Garage Rock on TV

I was checking the stats for GRR last night and noticed that "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" by The Chocolate Watchband is at the top of the list of most downloaded MP3s. It's not surprising, since this song has been on TV a lot lately in an IBM Commercial. You can see the commercial at this German IBM site. Now the song in the commercial is the original version and is done by The Kinks. But the Chocolate Watchband did it Much Better! The vocals snarl more and the guitars are fuzzier. Have a listen on our MP3 page. You might think you're hearing The Rolling Stones, the singer for the Chocolate Watchband did sound like Mick Jagger.

Once, and only once, I recently saw a TV commercial for Target with "Shape of Things To Come" by "Max Frost and his Troopers", the theme song from 1968's "Garage Rock" movie, "Wild in the Streets". Click that last link to hear the song and read about the movie. There has been interest in the movie again lately, as stars Richard Prior and Shelley Winters have both passed recently. Garage Rockers will love the movie for its many songs which also include "Fourteen or Fight!" and "52 percent". Christopher Jones, as Max Frost, sings the title song mid-movie, just after some of his "troops" have been killed by the police. I think he gives a great, emotional performance. You can see the pain in his eyes. Check out this movie if you've never seen it before. It's on Encore from time to time and available for not much money as half of a double feature on DVD.

For a few weeks back in March I think it was, Subway ran a commercial for its new Ham and Swiss sub. "I Love My Honey, Ham and Swiss" was a catchy tune in the 1960s bubblegum mold. The tune sounded very familiar. At first, it sounded to me to be a cross between "Chewy Chewy" and "Sugar Sugar". Then I realized where they "borrowed it" from! This tune is very similar to 1963's "Killer Joe" by the "Rocky Fellers", a family group like the Cowsills. But this bunch was father and 4 sons. As this page points out, this song is derived from "Love is Strange". I'm sure if I sat here long enough, I could name a song that that one borrowed from. Although "Love is Strange" was fairly original, the guitar solo is amazing and often copied.

Several of the original Garage Bands were on TV in the 60's, maybe I should do a post about that! I'll just mention here that The Standells were on The Munsters! TV Land says it was episode 26. Here's the entry for The Standells on Wikipedia.

That's all for now. Go listen to some Garage Rock!