The Merry-Go-Round was an American

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

, Los Angeles based band, best known for the singer-songwriter

Emitt Rhodes Emitt Lynn Rhodes (February 25, 1950 – July 19, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer. At 14 years, Rhodes began his career in musical ensembles the Palace Guard as the group's drummer before jo ...

and featuring

Joel Larson Joel Larson (born April 29, 1947) is an American rock drummer and percussionist who is known as a founding member of The Merry-Go-Round and for being associated with The Turtles and The Grass Roots. Early life He lived near Lincoln Park unti ...

on drums, Gary Kato on lead guitar, and Bill Rinehart on bass. The group gained inspiration from bands like

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

the Byrds The Byrds () were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) remaining the sole cons ...

, and

the Left Banke The Left Banke was an American baroque pop band, formed in New York City in 1965. They are best remembered for their two U.S. hit singles, "Walk Away Renée" and "Pretty Ballerina". The band often used what the music press referred to as "baroqu ...

for its vocal harmonies and instrumental acquisitions. They used their contemporaries' styles to create their own sound.

History

The band formed in the summer of 1966. Emitt Rhodes had left his former band, the Palace Guard, and began jam sessions with Gary Kato and friends. Within weeks, they were joined by Bill Rinehart, formerly of

the Leaves The Leaves were an American garage rock band formed in San Fernando Valley, California, United States, in 1964. They are best known for their version of the song "Hey Joe", which was a hit in 1966. Theirs is the earliest release of this song, wh ...

and Joel Larson, formerly of

the Grass Roots The Grass Roots are an American rock band that charted frequently between 1965 and 1975. The band was originally the creation of Lou Adler and songwriting duo P. F. Sloan and Steve Barri. In their career, they achieved two gold albums, two ...

. Recorded demos resulted in the band being signed by

A&M Records A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...

. By early 1967, the band released their first single "

Live Live may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Live!'' (2007 film), 2007 American film * ''Live'' (2014 film), a 2014 Japanese film *'' ''Live'' (Apocalyptica DVD) Music *Live (band), American alternative rock band * List of albums ...

"/"Time Will Show the Wiser". "Live" became a sensation in L.A. and reached number 63 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The group's next single, "You're a Very Lovely Woman", highly arranged and orchestrated, only reached number 94. A&M, noticing the disappointing listing, hastily released their debut album before the window of opportunity closed. The band released their only album, ''

The Merry-Go-Round The Merry-Go-Round was an American psychedelic rock, Los Angeles based band, best known for the singer-songwriter Emitt Rhodes and featuring Joel Larson on drums, Gary Kato on lead guitar, and Bill Rinehart on bass. The group gained inspiration ...

'' in November 1967. It stalled, reaching only number 190 and soon after Rinehart departed. He was replaced by Rick Dey of

the Vejtables The Vejtables were an American rock band from Millbrae, California, United States. They recorded for the Autumn label and found limited success with such songs as " I Still Love You" and a cover version of Tom Paxton's "The Last Thing on My Mind ...

. Several further singles, including "She Laughed Loud"/"Had to Run Around", "Come Ride, Come Ride"/"She Laughed Loud", "Listen, Listen"/"Missing You" and "'Til the Day After"/"Highway" would be released in 1967 and 1968 but failed to chart. They started work on a second album but never completed it. After fan interest in the group dissipated, they decided to disband in 1969.

Legacy

The Merry-Go-Round performed at the

Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and dra ...

in 1967 on both days of the music festival. They closed the show on Saturday June 10 and were the second to the show closer on Sunday June 11. This music festival is important for it was a blueprint for future rock concerts of the same scale. "You're a Very Lovely Woman" was covered in 1971 by Linda Ronstadt on Capitol single 3021 as "(She's A) Very Lovely Woman." "Live" was covered by

the Bangles The Bangles are an American pop rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1981. The band recorded several singles that reached the U.S. top 10 during the 1980s, including "Manic Monday" (1986), "Walk Like an Egyptian" (1986), " Hazy Shade ...

on their 1984 album '' All Over the Place'' and "Time Will Show the Wiser" was recorded by

Fairport Convention Fairport Convention are an English folk rock band, formed in 1967 by guitarists Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol, bassist Ashley Hutchings and drummer Shaun Frater (with Frater replaced by Martin Lamble after their first gig.) They started o ...

on their debut album in 1968, a song still played regularly by Fairport at their

Cropredy Cropredy ( ) is a village and civil parish on the River Cherwell, north of Banbury in Oxfordshire. History The village has Anglo-Saxon origins and is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. The toponym comes from the Old English words ''cropp'' ...

Festival. A 14 song 'best of' album was released by Rhino Records in 1985. A CD containing their only LP and other existing material was issued in 2005 on

Rev-Ola Records Rev-Ola Records is a British independent record label formed in 1990 that specializes in reissues, as well as select new releases. The label is headed by Joe Foster, a former child actor and musician/producer. He, along with Alan McGee and ...

. Their only album was reissued in April 2010 by Sundazed Records, which was remastered from original analog tapes in high quality vinyl.

Discography

* ''

'' (1967, ''Billboard'' 200 No. 190

Singles

* "Live" (1967) – US ''Billboard''

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

No. 63 * "Time Will Show the Wiser" (1967) * "You're a Very Lovely Woman" – (1967) US ''Billboard''

No. 94''Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955–1990'' – * "She Laughed Loud" * "Listen, Listen" * "'Til the Day After"

References

External links

* AllMusic profile of the Merry-Go-Round
Joel-Larson.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merry-Go-Round, The A&M Records artists Musical groups established in 1966 Musical groups disestablished in 1969 Musical groups from Los Angeles Psychedelic rock music groups from California