The Marketts were an American instrumental pop group, formed in January 1961 in

Hollywood, California Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, ...

, by

Michael Z. Gordon Michael Zane Gordon (born April 4, 1941)Stewart, Dick“Up Close With Michael Z. Gordon Of The Marketts.” The Lance Monthly, May 15, 2005. Accessed February 17, 2012. is an American screenwriter, producer, musician and composer. Early life ...

. They are best known for their 1964 million-seller, "

Out of Limits "Out of Limits" is a 1963 surf rock instrumental piece written by Michael Z. Gordon and performed by The Marketts. Background While on tour with a band called the Routers, Gordon wrote the Marketts' first release on the Warner Bros. label and th ...

Biography

The Marketts' line-up featured

and various

session musicians Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

from the

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

area, including drummer

Hal Blaine Hal Blaine (born Harold Simon Belsky; February 5, 1929 – March 11, 2019) was an American drummer and session musician, thought to be among the most recorded studio drummers in the music industry, claiming over 35,000 sessions and 6,000 singles. ...

. The group name was originally spelled "Mar-Kets". The group's direction was spearheaded by producer

Joe Saraceno Joseph Saraceno (May 16, 1937 – October 15, 2015) was an American record producer. He was a producer for The Ventures The Ventures are an American instrumental rock band formed in Tacoma, Washington, in 1958, by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle. T ...

and Michael Z. Gordon, although Saraceno could not

arrange Arrange is a mythological figure from the Australian aboriginal creation myth of the Alyawarre people for Karlu Karlu. In the myth, the figure Arrange, who is also referred to as the devil man, comes from Ayleparrarntenhe. Arrange was making a ...

or play on any of the group's material. Gordon's songs which were composed for the Marketts are best remembered for their

surf rock Surf music (or surf rock, surf pop, or surf guitar) is a Music genre, genre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1958 to 1964 in two major forms. The first is in ...

sound, though not all of their material has this sound; Gordon took the group's style in whatever direction he thought would catch the record-buying public's ear. In 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 primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, the group had three

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

hits and had two popular

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 ...

s, many of the songs composed by Gordon. The Marketts' surfer sound started with "Surfer's Stomp", which was by written by and produced by Gordon and Saraceno. Gordon also wrote their biggest hit, "

", which was originally entitled "Outer Limits", named after the 1963 TV series '' The Outer Limits''. Rod Serling sued the Marketts for quoting the four-note motif from his television show, ''

The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, su ...

'', without his approval, which resulted in the change of the title to "Out of Limits". It reached No. 3 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

in 1964. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a

gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

. The band name was used as late as 1977 for further releases, though their last hit came in 1966.

Members

* George Dee *

Danny Hamilton Daniel Robert Hamilton (June 1, 1946 – December 23, 1994) was an American musician and singer. He was a member of The T-Bones with his brother Judd Hamilton and later formed the soft-rock group Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds, performing lead ...

Judd Hamilton Judd Hamilton is an American singer, musician, former band leader, writer, film producer, actor, inventor, company director. As a musician he has recorded for the Dolton, Liberty, American International, United Artists and RCA Victor labels. He ...

* Gene Pello *

Ray Pohlman Merlyn Ray Pohlman (July 22, 1930 – November 1, 1990) was an American session musician and arranger who played both upright bass and bass guitar, and also did sessions as a guitarist. He is credited with being the first electric bass player ...

* Richard TorresNostalgia Central
Marketts, The (The Mar-Kets)
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Discography

Albums

*''Surfer's Stomp'' (

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

, 1962) *''The Marketts Take To Wheels'' (

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

, 1963) *''Out of Limits!'' (Warner Bros., 1963) U.S. No. 37

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Allmusic.com *''The Surfing Scene'' (Liberty, 1963) (reissue of ''Surfer's Stomp'') *''The Batman Theme'' (Warner Bros., 1966) U.S. No. 82 (Tracks: 1. "Batman Theme" 2. "Bat Cave" 3. "Robin the Boy Wonder" 4. "Bat Signal" 5. "Batmobile" 6. "The Joker" 7. "The Penguin" 8. "The Bat" 9. "Dr. Death" 10. "The Riddler" 11. "Bat Cape" 12. "The Cat Woman") *''Sun Power'' (

World Pacific Pacific Jazz Records was a Los Angeles-based record company and label best known for cool jazz or West coast jazz. It was founded in 1952 by producer Richard Bock (1927–1988) and drummer Roy Harte (1924–2003). Harte, in 1954, also co-founded ...

, 1967) *''AM-FM, Etc.'' (

Mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

, 1973) (featured new versions of "Balboa Blue" and "Surfer's Stomp" and a

cover Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of co ...

of the ''Mystery Movie'' theme) *''Tryin' To Get That Feeling'' ( Arista, 1975) *''Summer Means Love'' ( Dore, 1982)

Singles

References