Come To The Sunshine – The Complete Warner Brothers Recordings

This four CD Box Set presentation comprises all four of the original Harpers Bizarre albums; Feelin’ Groovy, Anything Goes, The Secret Life of Harpers Bizarre, and Harpers Bizarre 4, augmented by single A & B sides in chronological order of release.

The charmingly understated, slightly baroque, endlessly listenable Harpers Bizarre were one of the most important harmony vocal groups of the 1960s. Their cultured interpretation of Paul Simon’s ‘59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)’ is among the recordings that define the most golden of eras in popular music.

Between 1967 and 1969, under the auspices of producer Lenny Waronker, they created four delightful, intelligent, unique sounding albums of what broadly has become known as Sunshine Pop, with contributions from such dashing young American writers and arrangers as Randy Newman, Van Dyke Parks and Leon Russell.

The Beach Boys ‘Good Vibrations’ was one of the handful of recordings that revolutionised popular music during the 1960s. The enormity of its influence cannot be overstated. Waronker had it in mind while recording Feelin’ Groovy – thinking in terms of layering vocals – creating a memorable arrangement of woodwinds and voices.

Lead vocalists Ted Templeman and Dick Scoppettone were backed by members of the Wrecking Crew, an aggregation of some of the most sought after Los Angeles session musicians of the day, including the guitarist Glen Campbell, bassist Carol Kaye, and the drummer Jim Gordon.

Harpers Bizarre were special. With Lenny Waronker they made meticulously crafted records that were a testament to the advances made in sound production and conceptualisation of pop in the sixties. Ted Templeman thought Lenny was a genius. Evidently working with him was a singular apprenticeship that paved the way for his own career as a sound producer, which has found him working with, amongst others, Van Morrison, Captain Beefheart, Little Feat, Van Halen and The Doobie Brothers.