Tree

12.Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat

13.I Love You, Mama (Interlude)

14.I Love You, Mama

15.Funny How Love Can Be

16.Mad

17.Look to the Rainbow (Reprise)

18.The Drifter

19.The Drifter (Reprise)

20.Both Sides Now

21.Small Talk



CD 4: Harpers Bizarre 4 (Warner Bros. LP WS 1784, 1969)

01.Soft Soundin’ Music

02.Knock on Wood

03.Witchi Tai To

04.Hard to Handle

05.When the Band Begins to Play

06.Something Better

07.Blackbird

08.I Love You, Alice B. Toklas

09.There’s No Time Like Today

10.All Through the Night

11.Cotton Candy Sandman

12.Leaving on a Jet Plane

13.Poly High

14.If We Ever Needed the Lord Before





Media Report:

Genre: pop

Format: FLAC

Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM

Bit rate mode: Variable

Channel(s): 2 channels

Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz

Bit depth: 16 bits


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