Psychedelic Pop

1. Tomorrow's World, When It's All Over (Era)
A California unknown. Its vocal arrangements are reminiscent of those of Curt Boettcher - the influential studio whiz behind West Coast pop productions by the Association, Sagittarius, and the Millennium. And the dense harmonies lead me to think this a group of L.A. folkies. Laboring under the producer's strict policy of enforced "grooviness," no doubt. Anyway, as with a lot of the West Coast variety of sunshine pop, there's echo. Tons of it. Everything here is covered in a thick, syrupy layer of it. It sounds like the producer marched them to the bowels of Anaconda Mine to record this dreamy nugget.

2. Fargo, Sunny Day Blue (Capitol)
More California sunshine herewith, and another mystery group. "Sunny Day Blue" evokes a particularly fey variety of hippie obliviousness that I identify so strongly with the late 1960s. It was not the sort to concern itself with inconsequential minutiae like race riots. Rather, it spent its weekends lazing about and dreaming up that precise kind of prismatic blue to describe one's love.

I’d guess 1968 on this keen bit of jangle.

3. The Network, The Boys and the Girls (Spar)
Soaring, dreamy pop from the late '60s, and one of the slowest 45s ever. You could drive a school bus across those harmonies - and all of that celestial organ, too. Without being overtly psychedelic, this gem just settles everything down on a mellow sunshine cloud, man.

This personal favorite came from Memphis. 1968.