The Parade was an American
sunshine pop group from
Los Angeles,
California.
Career
The group featured
Jerry Riopelle
Jerry Riopelle (May 5, 1941 – December 24, 2018) was an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer born in Detroit, and raised in Tampa, Florida, and known primarily for his hard rock performances and for his record production. He ...
, who played
keyboards
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
on several
Phil Spector-
produced
Producer or producers may refer to:
Occupations
*Producer (agriculture), a farm operator
*A stakeholder of economic production
*Film producer, supervises the making of films
**Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...
records; Murray MacLeod, an
actor who appeared on ''
Hawaii Five-O'' and ''
Kung Fu''; and Allen "Smokey" Roberds, another actor. They wrote a
song called "Sunshine Girl" which was picked up by
A&M Records, and in 1967 the tune hit #20 on the
U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 pop
Pop or POP may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Pop music, a musical genre Artists
* POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade
* Pop!, a UK pop group
* Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band
Albums
* ''Pop'' (G ...
singles 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 ...
. Among the
session musicians on this
recording were
drummer
A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...
Hal Blaine,
bassist
A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...
Carol Kaye
Carol Kaye (née Smith, born March 24, 1935) is an American musician. She is one of the most prolific recorded bass guitarists in rock and pop music, playing on an estimated 10,000 recordings in a career spanning over 50 years.
Kaye began play ...
, and
saxophonist Steve Douglas.
Stuart Margolin, later to gain fame as an actor, co-wrote the B-side with members of the band; Margolin would end up co-writing many of the band's songs (usually with Riopelle), as well as playing percussion on some tracks.
The Parade's next two singles, "She's Got the Magic" and "Frog Prince", both failed to chart. 1968's "Radio Song" bubbled under the Hot 100 at #127, but the group broke up after two further singles - "She Sleeps Alone" and "Hallelujah Rocket" - were unsuccessful.
Riopelle signed to
Capitol Records
Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...
as a solo artist, and Macleod and Roberds signed with
Epic Records
Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America
Sony Corporation of America (SONAM, also known as SCA), is the American arm of the Japanese conglomerate Sony Group ...
as the duo
Ian & Murray. Roberds also later performed under the name Freddie Allen, and under this name recorded the very first released version of the tune "
We've Only Just Begun," which soon afterward became a
hit for
The Carpenters.
In March 2008, Now Sounds/
Cherry Red Records
Cherry Red Records is a British independent record label founded in Malvern, Worcestershire by Iain McNay in 1978. The label has released recordings by Dead Kennedys, Everything But the Girl, The Monochrome Set, and Felt, among others, as well ...
released a 23 song best-of
compilation album
A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...
, ''Sunshine Girl: The Complete Recordings.'' Compiled and annotated by
Steve Stanley Steve Stanley (born 1970) is an American music historian, reissue producer, graphic artist, musician, and the founder of Now Sounds, a reissue record label established in 2007 and distributed by Cherry Red Records.
Early life
Raised in Oklahoma i ...
, the release featured singles, demos and alternate mixes, as well as a rare Roger Nichols Trio song "Montage Mirror," for which Murray MacLeod was also lead singer, along with his sister Melinda.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parade, The
Musical groups from Los Angeles
American pop music groups