line up 1 (1968)

- unknown

- 101 Strings (Jerry Cole)

- Mike Adams and the Red Jackets (Jerry Cole)

- The Animated Egg (Jerry Cole and Don Dexter)

- BIlly Baker (Jerry Cole)

- The Bandits (Jerry Cole)

- Bebe Bardon and 101 Strings (Jerry Cole)

- The Black Diamonds (Jerry Cole)

- The Blasters (Jerry Cole)

- BIlly Boyd (Jerry Cole)

- California Earthquake (Don Dexter)

- The Champs (Jerry Cole)

- Jerry Cole (solo efforts)

- Jerry Cole and the Country Boys (Jerry Cole)

- Jerry Cole and the Robert Evans Chorus (Jerry Cole)

- Jerry Cole & the Stingers (Jerry Cole)

- Jerry Cole and His Spacemen (Jerry Cole)

- The Detours (Jerry Cole)

- Mr. Gasser & the Weirdos (Jerry Cole)

- The Cee-Gees (Jerry Cole)

- Don and Eddie (Jerry Cole)

- The Deuce Coups (Jerry Cole)

- The Haircuts and the Impossibles (Jerry Cole)

- The Hornets (Jerry Cole)

- The Hot Rodders (Jerry Cole)

- The Id (Jerry Cole and Don Dexter)

- The Kickstands (Jerry Cole)

- The Knights (Jerry Cole)

- Jerry Kole and the Strokers (Jerry Cole)

- The Mustang (Jerry Cole)

- The Projection Company (Jerry Cole and Don Dexter)

- Johnny Rivers and Jerry Cole

- The Scramblers (Jerry Cole)

- The Stone Canyon Rock Group (Jerry Cole and Don Dexter)

- The Super Stocks (Jerry Cole)

- T. Swift and the Electric Bag (Jerry Cole and Don Dexter)

- Them (Jerry Cole)

- Billy J. Tyler and Palomino Boys (Jerry Cole)

- Eddie Wayne (Jerry Cole)

- The Winners (Jerry Cole)

Genre: psych

Rating: 3 stars ***

Title:  Hey Jude

Company: Crown

Catalog: CST 588
Year: 1968

Country/State: Los Angeles California

Grade (cover/record): VG+/VG+

Comments: --

Available: 1

Catalog ID: --

Price: $30.00

From a marketing perspective it's hard to argue with the Crown Records business plan. Pay a bunch of anonymous studio musicians to quickly record themed music of some genre, or another (Crown's marketing phrase was "music for every mood". Preferably record everything without writing credits, or paying for the use of the songs and then slap on an album cover featuring a pretty young woman with a come hither look, or in the case of "The Underground Electrics", a pretty young woman apparently doing yoga with a come hither look on her face.
The band "name", the attractive cover model and the combination of cover tunes and original material would certainly give you the feeling you were buying a cutting edge collection of psych tunes. Hold your horses ... Cream seemed to be the inspiration for most of the ten tunes on 1968's "Hey Jude". Heavy on blues covers, performances like 'Standing at the Crossroads', 'Boogie Chillen' and 'No Love In My Heart' were all powered by raw, fuzzed out lead guitar. Apparent originals like 'The Syndicator' and the instrumental 'Queen Bee' followed the same musical path. It was all presided over by an anonymous lead singer whose performances ranged from simply horrible (check out the hysterically inept title track), to not bad ('No Love In My Heart'). Along the way the guy managed to sound like James Arness doing Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke, Johnny Cash fronting a psych band, Bill Murray doing Nick the Lounge Singer and Jim Backus doing Mr. Magu. Given there were no performance credits, there may well have been a couple of singers - the guy who manhandled 'Goodbye Baby' didn't sound like the drunk responsible for butchering 'Hey Jude'.

How in the world do you grade this one? For 99% of listeners this would be a ghastly experience. For the remaining 1% who have a fetish for exploito releases, this is going to be fascinating. You've been warned.

"Hey Jude" track listing:(side 1)
1.) Hey Jude (John Lennon - Paul McCartney) - 4:10 rating: **** stars
This is one of those rarities - a performance that was so bad, it was actually good (in a really bad way). The vocalist clearly had no understanding of how to sing - the concepts of melody and rhythm totally foreign to him. The poor man sounded like he was stoned out of his mind. The backing band had the same problems. The 'Hey Jude' melody was kind of there, but just barely. Kudos to the guitar and piano players who had seemingly never heard the song before. The drummer eventually figured it out. Shame this was a shortened versions. Beatles fans will either cringe, or find the cover endearing.
2.) Standing at the Crossroads (Elmore James) - 2:50 rating: * star
Hum, imagine Gunsmoke's Marshall Dillon walking into the middle of a blues session. I think my cat could have done a more impressive blues cover.
3.) Boogie Chillen (John Lee Hooker) - 3:20 rating: **** stars
Technically it wasn't an instrumental since the vocalist occasionally woke up and proclaimed "let's boogie chillen'. Other than that this was a pretty good performances featuring some frantic drumming and whacked out, fuzz heavy lead guitar.
4.) The Syndicator - 3:41 rating: **** stars
Apparently an original composition (though there were no writing credits), 'The Syndicator' sounded like Johnny Cash diving headlong into Cream-styled blues-rock. Powered by a nice raw fuzz guitar figure, the results were surprisingly enjoyable.
5.) No Love In My Heart (Elmore James) - 2:09 rating: *** stars
Much to my surprise, the anonymous singer who had butchered so many of these tracks actually turned in a decent performance on the second Elmore James cover,

(side 2)
1.) Goodbye Baby rating: ** stars
I think it was intended to be a cover of the Soloman Burke hit, but who knows ... The squealing lead guitar was pretty good. The vocalist didn't sound like the same guy as on side one; though his out of tune shrieking wasn't any better. Truly painful to sit through. Goodbye guy ...
2.) Queen Bee (instrumental) - 2:56 rating: **** stars
'Queen Bee' had one thing going for it - namely it was an instrumental. A decent guitar riff was enough to propel this to the plus-side of the catalog.
3.) Sunnyland - 3:54 rating: ** stars
Imagine a tone deaf senior citizen deciding to do an Allman Brothers cover ... You wouldn't expect things to turn out too well. They don't ...
4.) Dark and Dreary - 3:59 rating: *** stars
Well, I enjoyed the opening blues bass line. In contrast the out of control Clapton-esque lead guitar quickly became irritating.
5.) Dust My Blues (Elmore James) - 2:52 rating: ** stars
Side one's minimally competent country singer was back to take a shot at Elmore James' 'Dust My Blues'. Geez, Bill Murray's Nick the Lounge singer finally cut a song. The abrupt fadeout was a godsend.