1967 Paul Revere and the Raiders – Ups and Downs
Lead singer Mark Lindsay and producer Terry Melcher had written the group’s last single from the band’s 1966 album, The Spirit Of ’67. That song, Good Thing, became one of the group’s most successful singles, reaching #4 in early 1967. The pair then worked together to write and produce one more single to include on a greatest hits album scheduled for later that year.
They created the song Ups and Downs, which came out in April. Unfortunately, the single stalled at only #22, their poorest reception for a single in over two years.
The group included Ups and Downs on their Greatest Hits album anyway, and then began work on new songs for their next album, Revolutions!
The first song from that album they released as a single was Him Or Me – What’s It Gonna Be? Mark wrote the song with Terry, who again produced the song. He even added some backing vocals behind Mark’s lead vocals.
To promote their Greatest Hits album, the band had numerous television appearances scheduled, making it difficult to get the band together with Terry in the studio for recording. As a result, the Raiders used the Wrecking Crew to provide backing instruments on the single, the first time they had to do that.
The result was excellent (the single reached #5 on the Hot 100), but the use of studio musicians angered some of the Raiders. Within a few short months, four of them (Drake “Kid” Levin, Mike “Smitty” Smith, Jim “Harpo” Valley, and Phil “Fang” Volk) left the group. Three later formed a new band called Brotherhood, which had no success at all.
The band had no problems with replacing the ex-members and continuing to produce hit records.
Smitty rejoined the band a few times beginning in the seventies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Revere_%26_the_Raiders
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Revere_%26_the_Raiders_discography
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