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As part of the sunshine pop movement of the late 1960s, California group
Harpers Bizarre made light and easygoing songs characterized by orchestral instrumentation, lush vocal harmonies, and mirthful subject matter. During a brief run between 1967 and 1970, the band enjoyed a few minor hits and released four albums with their original lineup, embracing a slightly more countercultural approach by the time of 1969's
Harpers Bizarre 4. Core member
Ted Templeman would go on to work mostly as a producer, working with
Carly Simon,
Van Morrison,
the Doobie Brothers,
Van Halen, and many other stars as the years went on.
Harpers Bizarre began as
the Tikis, a short-lived band from Santa Cruz that formed in 1963 and included
Templeman,
Dickie Scoppettone,
Eddie James,
Dick Yount, and John Peterson, who had briefly played in the
Beau Brummels.
The Tikis dabbled in surf and
Beatles-inspired pop songs, and released a few singles. In 1967, the group recorded a version of
Simon & Garfunkel's "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" with an arrangement by
Leon Russell that emphasized vocal harmonizing and a bright, optimistic tone. The song was released as a single under the name
Harpers Bizarre and immediately outperformed anything
the Tikis had attempted, rising to number 13 on the U.S. Billboard charts and also cracking the Top 50 in the U.K. The band quickly recorded a debut album,
Feelin' Groovy, which was released in April 1967 and included a second minor hit with the
Van Dyke Parks cover "Come to the Sunshine." Before the end of the year, second album
Anything Goes was released, named for the group's rendition of the
Cole Porter tune that was included on the album and charted as a single.
James left
Harpers Bizarre shortly after
Anything Goes was released and was replaced by Tom Sowell. The band issued several other singles and albums, including 1968's
The Secret Life of Harpers Bizarre and 1969's
Harpers Bizarre 4, always presenting a mixture of original material and covers of popular songs of the day in their sunny, chamber pop style. Subsequent work never matched the commercial success of their first few singles, and by 1970
Harpers Bizarre quietly dissolved, with
Templeman pursuing production work for Warner Bros. records. A partial reunion without
Templeman resulted in the 1976 album As Time Goes By. ~ Fred Thomas