The Electric Indian was a

studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...

group assembled and produced by the

Dovells The Dovells were an American doo-wop group, formed at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1957, under the name 'The Brooktones'. The original members were Arnie Silver, Len Borisoff, Jerry Gross (alias Summers), Mike Freda, an ...

lead singer Len Barry which included Daryl Hall of Hall & Oates fame. Barry had an interest in Native American history, possibly inspired by watching '' The Lone Ranger'' TV series as a child. Their best-known song was "Keem-O-Sabe" which charted in 1969. "Keem-O-Sabe" was titled after the word (defined as faithful friend or trusty scout) that The Lone Ranger and his friend Tonto used to refer to each other. The song was released first on the small Marmaduke Inc. label where it gained regional airplay around Philadelphia. It was soon picked up for national release on the

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...

label in 1969 and reached the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Top 20 in the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It also made No. 6 on Billboard's Easy Listening survey, and crossed to the R&B chart. In Canada, the song reached No. 19 on the

RPM Magazine ''RPM'' ( and later ) was a Canadian music-industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. ''R ...

top singles charts. "Keem-O-Sabe" was credited to Barry's mother, Bernice Borisoff, and Swan Records owner Bernie Binnick. The tune is built around an old instrumental riff often used in old western movies when Indians were approaching, and includes hints of The Lone Ranger theme, the " William Tell Overture" by

Gioachino Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...

. An

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

of similar material was recorded, and the follow-up, an Indian style

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of "

Land of a Thousand Dances "Land of a Thousand Dances" (or "Land of 1000 Dances") is a song written and first recorded by American rhythm and blues singer Chris Kenner in 1962. It later became a bigger hit in versions by Cannibal & the Headhunters and Wilson Pickett. A ve ...

," (No. 95, 1969) charted. No future releases were forthcoming. Many of the tracks on the LP were engineered by

Joseph Tarsia Joseph Dominick Tarsia (September 23, 1934 – November 1, 2022) was an American recording studio owner and engineer from Philadelphia who was credited on many classic pop music tracks, earning him over 150 gold and platinum record awards. He was ...

and recorded at his Philadelphia-based

Sigma Sound Sigma Sound Studios was a recording studio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.. It was founded in 1968 by recording engineer Joseph Tarsia. Located at 212 North 12th Street in Philadelphia, it was one of the first studios in the United States to ...

Studio, with many of the musicians later becoming members of the studio's notable in-house group,

MFSB MFSB, officially standing for "Mother Father Sister Brother", was a pool of more than 30 studio musicians based at Philadelphia's Sigma Sound Studios. They worked closely with the production team of Gamble and Huff and producer/arranger Thom Bel ...

which had the 1974 hit song "T.S.O.P."

References

External links

*
Entries at 45cat.com
American rock music groups {{US-rock-band-stub