Harpers Bizarre - The Biggest Night of Her Life (1967)

When a Santa Cruz, California band known as The Tikis signed up with Autumn Records, they released two moderately successful singles. In early 1967, their record producer, Lenny Waronker, decided to have the band record a track written by Paul Simon. The track, “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy),” which had already been released by Simon & Garfunkel, was put together with a new arrangement by Leon Russell and recorded by the band. When it came time for the song to be released, they chose to change their band name and settled on a pun which referenced Harper’s Bazaar magazine, the name seen above. The song reached number thirteen and became the band’s signature song. They quickly released a full-length album and continued to release new, less successful material over the next few years. Once, on Halloween in 1969, the band was taking a flight back home to San Francisco when the plane was hijacked. Luckily, no one was hurt and the band was released safely (along with everyone else) in Denver, Colorado. After four full-length albums and ten singles, the band couldn’t match the same success of “Feelin’ Groovy” and decided to split up at the end of 1969.

Released on the band’s second album, Anything Goes, this song was written by an ex-member of the band when it was known as The Tikis: Randy Newman. Newman, along with Van Dyke Parks and Harry Nilsson, had been working with the band as arrangers and/or session musicians. The Anything Goes album was released in December 1967.



Harpers Bizarre - The Biggest Night of Her Life (1967)

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Lyrics:

Susie’s goin’ out tonight
To a sixteenth birthday party
Her shoes are pink, her dress is white
And she’s a beautiful sight to see
And you can bet it will be
The biggest night of her life

Susie’s got a boy she likes
And his name is Tom Van Fleet
And Susie’s parents think he’s nice
‘cause his hair is always neat
And tonight’s gonna be
The biggest night of his life

Two kids out dancin’
Having fun ‘til the sun comes up
In a high school sweater and a paper hat
What could be wrong with that?

Susie’s goin’ out tonight
To a promise she must keep
She thought about it all last night
And she was too excited to sleep
And you can bet it will be
The biggest night of her life

Susie’s goin’ out tonight
To a sixteenth birthday party
Her shoes are pink, her dress is white
And she’s a beautiful sight to see
And tonight’s gonna be
The biggest night of her life

You can bet it will be
The biggest night of her life

(You bet it will be)
The biggest night of her life

(You bet it will be)
The biggest night of her life

The Doobie Brothers - Nobody (1971)

John Hartman, a drummer from Virginia, went to California in 1969 hoping to convince Skip Spence to reform Moby Grape with him in the band. Although it didn’t pan out, Spence introduced Hartman to Tom Johnston, a guitarist and vocalist who had been playing in bands around San Jose while finishing college. Together, known as Pud, the duo played around San Jose with rotating members playing with them and, by 1970, a band with a new name had started to solidify. Their biggest fans at the time were local members of the Hells Angels which led to the group performing regularly at the Angels’ preferred bar, the Chateau Liberté. The band’s music, mimicking their surroundings, was hard rock accentuated with leather jackets and motorcycles. But when the group released their debut album in 1971, their hard rock, biker sound had been replaced with acoustic guitars and country influences.

The group’s first album, self-titled and released in April of 1971, failed to chart. The band’s first ever single release, heard below, also failed to chart upon its initial release. Written by Tom Johnston, the song was re-released in 1974 after the group had become nationally successful, and then reached number fifty-eight. In 2010, the latest incarnation of the band re-recorded the song for their latest album, World Gone Crazy. This song, as well as the rest of their debut album, was produced by Ted Templeman, the former guitarist and vocalist for Harpers Bizarre.



The Doobie Brothers - Nobody (1971)

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Lyrics:

Evil ways of practice may surround you
Callin’ on your inner core of life
But your father was just a complex man of business
And your mother merely portioned out your fright

But run the risk of a sudden loss
You got no mama to bear your cross beside you
As midnight angels shine their wings
And time begins just to build a wall all around you

(Nobody)
Nobody gonna take my love away from me
(Nobody)
Nobody gonna take my love away from me

Setting out on a voyage down to Jenner
I've given all I've got to help the cause
Need a place just to settle out my pressures
A place where you and I can sit and pause

So I can see the sky at night
Without a fear of hidden light to blind me
And so you see the path is clear
And changes will be swayed around me

(Nobody)
Nobody gonna take my love away from me
(Nobody)
Nobody gonna take my love away from me