Last week I posted about The Adventures of Keith, one of my all time favorite obscure albums that I never thought would come out on CD, but that ultimately did. This week I’m bringing you another, the sweet sounds of The Collage.
The Collage were a band put together hastily when songwriters Jerry Careaga and Ron Joelson were signed to Beechwood Music (Capitol Records publishing wing). Along with two good-looking female singers they knew—an ex-girlfriend of Joelson’s named Donna Bird and Jodie Cline, a friend of Careaga’s from Tucson—The Collage was born.
In the mold of similar vocal groups like The Mamas and The Papas and The 5th Dimension, The Collage were—also like them—backed in the studio by the legendary group of crack session musicians known as “The Wrecking Crew.” Steven Douglas of the Wrecking Crew produced their eponymous album, which was arranged and conducted by Perry Botkin, Jr. and engineered by J.J. Cale The Collage came out on Mercury-Smash Records in January of 1968. The album has echos of the aforementioned boy-girl performers and of “sunshine pop” groups like The Free Design, The Association and Spanky and Our Gang and it includes an excellent cover of “Would You Like to Go?” by Curt Boettcher’s group, Sagittarius.
With good management The Collage was able to secure TV appearances on Playboy After Dark, American Bandstand, It’s Happening, The Steve Allen Show and The Joey Bishop Show, but never had any appreciable success and broke up after one album.
The Collage was reissued in 2011 by Cherry Red/New Sounds with liner notes from Jerry Careaga. I’ve been obsessed with this album for over twenty years, give it a listen and see what you think.
“Lookin’ at a Baby”
“Driftin’”
“Rainy Blue Memory Day”
“Any Day’s a Sunday Afternoon”
“My Mind’s at Ease”
“Virginia Day’s Ragtime Memories”
“Can I Go”
“She’s Just Laughin’ At Me”
“Ragged Clown”
“Would You Like to Go”
