Permit me to indulge in nostalgic gush for my days at The Coffee Break in Elmhurst and The Cellar in Arlington Heights, the two clubs where I dined on rock and roll. The Riddles were the house band at the C.B. and they covered the first three Beatles albums beautifully.
Apparently, said house band never made an album, and no audio of their Beatles covers has surfaced on the intertubes. However, they did cut one single, which was a local hit -- a version of the oft-covered Searchers cover of the Drifters "Sweets for My Sweet" -- and its b-side, a band original called "It's One Thing to Say" is apparently highly regarded by garage rock afficionados. So I got curious and looked it up.
And here it is, in all its original vinyl glory.
I think it's pretty average, actually, but I'm sure it sounded better at the time.
In any case, if you're so moved, you can find out more about these guys over here.
5 comments:
Average? Really? No. I thought it was like a time capsule of every beloved feature of music from that golden garage age. A little Who, a little Raiders, a little psychedelic guitar, a Grassroots-style vocal, echo-y background oohs . . . I would have sent these guys to Hollywood. Or at least Minneapolis.
LR
master was picked up by Smash records in hopes of giving it a little bit of traction.
I also disagree! I also agree with most of the points made by Mr. Anonymous #1. These guys are worth listening to any time. Not only are they a time capsule to the past, they're reminiscent of quite a few recent bands of the past. I've also heard a number of current bands that have rediscovered this garage/pop/psych sound and branding it with their own vision.
Could it be that they sound average to your ears (crackling aside) due to the piss poor recording equipment available to them at the time? Get them into the sophisticated recording studio of today and with the right label, I can envision them making quite a name for themselves. I, for one, would buy their CD on the merits of this song alone, if recorded by todays standards. For 1965, this is great stuff! Glad you posted this and if anyone has anything else by The Riddles, I think many of us would be very pleased to see it posted somewhere.
Actually these guys were worth the admission every weekend. One of several bands that played in the Elmhurst area at that time, and were pretty decent.
They also played at Mack's Golden Pheasant and the Corporation, both in Elmhurst. Great band!!
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