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| Classic promo photo, MFs. |
The Hit
It took all of six seconds for me to recognize the riff on Syndicate of Sound’s 1966 single, “Little Girl.” The Divinyls, where I first heard it, played it rawer and flipped the object’s gender, but it’s a fairly simple string of notes and, in the Syndicate of Sound’s original take, it has a playful tingle to it that pairs nicely with lyrical phrasing that skips past even a hint of heartbreak. Don’t let that fool you, though, because it’s definitely a victory dance; in other words, the narrator does care. For what it’s worth, Syndicate of Sound heard and liked most of the covers they’ve heard of it:
“Yes, we have heard them all — even a live bootleg of The Knack doing ‘Little Girl.’ I like them all, especially when an artist puts their stamp on the song like the Divinyls.”
And, no, I can’t find that live bootleg…
The Rest of the Story
Syndicate of Sound formed in San Jose, circa 1964, when Don Baskin (vox/guitar) and Bob Gonzalez (bass) ditched Lenny Lee and the Nightmen and joined up with members of a band called The Pharaohs, John Sharkey (keys), Larry Ray (lead guitar) and John Duckworth (drums). Like a lot of bands of their day, they drew inspiration from the British invasion, but also, to "a fast-driving sound that was beginning in LA." Their big break came when they won (again) a local battle of the bands and a recording deal with Del-Fi Records. That didn’t take them any further than a single no one cared about called “Prepare for Love,” unfortunately, but the band kept plugging and playing until they came up with “Little Girl.” That said, by the recollection of Don Baskin (who, per the search algorithms, did a lot of the talking for the band before his very recent death):
“We couldn't get ‘Little Girl’ played anywhere. No one wanted it. Everyone turned down ‘Little Girl.’ So, we decided with our producer's label, Hush, which was a rhythm and blues label out of Richmond, California, the Oakland-Richmond area. Our producer's parents had owned that label. He decided, ‘let's put it out locally and see how it does,’ and we sold 5,000 copies in the first week.”
It took all of six seconds for me to recognize the riff on Syndicate of Sound’s 1966 single, “Little Girl.” The Divinyls, where I first heard it, played it rawer and flipped the object’s gender, but it’s a fairly simple string of notes and, in the Syndicate of Sound’s original take, it has a playful tingle to it that pairs nicely with lyrical phrasing that skips past even a hint of heartbreak. Don’t let that fool you, though, because it’s definitely a victory dance; in other words, the narrator does care. For what it’s worth, Syndicate of Sound heard and liked most of the covers they’ve heard of it:
“Yes, we have heard them all — even a live bootleg of The Knack doing ‘Little Girl.’ I like them all, especially when an artist puts their stamp on the song like the Divinyls.”
And, no, I can’t find that live bootleg…
The Rest of the Story
Syndicate of Sound formed in San Jose, circa 1964, when Don Baskin (vox/guitar) and Bob Gonzalez (bass) ditched Lenny Lee and the Nightmen and joined up with members of a band called The Pharaohs, John Sharkey (keys), Larry Ray (lead guitar) and John Duckworth (drums). Like a lot of bands of their day, they drew inspiration from the British invasion, but also, to "a fast-driving sound that was beginning in LA." Their big break came when they won (again) a local battle of the bands and a recording deal with Del-Fi Records. That didn’t take them any further than a single no one cared about called “Prepare for Love,” unfortunately, but the band kept plugging and playing until they came up with “Little Girl.” That said, by the recollection of Don Baskin (who, per the search algorithms, did a lot of the talking for the band before his very recent death):
“We couldn't get ‘Little Girl’ played anywhere. No one wanted it. Everyone turned down ‘Little Girl.’ So, we decided with our producer's label, Hush, which was a rhythm and blues label out of Richmond, California, the Oakland-Richmond area. Our producer's parents had owned that label. He decided, ‘let's put it out locally and see how it does,’ and we sold 5,000 copies in the first week.”
And, when Syndicate of Sound took off, they launched. Also, from here the story turns to tales of the best and worst in music business management. On the good side, their producer at Hush Records, Garrie (sp?) Thompson, understood that he didn’t have the resources to manage promotion of “Little Girl,” never mind what Syndicate of Sound became once it got loose in the world. To stick with that glorious, contemporary present, having a major single in their collective back pockets (#8 on the Billboard Hot 100, #5 on the Cashbox 100) punched Syndicate of Sound’s ticket to play with some of the biggest bands of the era. The honor roll:
