Dunhill Records

Lou Adler was a well known name in the music business as far back as the late 1950s, when he became noted as a songwriter (for example, he wrote Sam Cooke's "Only 16" and co-wrote "What A Wonderful World"). He and Herb Alpert managed Jan & Dean's early career. He was a Vice-President at Screen Gems (Colpix, Dimension), where he worked with songwriters such as Carole King. Adler also produced Johnny Rivers' very successful mid-'60s albums on Imperial. During this time, he produced some records for the songwriting team of Phil Sloan and Steve Barri, who sold the masters to Imperial under the name "The Fantastic Baggys." When Adler founded Dunhill Records in 1965 with a distribution deal with ABC-Paramount, Sloan and Barri signed on as staff writers. They would be very influential in the early success of the label; in fact, the first album issued by Dunhill was by Sloan and Barri, this time going under the name "Rincon Surfside Band." Phil Sloan, as "P.F. Sloan," also had two early albums for the label, and studio drummer Hal Blaine also had an album. In fact, the Dunhill "studio band" (Sloan on guitar, Barri on percussion, Blaine on drums, Larry Knechtel on bass, and Tommy Tedesco on guitar) was in place right from the start, just waiting for artists to be signed. The first few singles on the label were by artists who had a connection with Adler, or by members of the band. Dunhill 4001 was by Shelley Fabares, a former Colpix artist, and 4002 was by Willie & the Wheels, another of Sloan and Barri's pseudonyms. The first ten singles also included records by Canadian Terry Black (whom Adler had produced earlier), Hal Blaine, the Iguanas, and Don & the Goodtimes. One of the first truly new artists signed for the label was Barry McGuire, gravel-voiced former singer with the New Christy Minstrels. He gave Dunhill its first 1 in the fall of '65 with the Sloan-Barri tune "Eve Of Destruction," produced by Adler and backed by the Dunhill musicians. A successful album of then- current folk-rock hits mixed with Sloan-Barri originals followed. By this time (fall 1965), Sloan and Barri wanted to start a "real" group, and go out on the road. They recruited some musicians from a San Francisco group called the Bedouins and formed a group they called the Grass Roots. Lead singer was Bill Fulton and drummer was Joel Larson, and they recorded several sessions with Fulton on lead and some studio musicians like Bones Howe backing him, along with Sloan and Barri. The first single from these sessions was "Mr. Jones"/"You're A Lonely Girl" [Dunhill 4013], which didn't chart. The group members decided to go back to San Francisco, leaving Dunhill with enough material for Sloan and Barri to work on an album, part of which they ended up singing lead. The next spring, when the album was nearing completion, Dunhill released a single to help promote it: "Where Were You When I Needed You," a Sloan-Barri tune with Fulton doing lead. Much to the surprise of almost everyone, the single ripped into the charts, making top-30 nationally. Unfortunately, the band was long gone, couldn't tour, and the album didn't chart at all. Sloan and Barri were disappointed, but within a year, recruited some additional members for their group. These included Rob Grill (lead vocals, bass), Warren Entner (guitar), Creed Bratton (guitar), and Rick Coonce (drums). As the new version of the Grass Roots, supported by Sloan and Barri's songs, they became a regular hit machine in the late 1960s. After his 1 single with "Eve of Destruction," Barry McGuire was ready for his next album, and he introduced a vocal group to Lou Adler that he wanted to use as background singers. They were the Mamas & the Papas, and John Phillips even played guitar well enough to be used as a studio musician. The album they recorded in late 1965, This Precious Time [Dunhill 50006], contains the original recorded version of "California Dreamin'," with McGuire singing lead and the Mamas and the Papas on backgro