Harpers Bizarre

Career

Harpers Bizarre was formed out of The Tikis, a Californian band who enjoyed some local success with Beatle-like songs in the mid 1960s. In 1967, record producer Lenny Waronker got a hold of the Simon and Garfunkel song "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin Groovy)," determined to make it into a single. The Tikis recorded it, with the arrangement featuring extended harmonies reminiscent of the work of Brian Wilson or even the Swingle Singers. The song was released under a new band name, "Harpers Bizarre" (a play on the magazine "Harpers Bazaar"), so as not to alienate The Tikis fanbase. The Harpers Bizarre version of the song reached #13 on the American Billboard Hot 100 chart in April 1967, far exceeding any success that The Tikis thus far had.

The success of the single prompted Harpers Bizarre to record their debut album. At this point the band consisted of Ted Templeman (vocals, drums, guitar); Dick Scoppettone (born 5 July 1945; vocals, guitar, bass); Eddie James (guitar); Dick Yount (bass, vocals) and John Petersen (born 8 January 1942; drums, percussion, vocals). Petersen had previously already enjoyed a brief spell of success as member of the Beau Brummels; James left shortly after the first recording sessions and was replaced by Dick Young. Under the guidance of producer Lenny Waronker (and Templeman, who emerged as the leader of the group), Harpers Bizarre developed a unique sound which experimented with heavy vocal layering. Most of Harpers Bizarres recordings are cheerful and airy, both in subject matter and musical accompaniment often with string and woodwind arrangements, resulting in a psychedelic Broadway/Baroque pop sound.

In addition to covering several old standards (including Cole Porters "Anything Goes" and Gordon and Warrens "Chattanooga Choo Choo"), Harpers Bizarre also recorded the work of several contemporary songwriters, including Randy Newman, Van Dyke Parks and Harry Nilsson.

None of the subsequent singles, however, achieved the same level of success as their debut, and the band broke up shortly after their last album was released in 1969.

In 1976, a partial reunion of the group occurred (without Templeman) to record an album, As Time Goes By, that is often overlooked in Harpers Bizarre discographies.

Discography

Feelin Groovy (1967)

Anything Goes (1968)

Secret Life of Harpers Bizarre (1968)

Harpers Bizarre 4 (1969)

As Time Goes By (1976)

Harpers Bizarre is also the name of an group of Harp Players from Cornwall, UK. Harpers Bizarre Harp ensemble was formed in 2004 by Sarah Deere-Jones plus Sarah herself, who runs the Cornwall Harp Centre.Their first performance was at the Penventon Hotel in Redruth, Cornwall in November 2004 before going on to release their first CD A Cornish Pastiche of new and traditional harp tunes. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.