Lost and Found : The Outsiders

The story of the forgotten album is nothing new. For whatever reason many great albums were not initially received with the acclaim they deserved, either critical or commercial. Pet Sounds for example was more or less a commercial flop, but has become legendary as one of the most auspicious and brilliant undertakings in the history of Rock n' Roll. Nick Drake's entire catalog didn't see commercial success until "Pink Moon" was used in a Volkswagen commercial. Some albums were initially successful when first released, but for whatever reason lacked the staying power necessary to last in the ever changing face of popular music. And then there are those records which simply were never recognized critically and simply stalled in record sales. Throughout the week I'll be writing about a few select albums that have lived a life time of obscurity. Today I give you: the Outsiders.


The Outsiders Happening 'Live!'
Allmusic.com said of the Outsiders, "If any two-hit, dance-oriented band from the '60s ever deserved a crack at being voted in [the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame], the Outsiders do," and that couldn't be more true. The Cleveland, Ohio quintet only released three official studio albums and had a hit with the song "Time Won't Let Me," which peaked at number five on Billboard's Top 100.

Released on Capitol Records in August of 1967, Happening 'Live!' is cleverly misleading as it is not a live album in the conventional sense (hence the quotation marks around the word "live"). For a long time it was not uncommon for record labels to release live albums that were actually just compilations of studio recordings with audience noise mixed in. With Happening 'Live!" the Outsiders took it a step further by removing any and all over dubs from the tracks, stripping them of any horns, strings, or generally anything that couldn't have been played by the five members of the band live on stage. To further the illusion, lead singer Sonny Geraci introduces all of the songs and the band as though they actually were performing in front of a hoard of screaming girls.

All of that would really just seem like little more than gimmicks were it not for the quality of material on the record. Aside from the band's two hits and a few songs from their three studio albums, Happening also includes a handful of previously unreleased material such as a fairly straight forward cover of the Beatles' "Michelle." However, the real stand out tracks here are a fantastic cover of the Temptation's "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," the stripped-to-its-roots version of "Time Won't Let Me," another original called "Girl in Love," which has a poor man's Brian Wilson feel to it, and a kind of garage-band-meets-lounge-act cover of Van Morrison's "Gloria." At the end of it all Happening 'Live!' turns out to be one of the friendlier and more easily accessible concept albums of the 1960s. On a funny note, if you look closely at the album cover, the Outsiders appear to have two bass players. I have yet to find any explanation for this, whatsoever.