1967 The Parade – Sunshine Girl
The sunshine pop groups began springing up in Southern California in the mid-sixties. One of the groups playing that sort of music was The Parade. The members included:
- Jerry Riopelle, a songwriter and producer who played keyboards on several Phil Spector records.
- Murray MacLeod, an actor who had appeared in many television shows beginning in 1965, including The Munsters, The Donna Reed Show, Gidget, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
- Allen “Smokey” Roberds, an actor and singer who had appeared on Shindig.
The three co-wrote the song Sunshine Girl, which they recorded for A&M Records. Their recording session used several members of the Wrecking Crew. The single peaked at #20 on the Hot 100 in 1967.
Actor Stuart Margolin, who had a recurring role as Angel on The Rockford Files, co-wrote the b-side of their single. He also co-wrote several of the group’s later releases and eventually joined the group.
The Parade released five more singles, but when none of them followed up their early success, the group disbanded.
Jerry wrote songs and produced records for Brewer & Shipley and We Five and wrote songs recorded by many artists. He also recorded over a dozen albums as a solo artist. He invented the Beamz in 2001, a contraption that allows users to create music by interacting with laster beams.
Stuart Margolin had a recurring role as Angel on The Rockford Files. He also had recurring roles on Bret Maverick and Mr. Smith and has appeared on countless television shows.
Allen and Murray formed the duo Ian & Murray and recorded unsuccessfully for Epic Records. After they split up, Murray appeared as a guest star on dozens of television shows over the next thirty years.
Allen began recording as Freddie Allen. Allen was friends with Roger Nichols, who had written a song with Paul Williams that was used as a commercial for the Crocker Bank in 1970.
Allen recorded the song as a single arranged by Roger that White Whale Records released in 1970. It wasn’t very successful.
The commercial impressed Richard Carpenter, and he ran into fellow A&M artist Paul and began working on a single for his group’s second album. The Carpenters took We’ve Only Just Begun to #2 on the H0t 100 in 1970.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Parade_(band)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We%27ve_Only_Just_Begun
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