siLLy puPPy With roots originating all the way back to 1963, the four members that would form SPOOKY TOOTH played together in the British blues mod band The V.I.P.’s in Carlisle, England which most notably is the early act that also launched a fledgling Keith Emerson before he went on to form The Nice and later ELP. The four members of Luther Grosvenor (lead guitar), Mike Harrison (harpsichord, vocals), Greg Ridley (bass) and Mike Kellie (drums) released several EPs and singles as The V.I.P.’s but never really decorated the charts with hits and when the mod and beat scenes started to morph into the world of psychedelic rock, the four members wisely shifted gears and released a flower power freak out album as the band Art in 1967 but after one album the band moved on again and became SPOOKY TOOTH the same year.

After recruiting a fifth member in the form of American keyboardist Gary Wright, the band set out on the English club scene and after quickly capturing the attention of Island records commenced to record SPOOKY TOOTH’s debut album IT’S ALL ABOUT which arrived in May of 1968. Taking a cue from fellow Brits, Traffic, SPOOKY TOOTH crafted a psychedelia-tinged slab of catchy pop rockers with Baroque piano influences, bluesy guitar riffing and a major leap up from the amateurish sounds of Art. The most notable improvement was the psychedelic soul smoothness of lead singer Mike Harrison who found his match in his harmonic double newbie Gary Wright. The two would alternate vocals and eventual Wright would wrest control.

A veritable treasure trove of catchy psychedelic pop records IT’S ALL ABOUT featured seven original compositions and three covers including the Janis Ian track “Society’s Child,” Bob Dylan’s “Too Much of Nothing” and the classic J.D. Loudermilk song “Tobacco Road.” The album was graced with the production techniques of Jimmy Miller who worked with The Spencer Davis group and would become the legendary force behind The Rolling Stones, Motorhead and Blind Faith. Sounding virtually nothing like the band Art which featured four of the members in SPOOKY TOOTH, the songwriting skills of Gary Wright became a prominent aspect of the band’s ability to distinguish itself from many of the other British blues based psych bands of the era however the Traffic similarities from the 1967 “Mr. Fantasy” album are undeniable. The other members did contribute by cowriting a few of the tracks.

SPOOKY TOOTH’s recruitment by Island Records gained instant time pressures which only allowed so many hours in the recording studio and by the time the band went to record the band only a handful of originals and did what many bands were doing in the 1960s and simply finding some songs to cover. The album is a brilliant mix of bluesy psychedelic pop and although in the same vein as Traffic, at times prognosticated the style of Led Zeppelin especially in some of the vocal styles. The band was actually hailed by the critics and praised for its amazingly successful mix of blues, rock, psychedelic and Baroque pop. Unfortunately that didn’t translate into successful album sales and after the band was set to go on an extensive tour in Europe, a sudden invitation to the United States altered the bands plans.

The American tour changed the course of the band’s game plan and while practically ignored in its native UK, SPOOKY TOOTH enjoyed the attention of promotor Bill Graham and played at San Francisco’s Fillmore Wets and all across America where it built its largest fanbase and subsequent success. While not as prog oriented as the following “Spooky Two,” IT’S ALL ABOUT” paved the road with the right stepping stones for the band to ratchet up its sound a few notches. Taken on its own terms, this debut album is quite the pleasant slice of 60s psychedelic pop rock with great instrumentation, interplay and grooviliscious melodic constructs and even better are the vocal harmonies that borrow a few ideas from both The Beatles and The Beach Boys while capturing the essence of American soul music.