Touch was a 1960s

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. In ...

band who recorded one

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...

, 1968's

eponymous An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

''Touch''. They consisted of John Bordonaro (drums, percussion, vocals),

Don Gallucci The Kingsmen are a 1960s rock band from Portland, Oregon, United States. They are best known for their 1963 recording of R&B singer Richard Berry's "Louie Louie", which held the No. 2 spot on the '' Billboard'' charts for six weeks and ...

(keyboards, vocals), Bruce Hauser (bass, vocals), Jeff Hawks (vocals), and Joey Newman AKA Vern Kjellberg (guitar, vocals).

History

After leaving

The Kingsmen The Kingsmen are a 1960s rock band from Portland, Oregon, United States. They are best known for their 1963 recording of R&B singer Richard Berry's "Louie Louie", which held the No. 2 spot on the '' Billboard'' charts for six weeks and ...

, Gallucci founded

Don and the Goodtimes Don and the Goodtimes were an American garage rock band, formed in Portland, Oregon, United States, in 1964. Fronted by Don Gallucci, former keyboardist of the Kingsmen, the group made a name for itself in the Northwest rock scene performing in ...

with drummer Bob Holden. An early version of the band included

Jack Ely Jack Brown Ely (September 11, 1943 – April 28, 2015) was an American guitarist and singer, best known for singing the Kingsmen's version of "Louie Louie". Classically trained in piano, he began playing guitar after seeing Elvis Presley on tel ...

. They had a No. 20 pop hit in the US with "I Could Be So Good to You," produced and arranged by the legendary

Jack Nitzsche Bernard Alfred "Jack" Nitzsche ( '; April 22, 1937 – August 25, 2000) was an American musician, arranger, songwriter, composer, and record producer. He first came to prominence in the early 1960s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spec ...

. By this time earlier Goodtimes members had been replaced by vocalist Jeff Hawks, guitarist Joey Newman and bassist/vocalist Ron "Buzz" Overman. By the end of 1967, following the release of '' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'', the Goodtimes were beginning to feel like they were "just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic" and felt the need to move on. Accordingly Gallucci and Hawks wrote what the sleevenotes to the Eclectic Discs CD reissue of the album calls the " Lysergic soaked" epic "Seventy Five". Gallucci, Hawks and Newman teamed up with Hauser and Bordonaro, and they set themselves up in a Moorish-style castle in the

Hollywood Hills The Hollywood Hills are a residential neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Geography The Hollywood Hills straddle the Cahuenga Pass within the Santa Monica Mountains. The neighborhood touches Studio City, Univer ...

where they set to work on writing the songs for the album. After signing with Coliseum Records, but before recording ''Touch'', the group recorded the music tracks for the Elyse Weinberg LP using the name "The Band of Thieves", after Elyse's song of the same name. Gene Shiveley engineered the sessions at

Sunset Sound Recorders Sunset Sound Recorders is a recording studio in Hollywood, California, United States located at 6650 Sunset Boulevard. Background The Sunset Sound Recorders complex was created by Walt Disney's Director of Recording, Tutti Camarata, from a colle ...

. The ''Touch'' recordings took place in an almost party-like atmosphere with such musical luminaries from the world of rock and psychedelia as

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...

Grace Slick Grace Slick (born Grace Barnett Wing; October 30, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter, artist, and painter. Slick was a key figure in San Francisco's early psychedelic music scene in the mid-1960s. With a music career spanning four decades, ...

and Jimi Hendrix attending the recordings at Sunset Sound with Shiveley producing. The band also released a single, "Miss Teach", both sides of which were taken from the album. The band folded soon after the release of the album for personal reasons.

Discography

Touch released only one album, named ''Touch'' Original LP, 1968: # "We Feel Fine" 4:41 # "Friendly Birds" 4:53 # "Miss Teach" 3:29 # "The Spiritual Death of Howard Greer" 8:52 # "Down at Circe's Place" 4:00 # "Alesha and Others" 3:05 # "Seventy Five" 11:12 *Total time: 40:12 CD release in 2004, Eclectic Disks ECLCD 1005. Tracks 8-12 are bonus tracks: # "We Feel Fine" 4:39 # "Friendly Birds" 4:51 # "Miss Teach" 3:29 # "The Spiritual Death of Howard Greer" 8:52 # "Down at Circe's Place" 3:59 # "Alesha and Others" 3:04 # "Seventy Five" 11:47 # "We Finally Met Today" (unreleased single 1968) 3:41 # "Alesha and Others" (live studio demo 1968) 3:14 # "Blue Feeling" 11:45 # "The Spiritual Death of Howard Greer" (live studio demo 1968) 8:07 # " The Second Coming of Suzanne" (film music 1973) 12:19 *Total time: 79:22

Fruits de Mer Records Fruits de Mer Records is a British independent record label based in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, established by Keith Jones and Andy Bracken in 2008. It releases psychedelic rock, psychedelic folk, folk rock, space rock and krautrock ...

issued a 7" vinyl single in 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Touch (60s Band) Musical groups established in 1968 American psychedelic rock music groups Musical groups disestablished in 1968