Genre: pop
Rating: *** (3 stars)
Title: The Peppermint Trolley Company
Company: ACTA
Catalog: A-38007
Year: 1967
Grade (cover/record): NM / NM
Comments: opened seal to record; played once; cut out notch in spine; still in shrink wrap
Available: 1
Catalog number: 6053
Price: $40.00
Having started their professional musical careers as members of The Mark Five, by 1966 brothers Danny (keyboards) and Jimmy (bass) Faragher had shifted their attention to the lucrative field of power pop.
Working with guitarist Casey Cunningham and drummer Greg Tornquist, as The Peppermint Trolley Company they released a little heard single for the small Variant label ("Lollipop Train" b/w "Bored To Tears - catalog number 752). While the single vanished without a trace, it attracted the attention of the larger ACTA Records. A pair of 1967 ACTA singles did little ("She's the Kind of Girl" b/w "Bored To Tears" (catalog number 807) and "It's a Lazy Summer Day" b/w "Blue Eyes" catalog number 809)). The lack of sales didn't dampen ACTA's
enthusiasm for the group; the company subsequently financing an album.
Produced by Dan Dalton, 1967's "The Peppermint Trolley
Company" offered up an engaging set of Anglophile-influenced power pop (note the Sgt. Pepper-styled get ups worn on the front cover). Largely written by the Faraghers, material such as "Reflections", "Free" and "Sunrise" offered up a mix of sweet melodies and matching harmonies. The results were highly commercial, if occasionally a bit on the MOR side (you can easily live without the Bee Gees influenced "Free"). Far more engaging were the quartet's
occasional stabs at lite psych. Album highlights included "Beautiful Sun" and the extended "Fatal Fallacy". Hitting number 59 on the pop charts, the single "Baby You Come Rollin 'Cross My Mind" b/w "Nine O'Clock Business Man" (ACTA catalog number 815) provided the band with their nearest brush with success. (Be sure to check out the small "selective services" sound bite at the end of the first side.)
"The Peppermint Trolley Company" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) I've Got To Be Going (Jimmy Faragher) - 2:15
2.) Baby You Come Rollin 'Cross My Mind (Jesse Lee Kincaid) - 2:34
3.) I Remember Long Ago (Faragher - Pat McClure) - 2:25
4.) Put Your Burden Down (Faragher - Pat McClure) - 2:30
5.) Reflections (Faragher - Pat McClure) - 2:40
(side 2)
1.) Beautiful Sun (David Faragher - Jimmy Faragher - Pat McClure) - 4:40
2.) Trust (Williams - Nichols) - 2:35
3.) Sunrise (Pat McClure) - 2:25
4.) Free (David Faragher - Jimmy Faragher - Greg Tornquist) - 3:10
5.) Pat's Song (Faragher - Pat McClure) - 2:20
6.) Fatal Fallacy (Faragher - Fox) - 6:45
The band subsequently reappeared as Bones, before metamorphizing into The Faragher
Brothers.