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TOMMY ROE - PHANTASY - CD

1. Paisley Dreams
2. Plastic World
3. Melancholy Mood
4. Visions
5. Mystic Magic
6. Little Miss Sunshine
7. These Are The Children
8. Goodbye Yesterday
9. The Executive
10. The You I Need
11. It’s Gonna Hurt Me

Though he’s best-remembered for bubblegum smashes such as Sheila, Sweet Pea and Dizzy, Tommy Roe also made some of the most intriguing experimental pop of the 1960s. This lost 1967 popsike classic appeared soon after his landmark It’s Now Winters Day LP and features immaculate support from the team responsible for the landmark Millennium and Sagittarius LPs, as well as members of the Goldebriars and Goldenrod. Never previously available on CD, Phantasy is a must-have for all fans of adventurous pop and sunshine psychedelia.

Atlanta native Tommy Roe (b. 9th May, 1942) was firmly established as one of America’s leading hitmakers by 1967, with several Buddy Holly-influenced smashes behind him, starting with the 1962 US #1 Sheila. After 1963’s Everybody (which reached no. 3 in the US), Roe had moved to England, where The Folk Singer reached #4 later that year. Having toured successfully and served a spell in the army, he returned to the US charts with another brace of top ten hits in 1966, Sweet Pea (#8 in June) and Hooray for Hazel (#6 in November). As the year progressed, however, he’d decided to move beyond the commercial pop that had defined him thus far, and to dip a toe into more experimental waters, in keeping with the adventurousness that characterised the industry at the time.
The producer of his last two hits had been a boy wonder named Curt Boettcher, who’d formed an uneasy working partnership with Steve Clark, the head of independent production company Our Productions, in mid-1966. Boettcher had showcased his astonishing abilities (especially as a vocal arranger) on the Association’s colossal hits Along Comes Mary and Cherish, and was therefore an obvious candidate to work with an established star like Roe. Boettcher and Roe recorded the tracks that would comprise It’s Now Winters Day that autumn, with stellar backing from guitarist Mike Deasy (aka Friar Tuck), Boettcher’s former Goldebriars cohort Dottie Holmberg, session regulars Ben Benay, Toxie French and Jerry Scheff (who later made the ultra-rare Goldenrod LP), Ballroom members Jim Bell and Michele O’Malley (later to record her own Saturn Rings LP), and future Millennium members Lee Mallory and Sandy Salisbury.
With such a sterling cast, it’s no surprise that the album turned out so audacious and accomplished, combining delightfully quirky pop with esoteric, experimental material. Its lack of similarity to Roe’s earlier work put off his fans when it appeared in January 1967, however, and it flopped. A 45 of the title cut (ABC 1088) tiptoed to number 23 in the US charts in February 1967, a respectable showing by usual standards, but a disappointment in Roe’s terms. Two further singles – Nighttime / Sing Along With Me (ABC 10909) and Moontalk / Sweet Sounds (ABC 10933) – were extracted, but neither charted. The project’s failure soured relations between Boettcher and Clark (who, as well as poaching the producer’s credit, is alleged never to have paid Boettcher for his efforts), so Boettcher moved away to work on his own, visionary projects instead, including the landmark Sagittarius and Millennium projects. Roe, meanwhile, recorded another unsuccessful quasi-psychedelic experimental LP, Phantasy, with Clark producing, but it didn’t sell. The extracted 45s – Little Miss Sunshine / The You I Need (ABC10945) and Paisley Dreams / Melancholy Mood (ABC 10989) missed the charts too, prompting him to return to his earlier, bouncier formula. The result was a return to chart supremacy with Dizzy (a US #1 in 1969) and Jam Up Jelly Tight (#8 the same year). Astonishingly, many fans of his music remain unaware of this album, and it is to be hoped that this first CD reissue will establish its reputation as an intriguing piece of the 1960s psych-pop jigsaw.
1. Paisley Dreams (Roe)
2. Plastic World (Roe)
3. Melancholy Mood (Roe)
4. Visions (Roe)
5. Mystic Magic (Roe)
6. Little Miss Sunshine (Roe)
7. These Are The Children (Salisbury)
8. Goodbye Yesterday (Salisbury)
9. The Executive (Roe / Bowie)
10. The You I Need (Roe)
11. It’s Gonna Hurt Me (Roe)

Produced by Steve Clark
Arranged by Mike Henderson
Vocal arrangements by Jim Bell

Musicians: Mike Henderson / Butch Parker / Jimmy Troxell / Jerry Scheff / Toxey French / Lee Mallory / Tommy Roe / Ben Benay / Mike Deasy

Vocals: Jim Bell / Sandy Salisbury / Dotti Holmberg / Sharon Olsen / Lee Mallory / T. Jacobson / M. Clingen / P. Clingen

Recorded at Gary Paxton Studios / Columbia Studios

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