Song:Shape Of Things To Come
Album:Nuggets From Nuggets: Choice Artyfacts from The First Psychedelic Era
When you listen to this classic piece of psychedelia on the Nuggets comp, you might think it's a pretty good song. Whatever happened to Max Frost & The Troopers? What garage did they start out in? The only problem is there was no band. It was created for the 1968 biker film Wild In The Streets. Christopher Jones played aspiring singer Max Frost and lipsyncs Shape Of Things To Come in the film. But the song was so popular that a Max Frost & The Troopers album was recorded afterwards. The guy behind all this was Davie Allan. He started out with a surf music band in his home town of Van Nuys, CA and signed with Mike Curb's new label Sidewalk Records in 1964 as a session musician. Curb signed a deal to provide music for American International Pictures. Roger Corman had heard Allan's music on a short film called Skaterdater. Allan's first film for Corman was the 1966 biker film The Wild Angels. He was credited as Davie Allan and The Arrows. Allan did the music for several of these films including Devil's Angels, Born Losers and others. Because Wild In The Streets had a band as a central part of the story, Curb & Allan decided to create Max Frost & The Troopers. But that is Allan and his band performing the song featuring lead singer Paul Wibier. And Shape Of Things To Come was written by the legendary songwriting team of Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil. When Shape Of Things To Come reached #22 on the Billboard Hot 100, they decided to produce an album that didn't sell and two more songs turned up on the 1968 film The Glory Stompers. Sidewalk Records folded in 1968 but Curb took Allan to MGM with him and Allan recorded over there for a while. Davie Allan continues to perform today. I guess he's a cult figure in Los Angeles. Here's The Shape Of Things To Come as it appeared in the 1968 film Wild In The Streets.
No comments:
Post a Comment